Date: Saturday, August 9

Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM

Session 031: Shared Identity Making and Social Perceptions
Room: Indiana Room

Sponsor: Disability, Mental Wellness, and Social Justice

Organizers: Douglas J. Engelman, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Melinda Leigh Maconi, Moffitt Cancer Center
Lily Ivanova, University of British Columbia

Presider: Melinda Leigh Maconi, Moffitt Cancer Center

Discussant: Lily Ivanova, University of British Columbia

Description: 

What is the role of social perceptions in how communities construct their identities? This session explores the complexities of shared identity-making, especially in contexts where certain identities are stigmatized, heightened, de-coupled, or otherwise influenced by social landscapes and expectations. Papers in this session focus on how people experience identities of disability, mental illness, morality, migration, and gender, in contexts of multi-dimensionality, stigma, and visibility to society at large. The session aims to foster a lively discussion about the ins-and-outs of identity, social context, and how shared meanings conform to and resist societal interpretations.

Papers:

“Navigating Diverse Disability Identities in Canada,” Danielle Landry, Karen Soldatic and Flavia Novais, Toronto Metropolitan University and Line Melbøe, Arctic University of Norway

“The Intersection of Mental Illness and Queerness: A Quantitative Study,” Jennie Benjamin, Georgia State University

“‘My Feeble Human Brain’: Overcoming Emotion and Constructing a Stoic Morality in Effective Altruism,” Kyle Hulburd, University of Southern California

“Seeing Migration via Vernacular Landscapes,” Jerome Krase, Brooklyn College, CUNY

“An Examination of the Role of Social Essentialist Explanations on Motivating Transgender Double Consciousness,” Caroline M. Hale, University of Washington

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