Tackling Stigma Conference 2026
Overcoming stigma as a barrier to healthcare.
19 - 20 November, 2026
Overview
The Tackling Stigma Conference will focus on cross cutting approaches to understanding and addressing stigma, promote conversations and debate regarding systemic and structural issues that contribute to experiences of stigma in health care settings, and discuss novel strategies to overcome stigma as a barrier to health care. The conference will feature international and domestic keynote speakers, lived and living experience guest speakers, concurrent themed sessions, and an evening function. The conference will cover a range of issues related to stigma and how that impacts health care access and uptake. Sign up for information and correspondence about the Tackling Stigma conference through our Expression of Interest more to be kept in the loop about the conference.
Key dates:
- March 2026: Abstracts open
- March 2026: Scholarship applications open
As attendees and presenters,
the Tackling Stigma Conference welcomes:
- Health clinicians and practitioners, including peer workers
- Researchers and academics
- People with lived/living experiences of a variety of identities, practices, and health conditions that may be stigmatised
- Policymakers and advocates
- Community organisations and representatives
- Others interested in overcoming stigma as a barrier to healthcare
An interdisciplinary conference focused on stigma research & interventions
ºÚÁÏÍø´óÊÂ¼Ç Sydney
19-20 November 2026
About
The Centre for Social Research in Health was established in 1990. Our work makes a crucial contribution to the Australian response to blood-borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections by examining the social aspects of HIV, viral hepatitis, injecting drug use, sexual health. sexuality, substance use and mental health. We work closely with national and international researchers, community organisations and community advocates, and with government and state bodies (including health departments). Our work is underpinned by a core principle of engaging people with lived and living experience of the wide range of attributes, identities, conditions, and practices that we study.
In 2024, we launched the Tackling Stigma Conference, the first Australian conference to specifically focus on overcoming stigma in healthcare and improving health outcomes for a range of stigmatised groups. The conference was a sold-out event, drawing national and international delegates, including academics, people with lived/living experience, community advocates and educators, people who develop or implement health promotion programs and services, policy makers, and health workers.
Following the success of the first conference, it will be hosted again on 19-20 November 2026. The conference will focus on cross cutting approaches to understanding and addressing stigma, promote conversations and debate regarding systemic and structural issues that contribute to experiences of stigma in health care settings, and discuss novel strategies to overcome stigma as a barrier to health care. This conference is guided by an organising committee based at the Centre for Social Research in Health. In keeping with our commitment to centring communities affected by stigma and discrimination, we are also guided by an advisory committee comprised of people with lived and living experience of stigma and discrimination related to a wide range of identities, conditions, and practices.
What is stigma?
Stigma may be understood in many ways. We have provided one definition of stigma below for your reference.
Stigma is a social process whereby people are excluded or treated differently based on conditions, identities, and practices that are judged or viewed negatively by members of society. Stigma involves the exercise of power and control to devalue certain groups of people. Many people can experience intersecting forms of stigma, with other forms of stigma related to social identities like race, gender, sexuality, and class. Stigma can occur at multiple levels: structural (e.g., in laws, public opinion, media), organisational (e.g., through policies and practices), individual (e.g., through behaviour and language), and intrapersonal (e.g., in beliefs of self-worth). Discrimination refers to how stigma is manifested, such as through negative actions, behaviours, or speech towards people based on those attributes, conditions, identities, and practices. Stigma and discrimination have significant negative health and social impacts on affected people and communities and on costs to the health system.
Conference Topics and Themes
We are interested in cross-cutting and interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and addressing stigma. To begin to move beyond siloed approaches to stigma reduction, we invite people working to address stigma towards a range of identities, conditions, and practices to submit an abstract for this conference.
- Barriers to health care, including experiences of self-stigma and stigma in other settings
- Lived / living experience of health care, including experiences of stigma, experiences of high-quality health care, reflections on what health care should look like
- How stigma towards specific behaviours and conditions intersects with other forms of discrimination, such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and others
- Research on how stigma manifests in a variety of health care settings and towards a variety of features of identity, behaviours and conditions, including blood-borne viruses, sexually transmissible infections, mental health, alcohol and other drugs, gender and sexuality diversity, among others
- Stigma and discrimination in health care policy and practice
- Identifying and responding to the role that power relations play in producing and perpetuating stigma
- Silence, obvious blind spots, and major gaps in stigma reduction policies and practices, including unconscious bias
- Innovative strategies, programs, or interventions to reduce stigma, promote inclusion in health care settings, and/or overcome other barriers to health care particularly peer-led models of care
- Other strategies, programs, or interventions to promote high-quality care, inclusive care, cultural safety, gender-affirming care, trauma-informed care, and stigma-sensitive practice
We have provided the above topics as a guide only.
Expression of interest
If you want to be kept in the loop about conference updates, please sign up through our Expression of Interest form below:
If you have any other questions, please email the conference team at stigmaconference@unsw.edu.au
Our Acknowledgement of Country
ºÚÁÏÍø´óÊÂ¼Ç Sydney’s Kensington campus is built on the land of the Aboriginal people. We pay our respects to the Bedegal people of the Eora nation who are the Custodians of this land.Â
We acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Australians, whose lands, winds and waters we all now share, and pay respect to their unique values, and their continuing and enduring cultures which deepen and enrich the life of our nation and communities.