Exploring Shame & Stigma: An Interdisciplinary Workshop May 14th 2015, 10.00 – 13.00 Wolfson Research Exchange, 3rd Floor University Library Free and open to all! Email Julie.Walsh@warwick.ac.uk to register ‘The normal and the stigmatized are not persons but rather perspectives’ (Erving Goffman) ‘At the risk of sounding ridiculous, it must be acknowledged that shame is a revolutionary feeling’ (Che Guevara) In sociological and anthropological traditions stigma and shame have long been considered means of regulating the public sphere, of aiding and abetting the creation of categories of normalcy and deviancy, and of expressing social anxiety and distaste with respect to a particular social body. More recently, following the so-called affective turn within the Humanities and the Social Sciences, shame has been elevated as the primary reflective mood, the point where feeling and theory meet, and the signal of an excessive economy of interest or desire. How, then, might the often hidden and ambivalent feelings of shame help us to understand the explicit social operations of stigma, and, conversely, how might the often visible and visual registers of stigma help us to describe the shame pathology? In this half-day workshop we will hear from researchers and practitioners in the fields of Sociology, Gender Studies, Theatre Studies, and Psychoanalytic Studies about the ways in which the terms stigma and shame are germane to their work. We shall consider the workings of these terms in cultural and critical discourse, and through discussions of class inequality, mental ill health, and the performance of identity. Workshop participants will be engaged in creative explorations of illustrative materials selected by our speakers. Speakers Anna Harpin, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick Imogen Tyler, Centre for Gender & Women’s Studies, Lancaster University Jason Mast, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick Julie Walsh, Sociology, University of Warwick There is no fee to attend this event, though numbers are capped so registration is essential. Please email Julie.Walsh@warwick.ac.uk to register. This workshop is organized as a collaborative endeavour between Warwick University’s Social Theory Centre, and the British Sociological Association’s study group for Sociology, Psychoanalysis, and the Psychosocial. The BSA exists to promote Sociology. The BSA is a Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 3890729. Registered Charity Number 1080235