Junior Tutorial: Stigma and Social Recognition

Harvard FAS

This class examines how stigma — how having a “spoiled identity” (Goffman 1963) — shapes the way people act, interact, and make sense of the world. We will ask questions like: how do individuals or groups become stigmatized? How do people experience, cope with, or resist this stigma? How is stigma tied to discrimination, or the unequal access to resources and opportunities? And how might we reduce or challenge stigma? How can we promote its opposite, social recognition?Together, we will…