Seeing the Humanity of Black Girls: The Intersectional Multimodal Analysis (IMA) Framework as Method

This methodological study presents Intersectional Multimodal Analysis (IMA), an interpretive framework that infuses intersectionality with social semiotic multimodal analysis methods. My purpose for engaging in this analytical work is to disrupt the dehumanization of the normative white gaze (Morrison 1992) by theorizing and employing the IMA framework as a practice of looking that attends to and amplifies the distinctively youthful‐raced‐gendered representations in Black girls' multimodal texts. Here, Black girls' multimodal texts are defined as image‐based compositions (e.g., drawings) created by and for Black girls that name their intersectional oppressions and affirm their intersectional epistemologies, realities, and desires through visual design elements (e.g., color), written language, and other communicative modes. In this article, I first explicate the conceptual orientation of the IMA framework. Next, I synthesize findings from Black girl‐centered multimodal scholarship to theorize the four interrelated domains of the IMA framework: Intersectional Spatialities; Intersectional Identities; Intersectional Voice; and Intersectional Agency. After theorizing the IMA framework , I then apply this method to data collected for a completed research project. By returning to and reanalyzing the textual and visual data from one young Black girl, I demonstrate the function of the IMA framework as a practice of looking which examines the intersectionalized meaning potentials of Black girls' multimodal texts. I conclude by underscoring the potential of the IMA framework as a practice of looking that honors the power, possibility, and humanity represented within Black girls' multimodal texts.