Professor Iyiola Solanke will draw upon ideas found in her recent monograph, Discrimination as Stigma,  where she reconceptualizes discrimination law as fundamentally concerned with stigma. Using sociological and socio-psychological theories of stigma, Professor Solanke will present an ‘antistigma principle,’ promoting it as a method to determine the scope of legal protection from discrimination. The anti-stigma principle recognizes the role of the environment as well as individual action in the perpetuation of discrimination. The principle highlights social responsibility for discrimination, making it everybody’s business. A further possibility that arises from centralizing stigma in anti-discrimination law is whether in so doing discrimination can be framed as a public health issue. Setting discrimination law within the field of public health, frames positive action and intersectional discrimination as the norm of legal action rather than the exception. Using the examples of weight and tattoos, Professor Solanke demonstrates that the anti-stigma principle can be used to determine what should be protected by anti-discrimination law, as well as what should not.

Professor Iyiola Solanke graduated from the London School of Economics with a PhD in Law. She joined the School of Law at the University of Leeds in 2010 and was appointed one of the first four Academic Fellows of Inner Temple. In addition to numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, Professor Solanke’s published work includes a textbook on EU Law (Pearson 2015) as well as two monographs: ‘Making Anti-Racial Discrimination Law (Routledge 2011) and ‘Discrimination as Stigma – A Theory of Anti-Discrimination Law’ (Hart 2017).

Kosher pizza will be served. 

Brown Bag Lunch Series