85 CHAPTER 5 Intersectionality, Identity, and Positionality E ngaging in intercultural communication can be a transformative experience, not only because we learn about different cultures but also because it pushes us to learn about our- selves. When we encounter “differences,” we are compelled to examine how our perspec- tives are informed by particular experiences and situated social locations. Engaging in intercultural communication requires self-reflexivity to understand how we have become who we are as a result of historical and social forces and how we enact and perform our identities within shifting historical contexts and geographical locations. This chapter pro- vides analytical perspectives and concrete examples of how we can understand, analyze, and transform communicative practices in intercultural contexts by focusing primarily on intersectionality and positionality. Intersectionality is a concept that illustrates the multi- plicity of social forces that shape our situated experiences and identities, whereas position- ality points to the fact that our identities are always relationally shaped within hierarchies of power. Gust A. Yep problematizes “the race/class/gender/sexuality mantra” that underscores the way intersectionality is used as a theoretical concept. Yep cautions against a formu- laic and superficial treatment of identities as a set of intersecting categories and instead proposes “thick intersectionalities” as an alternative approach that accounts for the lived nuances and embodied specificities of situated subjectivities that resist a neatly orga- nized conceptual modeling. In her personal narrative, Eddah M. Mutua provides autobio- graphical vignettes to illustrate her shifting intersectional identities and ways of knowing as she moved from her home country, Kenya, to the United Kingdom and, finally, to the United States. In each cultural location, she encounters various ways in which post/colo- nial histories shape intercultural relations and intergroup dynamics. She takes a critical, self-reflexive approach as a way of decolonizing and cultivating ways of knowing that are at once historically informed, culturally situated, and transformative. Copyright ©2015 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. Do not copy, post, or distribute