Fazio, M., Launius, C., and Strangleman, T., eds. (2021) Routledge International Handbook of Working-Class Studies. Routledge

In 2008, the Association of Working-Class Academics was founded in upstate New York by three former members of the Working-Class/Poverty-Class Academics Listserv. The Association had three goals: advocate for WCAs, build organizations on campuses that would support both working-class college students and WCAs, and support scholarship on issues relevant to class and higher education. The Association grew from a small handful to more than 200 members located in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Germany. In 2015, it was formally merged with the Working-Class Studies Association, and continues there as a special section for WCSA members. This is our collective account of the organization, told through responses to four key questions. We hope this history will provide insight and lessons for anyone interested in building similar organizations.

Download Full-text

Insider Without: Journey across the Working-Class Academic Arc

Journal of Working-Class Studies ◽

10.13001/jwcs.v2i2.6081 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 16-35

Author(s):

Kim Case

Keyword(s):

Working Class ◽

Cultural Context ◽

Class Culture ◽

Three Phase ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Academic Class ◽

Patricia Hill Collins ◽

Sociology Professor ◽

Working Class Studies ◽

Ways Of Being

Patricia Hill Collins (1986) labels herself as an ‘outsider within’ due to her intersectional standpoint as a Black woman sociology professor in the ivory tower. In contrast to the ‘outsider within’ lens, I theorize my own social location as an ‘insider without’ due to a complex matrix of identities within the classed academic cultural context. Using counter storytelling, I explore my insider without location through analysis of my journey across the ‘working-class academic arc.’ In the working-class academic arc described below, I apply intersectional theory (Collins 1990; Crenshaw 1989) by connecting my personal experiences with existing working-class studies scholarship. The arc process culminates in my development of critical intersectional class consciousness and actions of resistance. By introducing this three-phase arc, I hope to raise awareness of the invisible academic class culture which invalidates working-class ways of being and knowledge production.

Download Full-text