Michèle Lamont is a cultural sociologist who studies morality, group boundaries, and inequality. She has tackled topics such as dignity, respect, stigma, racism, and how we evaluate social worth across societies in Money, Morals and Manners, The Dignity of Working Men, How Professors Think, and the coauthored Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the US, Brazil and Israel. Her most recent book is Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How It Can Heal a Divided World (Penguin/Simon & Schuster 2023). She is at work on a book tentatively titled “Recognition Globally.” The recipient of various awards, she served as President of the American Sociological Association in 2016 and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the British Academy, and the Royal Society of Canada.
Recognition, Globally
I am currently conducting research for my new book project tentatively titled "Recognition Globally" where I will analyze recognition claims in a variety of contexts and help us better understand how to move toward a more inclusive society. The project explores claims for political recognition by “invisible” US and UK working class youth living in Manchester New Hampshire and Manchester, UK; environmental justice claims by indigenous groups in the Northern Mariana Islands (Micronesia) and Algonquin territories in Canada; recognition through work for high-tech creators in video games and visual effects; and other cases.
This project is supported by various programs at Harvard (Asia Center, Canada Program, FAS Dean’s Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship, The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, and the Weatherhead Center for Advanced Research).
In this book project conducted in collaboration with research assistants and British social scientists, I will mobilize comparative case studies to consider similarities and differences between three types of recognition: political recognition for the “invisible” working class youth in the US and the UK; environmental recognition for two indigenous groups in Micronesia and Eastern Canada; and recognition at work for high tech creators involved in the global production of videogames and special effects (VFX).
These studies all concern recognition in a different context of uncertainty about the future. They also concern groups that vary in terms of their “groupness” (the fluidity of their group identity and experienced symbolic boundaries) whether and how they voice claims about recognition, and whether and how they experience misrecognition.
This research will draw on over 300 interviews and on a global multi-sited organizational ethnography.
Recent News
“With her path-breaking comparative research on culture, social inequality and inclusion, she has made a significant imprint on sociological knowledge.”
- The Kohli Foundation for Sociology
May 20, 2024: Michèle Lamont has been elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.
August 2024: Michèle Lamont received the Distinguished Career Award from the Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity Section of the American Sociological Association.
May 2, 2024: Michèle Lamont has been awarded the Kohli Prize for Sociology. The Kohli Prize for Sociology honors exceptional achievement in and contributions to the field and profession of sociology.
Recent Publications
Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How It Can Heal a Divided World
2023 Simon and Schuster (US), Penguin (UK)
One of “The 8 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 That You Need To Read in 2024” — Book Riot
Recent Articles in the Popular Press
“Trump gets even – Who says culture doesn’t matter?” — LSE Blogs, September 5, 2025
“The art of resistance: Trump’s attack on humanities triggers a blowback movement” with Daniel B. Cornfield — Salon, April 21, 2025
“Kamala Harris must lean in: The left doesn’t have to pick between woke and working class”— Salon Magazine, August 4, 2024
“Europe’s Invisible Provinces: How the Urban-Rural Divide Drives Political Polarization” (co-written with Mari Hyland and Massimiliano Mascherini)— Foreign Affairs, May 23, 2024
“Gen Z and the Art of Incentivized Self-Actualization” —Wired Magazine, January 8, 2024
Peer-Reviewed Publications
2025:
“Economic Inequality and Mental Health: Causality, Mechanisms, and Interventions” with Divyangana Rakesh, Koichiro Shiba, Crick Lund, Kate E. Pickett, Tyler J. VanderWeele, and Vikram Patel. Annual Review Clinical Psychology, 21:353-377. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081423-025710
“Lights, Camera, Activism: Recognition Strategies in Hollywood and Comedy” with Derek Robey and Nicole Letourneau. Work and Occupations, 53(1), 214-266. https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884251336699
“Seeing Others for what?” (journal symposium on Seeing Others). Identities, 32(5), 738–743. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2025.2480911
2024:
“Feeling overlooked: A rural–urban divide in recognition” with Marie Hyland and Massimiliano Mascherini. Global Policy, 15, 807–822. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13454
2023:
"Recreating a Plausible Future: Combining Cultural Repertoires in Unsettled Times" with Shira Zilberstein and Mari Sanchez. Sociological Science, 10(1): 348-373. DOI: 10.15195/v10.a11
2022:
“How American College Students Understand Social Resilience and Navigate towards the Future during Covid and the Movement for Racial Justice” with Mari Sanchez and Shira Zilberstein. Social Science & Medicine 301:114890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114890.