Michèle Lamont studies group boundaries to understand how we can create a more inclusive world.

Michèle Lamont is Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University. Born in 1957, she grew up in Quebec and studied political theory at the University of Ottawa before obtaining a doctorate in sociology at the University of Paris in 1983. After completing post-doctoral research at Stanford University, she has served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin (1985-87), Princeton University (1987-2002) and Harvard University (2003-present). A cultural and comparative sociologist who studies inclusion and inequality, she has researched how we evaluate social worth across societies, the role of cultural processes in fostering inequality, symbolic and social boundaries, and the evaluation of knowledge, as well as topics such as dignity, stigma, racism, class cultures, collective well-being, social resilience, and social change. Her books include Money, Morals and Manners: the Culture of the French and the American Upper-Middle Class (1992), The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration(2000), How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgement (2009), Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the Us, Brazil and Israel(coauthored, 2016), and Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How It Can Heal a Divided World (2023). She is also the author of several collective works, and over a hundred articles published in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Human Nature Behavior, and other prominent outlets.  She served as the 108th president of the American Sociological Association in 2016-17.  She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Society of Canada, and the British Academy. Honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Carnegie Fellowship, Leverhulme Fellowship, the 2014 Gutenberg award, the 2017 Erasmus Prize, the 2024 Kohli Prize for Sociology, and honorary doctorates from six countries. 

What People Say About Seeing Others

“How to Heal a Divided World” — TEDWomen Conference

Recent News & Media

April 2024: “Ideas At Ford Author Event”, Ford Foundation, New York City

March 2024: “Meet The Author” book event, United Nations Bookstore, New York City

March 2024 “Seeing Others: How to Redefine Worth in a Divided World”, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC

May 2023 “When Did ‘Wholesome’ Become a Gen Z Compliment?”, The New York Times.

September 8, 2023 “A Few Questions for Michèle Lamont on her new book about the power of recognition, Seeing Others,” Russell Sage Foundation Blog.

October 2022 “Who Matters: Redefining Worth in our Divided World,” 2022 Cadario Lecture, Munk School of Business, University of Toronto, Canada.

September 2022 Global launch of the 2021/22 Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme.

Upcoming Events

May 7, 2024: “On the Role of Narratives in Fostering Inclusion in Various Social Contexts”, Webinar Series on Polarization and Dehumanization amid the Gaza War, Amnesty International Pro-Human Campaign, Virtual

May 9, 2024:  “Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How It Can Heal a Divided World”, Harvard Business School, Annual Race, Gender & Equity Symposium Keynote

May 28, 2024:  “Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How It Can Heal a Divided World”, Harvard Alumni Club, Ottawa, Canada

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