This international multidisciplinary project proposes to analyze the discursive and behavioral strategies that members of stigmatized groups use to cope with racism and discrimination. We will compare the accounts of these strategies produced by 640 middle and working class men and women ages 18-30 with those ages 55-70. We will focus on members of minority groups living in mixed cities: negros in Rio de Janiero, Francophones Québecois in Montréal, Muslim Palestinian citizens in Tel Aviv/Jaffa, and Catholics in Belfast. We will study how the range and salience of strategies are affected by perceived discrimination across these national contexts. The project will also consider the association between strategies and mental health outcomes, with the goal of contributing to the literature on mental health and racial disparity, which has traditionally been more concerned with risk than with resilience, and with intra-individual processes as opposed to meaning-making. While funds to conduct this research are sought elsewhere, our hope is that the Weatherhead Initiative will provide support to bring the research team together, strengthen multidisciplinary input, facilitate research coordination and collaboration, and diffuse the results of the research.

Initiative Site Menu

• Projects
• Research Team