Doctoral Dissertation Research: Stigma, Civil Society, and Well Being

在各种国际环境中兴起的学术研究表明，社会耻辱和个人幸福感下降之间存在因果关系。这一下降在资源贫乏的环境中显得尤为突出，因为在这些环境中，社会经济地位较低的人面临的风险更大。这些有害后果往往不仅影响到个人，而且影响到他们所生活的更广泛的社区。最近，研究开始研究公共行动主义和个人幸福感之间的联系，发现在某些情况下，参与这种参与可以对幸福感产生积极影响。因此，重要的是要通过其与社会污名的具体联系来研究这种民间社会参与。参与公共行动以对抗社会污名是否会增加个人幸福感？这项研究将由耶鲁大学人类学博士生伊丽莎白·伯克在马西娅·C·因霍恩博士的指导下进行。研究将在黎巴嫩进行，黎巴嫩是一个基础设施不可靠的中等收入国家。与该地区其他国家不同，黎巴嫩几十年来一直拥有活跃的民间社会部门，这使其成为研究耻辱、激进主义和福祉的理想场所。在这个项目中，她将关注与艾滋病毒/艾滋病相关的耻辱。她将采用各种定性研究方法，包括半结构化访谈、参与者观察，以及对一系列媒体文件、组织信息和其他材料的文本分析。她将与民间社会组织以及医院和公共卫生组织等公共和私营服务提供者合作，重点关注有偿和志愿者个人服务提供者、接受服务的人以及概述此类服务政策的人。研究人员将评估参与这些群体是否会增加个人幸福感，或者可能是其他因素，如社会经济地位的改善或家庭支持，在增强幸福感方面发挥更大的作用。这项研究的结果将提供迫切需要的见解，以了解构成耻辱的因素，在克服这种耻辱和改善个人福祉方面做出了哪些努力，以及哪些方法可能需要重新思考。

Burgeoning scholarship in a variety of international settings suggests causal connections between social stigma and decreased personal wellbeing. This decrease appears especially prominent in resource-poor settings where those of lower socioeconomic status are at greater risk. These detrimental consequences often affect not only individuals but also the wider communities in which they live. Recently, studies have begun to examine links between public activism and individual wellbeing, finding in some cases that participating in such engagement can have a positive effect on wellbeing. It is therefore important to study such civil society engagement through its specific links to social stigma. Does engagement with public activism to fight social stigma increase individual wellbeing? The research will be carried out by Yale University anthropology doctoral student Elizabeth Berk, with guidance from Dr. Marcia C. Inhorn. The research will be conducted in Lebanon, a middle-income country with unreliable infrastructure. Unlike other countries in the region, Lebanon has had an active civil society sector for many decades, making it an ideal site from which to study stigma, activism, and wellbeing. For this project, she will be looking at the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. She will employ a variety of qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and textual analysis of a range of media documents, organizational information, and other materials. She will work with civil society organizations, and public and private service providers, such as hospitals and public health organizations, focusing on paid and volunteer individual service providers, those receiving services, and those outlining policy for such services. The researcher will evaluate whether involvement with these groups increases individual wellbeing, or if perhaps other factors, such as improvement in socioeconomic status or family support, play bigger roles in augmenting wellbeing. Findings from this research will provide urgently needed insights into the factors that structure stigma, what efforts have been successful in overcoming this stigma and improving individual wellbeing, and what methods might require rethinking.