Introduction
The discussion groups serve as the main form of communication and collective learning in this course. You have been assigned to a discussion group and you will learn together throughout the course. The purpose of the boards is to respond and ask questions about the readings with your classmates. If you quote the readings, please use proper citation.
Directions
After reading the required selections, please post a response and follow up question to the group thread. You can respond to more than one question and questions should only be a guide to the conversation not required questions to be answered in essay form.
Guiding Questions:
- We organize institutions in ways that delegitimize the claims, identities, and behaviors of particular people. What tools do people in positions of power use to discredit others within universities? Prisons? Churches? The military?
- What is a “spoiled identity”? Why don’t people with those identities always feel stigmatized? In what way is stigma the byproduct of social expectations and contexts?
- How do parents make sense of a tragedy such as the murder of their child? How do third-party interpretations and interventions influence their interpretations of the meaning of the event?
