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Introduction

The theoretical concept of privilege originated with Peggy McIntosh, in her much-cited 1988 essay, “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondence through Work in Women’s Studies.” Although McIntosh modestly stated in that essay that she did not write “a scholarly analysis” (McIntosh, 2003, p. 148), her document provides the foundational text for theoretical and empirical work on privilege across disciplines. Over the nearly 25 years since that paper was first presented, it has been reprinted in numerous undergraduate course anthologies and classroom readers (e.g., Kimmel & Ferber, 2012; Rothenberg, 2008) as well as inspired both theoretical and empirical work across the humanities, social sciences, and professional fields such as education, social work, and legal studies. Some authors have extended her theorizing by outlining privilege associated with particular dimensions of identity other than gender and race. Others have sought...

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Correspondence to Corrine Bertram .

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Bertram, C. (2014). Privilege. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_236

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_236

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5582-0

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