Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Stigma: Culture, Deviance, Identity/Course description

Course description
Cultural value systems in every society rely on sets of mutually defining terms -- for example, normal/abnormal, able-bodied/disabled, heterosexual/homosexual, white/non-white -- that largely determine local attitudes of acceptance or ostracism regarding particular categories of persons. Focusing on social stigma allows us to understand how specific cultural value systems affect our most intimate senses of self, contribute to our very notions of personhood, and inform the way we communicate and engage with others in the world.

Stigma theory speaks broadly to the nature of the social relationships that create marked categories of persons, regardless of which particular attributes are devalued. In this class we look both at theory and at particular cases of stigmatized persons and groups, as attention to the particularities of a given stigma keys us in to the cultural values that create and support it. Since stigmas do change over time, identifying strategies that have been effective in creating such change is a primary focus of the course.

The theoretical centerpiece of this course is Erving Goffman’s 1963 study Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. We will read this text closely to appreciate Goffman’s insights, and attempt throughout the semester to update them, and the language he uses to convey his points, by applying his model to more recent historical and ethnographic case studies of stigmatized persons and groups. Our focus will be on the range and efficacy of the various strategies available for managing and/or defying stigma.

The role of the expressive arts -- including novels, short stories, films, and performance art -- in the life trajectories of stigmatized persons and groups will be explored as one popular defiant strategy. We focus in particular on artists and activists whose work addresses contemporary cases of stigma. Weekly screenings of landmark films in the fields of American studies, disability studies, black studies, queer studies, gender studies, women’s studies and India studies supplement regular class meetings; viewing these films is a critical part of the course

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