When faced with limited access to formal power, how do marginalized groups advance agendas that reflect their interests? This is a common quandary faced by marginalized and oppressed groups, but becomes all the more intriguing when explored in the context of representative electoral bodies where all members are presumed to share power. In this talk, I explore the strategies available to African American women state legislators attempting to access power and the ways these strategies are uniquely reserved for the marginalized. African American women legislators, like women of color in other positions of authority are challenged when seeking to wield power and influence on their own terms void of the trappings of stereotypical images. Their bounded agency is reflective of their realities as intersectional subjects and reminds us of the parameters of agency in relationship to institutional contexts and structures.

Lunch will be provided.