Bauman Memorial Lecture 2025 - Global Dignity and 'Seeing Others', Prof. Michele Lamont

We were delighted to host the inaugural Bauman Memorial Lecture on Wednesday 14th May in Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre.

The speaker was Professor Michèle Lamont, Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University.

Prof. Lamont discussed her book Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How it Can Heal a Divided World and her ongoing collaborative research on whether and how American and British young workers in the “two Manchesters” are searching for recognition through politics; how indigenous people in Canada and Micronesia are seeking recognition through environmental justice and jobs; and the challenge of seeking recognition where it is impossible to obtain.

The Bauman Memorial Lecture is a biennial event that is modelled in the spirit of public dialogue that characterizes the work of Zygmunt Bauman, world-renowned social thinker and former professor at the University of Leeds. It is intended as a vehicle for continuing Bauman’s intellectual project of chronicling and making sense of our ‘liquid times’ at a time when collective narratives and shared visions of a better future are under significant threat. The 2025 Bauman Memorial Lecture has especial significance since it took place in Zygmunt Bauman's centenary year and the 15th year of the existence of the Bauman Institute.

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, Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the US, Brazil and Israel (coauthored), and Seeing Others: How to Redefine Worth in a Divided World (Penguin/Simon & Schuster 2023). She is at work on a book tentatively titled “Recognition Globally.” The recipient of various awards, she has served as President of the American Sociological Association 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.