Adam Kotanko

I am a sociologist of morality, identity, and inequality. My teaching and research focus on how people and communities negotiate, maintain, and transform moral boundaries around identity, belonging, and social worth, particularly in contexts of stigma, social exclusion, and collective action. I am especially interested in helping students, communities, and policymakers understand how societies expand or restrict moral recognition, solidarity, and belonging; connecting sociological research to the social worlds people inhabit; and empowering people to transform their worlds through sociological knowledge. My current research examines moral ambassadors—people whose morally transformative experiences motivate them to advocate for stigmatized groups, including people impacted by criminalization, atheists, and LGBTQ+ communities. My work spans religion, social movements, crime and punishment, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, and inequality, using primarily qualitative methods, particularly interviews, ethnography, and content analysis.