The UW Tacoma Staff Association in conjunction with the Center for Equity and Inclusion, and the UW Tacoma Library and the Center for Student Involvement is continuing our Staff book group.  This Spring Quarter 2021 we will read Straddling Class in the Academy: 26 Stories of Students, Administrators, and Faculty From Poor and Working-Class Backgrounds and Their Compelling Lessons for Higher Education Policy and Practice edited by Sonja Ardoin and becky martinez.

Why do we feel uncomfortable talking about class? Why is it taboo? Why do people often address class through coded terminology like trashy, classy, and snobby? How does discriminatory language, or how do conscious or unconscious derogatory attitudes, or the anticipation of such behaviors, impact those from poor and working class backgrounds when they straddle class?

Through 26 narratives of individuals from poor and working class backgrounds – ranging from students, to multiple levels of administrators and faculty, both tenured and non-tenured – this book provides a vivid understanding of how people can experience and straddle class in the middle, upper, or even elitist class contexts of the academy.

Through the powerful stories of individuals who hold many different identities--and naming a range of ways they identify in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and religion, among others--this book shows how social class identity and classism impact people's experience in higher education and why we should focus more attention on this dimension of identity.

A concluding chapter proposes means for both increasing social class consciousness and social class inclusivity in the academy.

If you would like to participate, please fill out the form below.

Meetings will be held in Zoom on Tuesday from 11-12am  on 4/6 (orientation), 4/13, 4/20, 4/27, 5/4, 5/11, 5/18 5/25, and 6/1. Books are available as eBooks or Print

You are not required to commit to all sessions -  come as you can.