Understanding Difference in a Divided Age

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At its core, much of sociology is concerned with how societies perceive, construct, and react to differences within our populations. Across axes such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nativity, legal status, family status, and more, social life is organized through systems of classification that shape our lives. How people understand the nature of differences along these lines, how we imbue these differences with cultural meaning, and how we treat people who differ are central questions driving our field.

 

These questions take on heightened urgency in a period marked by profound political polarization, where lines of difference are increasingly mobilized as tools of division and control. We have seen intensified efforts to define and fix the meanings of difference – through rhetoric that advances racial essentialism, initiatives to impose binary definitions of gender, and challenges to long-standing legal and social definitions such as birthright citizenship. At the same time, initiatives aimed at fostering diversity and inclusion have come under sustained critique. Taken together, these developments underscore the broader struggle over who gets to define difference and to what ends. This conference invites participants to examine how people understand the nature of difference, how narratives of difference are produced and leveraged for political or economic purposes, and what initiatives or policy solutions can address them and foster more inclusive and equitable societies.

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W Philadelphia, 1439 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102

Element Philadelphia Downtown, 1441 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102        

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