- Working-Class Perspectives offers weekly commentaries on current issues related to working-class people and communities. Contributors discuss a variety of issues, from what class means to how it intersects with race and gender to how class is shaping American politics. We welcome relevant comments of 500 words or less.
For questions or comments about this blog, e-mail Sherry Linkon. For assistance with news stories about working-class politics and culture, call or e-mail John Russo, 330-207-8085. Categories
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Category Archives: Class and Education
Toxic Class Encounters
It’s thirty years this autumn since I began my undergraduate degree at Durham University in the North East of England. To tell you the truth I didn’t know much about the city before I applied there. My visit for the … Continue reading
Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Tim Strangleman
Tagged class privilege, classism, Durham University, working-class students
5 Comments
The Hidden Price of an Education: Black and Working-Class in Academe
In August 2004, I entered a doctoral program at Carnegie Mellon University. My family is from Braddock, Pennsylvania, a largely black neighborhood with working-class roots, and they were ecstatic that I would be their first doctor. I did not know … Continue reading
Essential Work: The 2020 WCSA Awards
At the center of all the chaos and turmoil of 2020 has been the essential worker on the front lines—from healthcare workers treating those infected with COVID-19 to service workers of all kinds who have kept us fed, supplied, and … Continue reading
The Class System of Higher Ed Goes Online
Most American colleges and universities moved courses online over the last week. That shift highlights the class disparities of higher education. For example, at Georgetown, by the time the University President announced that classes were moving online, more than 30 … Continue reading
A Punishment with No End: The Journey of a Working-Class Criminal into Academia
We call ourselves the flower pot kids after the floral themed street names the local council assigned in a vain if well-meaning attempt to brighten up an otherwise dreary area. The council-owned social housing consisted of tattered prefabricated buildings from … Continue reading
Amplified Advantage: Why Education Is Not the Answer to Our Class Problems
Thirty years ago, after having dropped out of college after just one term, unable to pay for my dorm room, I was unsure if I would ever leave the working class. Two years later I was a student at Barnard … Continue reading
Posted in Allison L. Hurst, Class and Education, Contributors, Issues
Tagged higher education, inequality, working-class students
4 Comments
Censoring the Working Class
Does the first amendment work the same for all Americans? What kind of freedoms do working people have to read, look at, and say what they want? The subject is on my mind this month as I gear up to … Continue reading
What is a “Working-Class Academic”?
Last week, a law professor from the UK was profiled by The Guardian. In the article, Geraldine Van Bueren, the daughter of a taxi driver and bookkeeper, discusses the need for people like her to come out publicly. She has … Continue reading
Across the Border: Teaching Service-Learning as Labor Activism
Summer is already in full swing and with that comes the promise of fresh, local produce available at community-supported agricultural (CSA) farms and farmers’ markets. North Carolina, ranked as the leading producer of tobacco and sweet potatoes according to the … Continue reading
Class(room) Warfare
The actress Felicity Huffman—along with 13 other parents charged in the college admissions scandal—entered plea deals last week, putting pressure on actress Lori Laughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, to do the same. Prosecutors are hinting that if Laughlin … Continue reading