# Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion ![Vista of a city with a mountain backdrop.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-04/inequality-header-2500px.jpg?itok=vyOgEsuN) *Credit:* [*Adobe Stock*](https://stock.adobe.com/images/social-inequality-at-belo-horizonte-minas-gerais-brazil/64192168)The Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion draws on expertise from across disciplines to gain international and comparative perspectives on how to extend cultural membership to the greatest number in society, to gain a better understanding of the social and cultural processes behind recognition gaps, and to determine how social scientists and policy makers can better respond to help make societies more inclusive. Since fall 2017, cluster members have studied a wide range of topics—racism, xenophobia, homophobia, immigration, destigmatization, incorporation, citizenship, indigeneity, etc.—across various national and transnational contexts. The cluster connects visiting faculty, postgraduate scholars, and graduate students with the wide range of Weatherhead scholars and colleagues. By bringing together academics from a variety of disciplines and institutions, the cluster fosters a research community that seeks to build up the systemic theory around inequality and recognition gaps and create sustained opportunities for cross-pollination of ideas. Through collaborative activities like workshops, seminars, and individual research projects, cluster affiliates seek to: - Document growing inequality and recognition gaps, including contradictory trends in different parts of the world. - Understand and explain how various groups—the poor, the middle class, ethno-racial and religious minorities, LGBTQ, and others—experience these changes. - Determine the role of cultural repertoires and institutions (including the law) in attenuating the impact of social exclusion. - Identify what is missing in the literature on these interrelated topics and develop new perspectives on the study of comparative inequality. - Explore various ways in which scholars from different fields could collaborate to advance the study of comparative inequality and social inclusion. home ### Contact **Max Calleo** language [### Cluster website ](https://inequality.wcfia.harvard.edu/)Visit the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion website co\_present [### Cluster Seminar ](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/seminars/comparative-inequality)Learn about the Comparative Inequality and Inclusion Cluster Seminar (closed to the public) email [### Mailing List ](https://harvard.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=dc82d1b7cf76c6e1351550a2c&id=29f9d07a70)Subscribe to the comparative inequality and inclusion research cluster mailing list account\_balance [### Funding ](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/funding/faculty/weatherhead-research-clusters)Learn more about funding opportunities for Weatherhead Research Clusters ## Administration The Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion is chaired by Professor Michèle Lamont and has a twelve-person faculty steering committee which helps guide and support the work of the cluster. Max Calleo is the cluster coordinator. [### Michèle Lamont ](/people/michele-lamont) [michele\_lamont@harvard.edu](mailto:michele_lamont@harvard.edu)Executive Committee; Faculty Associate; Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies; Professor, Departments of Sociology and African and of African American Studies, Harvard University. **Research interests:** Culture and inequality; racism and stigma; academia and knowledge; social change and successful societies; and qualitative methods. ![Michele Lamont](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/wcfia/files/lamont_michele_1.jpg?itok=Zu-84bxB) [### Maximillian N. Calleo ](/people/maximillian-n-calleo) Project Coordinator, Weatherhead Research Clusters on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion and on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights; Faculty Assistant to Professors Christina L. Davis and Kosuke Imai. ![Max Calleo.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-06/calleo_max.jpg?h=114238d8&itok=vGeBHWSu) ## Current Affiliates (2025–2026) [### Dominik Bartmański ](/people/dominik-bartmanski)Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Scholars Program; Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Heisenberg Fellow, Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin. **Research interests:** Comparative cultural sociology; cultural inequality and symbolic violence; social theory; history of human sciences; material culture; urban ethnography and spatial sociology; and phenomenology. ![Headshot of Dominik Maksymilian Bartmański](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/bartmanski-dominik.jpg?h=3b674200&itok=jFwohDwf) [### Gianluca Busilacchi ](/people/gianluca-busilacchi)Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Scholars Program; Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Associate Professor of Economic Sociology, Department of Economics and Law, University of Macerata, Italy. **Research interests:** Social policy; poverty; social investment; labor market; healthcare policies; analytical sociology; and capability approach. ![Headshot of Gianluca Busilacchi.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/busilacchi-gianluca.jpeg?h=c05c49f9&itok=7E9PF2tJ) [### Maximillian N. Calleo ](/people/maximillian-n-calleo) Project Coordinator, Weatherhead Research Clusters on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion and on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights; Faculty Assistant to Professors Christina L. Davis and Kosuke Imai. ![Max Calleo.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-06/calleo_max.jpg?h=114238d8&itok=vGeBHWSu) [### Michèle Lamont ](/people/michele-lamont) [michele\_lamont@harvard.edu](mailto:michele_lamont@harvard.edu)Executive Committee; Faculty Associate; Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies; Professor, Departments of Sociology and African and of African American Studies, Harvard University. **Research interests:** Culture and inequality; racism and stigma; academia and knowledge; social change and successful societies; and qualitative methods. ![Michele Lamont](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/wcfia/files/lamont_michele_1.jpg?itok=Zu-84bxB) [### Gülce Özdemir ](/people/gulce-ozdemir)Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program; Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow, Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology, University of Birmingham. **Research interests**: Migration; urban governance; legal status and access to services; identity and social integration; and qualitative research. **Pronouns**: she/her ![Headshot of Gulce Ozedmir.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/ozedmir-gulce.jpg?h=2d911cd9&itok=7DnckXRn) [### Livio Silva-Muller ](/people/livio-silva-muller) [livio\_silvamueller@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:livio_silvamueller@fas.harvard.edu)Academy Scholar, The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies; Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. PhD in Sociology, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The Geneva Graduate Institute. **Research interests**: Decarbonization and redistribution in global and comparative perspectives, with an emphasis on Latin America. ![Headshot of Livio Silva-Muller.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/silva-muller-livio.jpg?h=2b2eface&itok=WEfXHyfN) [### Laura Tanguay ](/people/laura-tanguay)Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program; Affiliate, Canada Program and Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. PhD, Department of Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Canada. **Research interests:** Environmental justice; consent processes in energy infrastructure siting; extractivism; environmental policy; legal pluralism; nuclear colonialism; and procedural justice in impact assessments. ![Headshot of Laura Tanguay](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/tanguay-laura.jpeg?itok=_q8DItIT) [ View All People arrow\_circle\_right ](/people) --- ## All Weatherhead Research Clusters Born out of a need to complement the Center’s traditional focus of supporting individual faculty and student research, our Weatherhead Research Clusters revolve around hefty questions for the social sciences and the world. These research clusters represent core faculty interests, and aim to make a significant contribution by pushing the frontier of knowledge in their respective fields. Open all sections Close all sections ### Business and Government expand\_more When business is not part of the solution, it is frequently part of the problem. By better understanding the political economy of business-government relations in the contemporary world, we hope to provide new insights into how business influence can be a positive force for democracy and development. Our work thus focuses on several broad problems: strategies of business influence; firm responses to deglobalization; the politics of deindustrialization; and concentration, regulation, and technology. We aim to address these themes by bringing together a multidisciplinary group of scholars at all career stages to reexamine and revitalize the study of business and politics. [Learn more about the business and government research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/22-business-and-government) ### Comparative Inequality and Inclusion expand\_more How do we extend cultural membership to the greatest number in society? Gain a better understanding of the social and cultural processes behind recognition gaps? Determine how social scientists and policy makers can better respond to help make societies more inclusive? By bringing together academics from a variety of disciplines and institutions, the cluster fosters a research community that seeks to build up the systemic theory around inequality and recognition gaps and create sustained opportunities for cross-pollination of ideas. Cluster affiliates have studied a wide range of topics—including racism, xenophobia, homophobia, immigration, destigmatization, incorporation, citizenship, indigeneity, and more—across various national and transnational contexts. [Learn more about the comparative inequality and inclusion research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/comparative-inequality-and-inclusion) ### Global Climate Policy expand\_more Addressing climate change requires global collective action, underpinned by international institutions, frameworks, and policies. However, current climate action is moving too slowly—due to unwieldy policy structures and obstacles presented by multipronged core missions, among other reasons. This research cluster aims to accelerate the pace and scale of climate action by identifying and developing new global policy initiatives that address the challenges at hand. We leverage experts across many fields at Harvard and MIT to generate policy ideas, galvanize action, and engage students and alumni toward a deeper understanding of international climate coordination. [Learn more about the global climate policy research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/25-global-climate-policy) ### Global History expand\_more Global history is one of the leading new approaches in recent years that has helped to transform the study of the past. The contemporary trends summarized under the term “globalization” have lent urgency to research that examines historical processes, networks, identities, and events across the boundaries of the nation-states that traditionally served as the privileged framework for much of the discipline. Historians worldwide have contributed to exciting research on the trends that so many societies have undergone together. In the process, global history has drawn on the expertise of political scientists, sociologists, art historians, economists, anthropologists, and others. This research cluster was designed to build on and focus its faculty leadership in new directions for international study. [Learn more about the global history research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead_initiative/11_global_history) ### Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights expand\_more The deliberate targeting of LGBTQI+ communities is part of an increasingly coordinated and well-resourced transnational strategy to polarize societies, weaken democratic institutions, and expand illiberal influences. This rising transnational threat is in many respects a reactionary backlash against hard-earned advances won by and for LGBTQI+ people over the last generation. This research cluster examines the interplay of state and nonstate actors as leading drivers of this global backlash against democracy and human rights. We convene leading human rights scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and activists to produce cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, data-informed policy recommendations, and new public engagement and culture change strategies to promote the safety and security—and protect and advance the human rights—of LGBTQI+ people worldwide. [Learn more about the global LGBTQI+ human rights research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/25-global-lgbtqi-human-rights) ### Identity and Conflict expand\_more Ethnic and sectarian conflict are on the rise across the world—or at least show few signs of abatement—making it urgent to understand why some communities develop norms and practices of toleration, achieve reconciliation, or resist the politicization of these identities. When intergroup tensions have ratcheted up, is it possible to mitigate the impact? Can a shared civic identity be (re)constructed in the wake of violence waged in the name of nationalism, ethnicity, or religion? This research cluster explores ways to improve intergroup relations in postconflict countries by bringing together a worldwide network of scholars that will draw on evidence from diverse global regions. [Learn more about the identity and conflict research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/22-identity-politics) ## Valuing Accessibility The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs welcomes affiliates with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you are associated with the Weatherhead Center or one of its programs and would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please get in touch with your program coordinator in advance of your participation. Requests for Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance, if possible. Please note that the university will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability. See also:- [ Research Clusters ](/content-types/research-clusters) - [ Current Research Clusters ](/content-types/current-research-clusters)