Contextualization, Reflexivity, and the Study of Diabetes-Related Stigma

In this article, I examine vernacular and scholarly practices of de-stigmatization, focusing on the stigma associated with type 2 diabetes. Presenting examples of my own fieldwork encounters with African Americans with diabetes in Columbus, Ohio, I show how practices of contextualization work as discursive tools in vernacular efforts toward de-stigmatization. I use these examples to enter into a broader critical conversation about the contextualizing practices often employed by researchers working with stigmatized communities. Specifically, I call attention to the ways such contextualizing practices can differentiate scholarly and vernacular interpretations into hierarchically ordered categories of analysis, thereby contributing to the very processes of stigmatization researchers are seeking to disrupt.