Lives of working class academics explored in book

A new book exploring the lives of working class academics has been published by Dr Iona Burnell Reilly, a senior lecturer in the School of Education and Communities.

The Lives of Working Class Academics: Getting Ideas Above Your Station, is a collection of stories, using an autoethnographic approach, from academics who identify as having a working-class heritage.

In the book they discuss what this means to them, sharing their experiences and definitions of social class within the context of their own lives. The ways in which the authors consciously experience their lived realities, brought about by their social circumstances, create a rich and interesting collection of life stories. Although a working class heritage will under-pin the autoethnography of each of the writers, the interlocking sections between class, race and gender are also relevant, possibly for some authors more than others.

Traditionally academia has been seen as an elite profession, for those with an academic background and from the middle/upper classes. This is what makes the life of a working class academic all the more interesting, rich and powerful. How have they become who they are in an industry steeped in elitism? How have they navigated their way, and what has the journey been like? Do they continue to identify as working class or has their social positioning and/or identities shifted?

Dr Iona Burnell Reilly said,

The legacy of elitism remains in higher education (HE) - inequality and prestige have persisted, and with very little history or class culture in the field of HE to identify with, this can, for some working-class academics, make their experiences fraught and difficult.

“My aim in creating this book was to share those fraught and difficult experiences, give voice to and authenticate them, and more importantly, challenge the dominant discourses that maintain and perpetuate elitism and exclusion within higher education.”

Dr Burnell Reilly is a course leader for the Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

She appeared on BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking show discussing the lives of working class academics along with other guests and presenter Anne McElvoy. Link to listen: Arts & Ideas - Higher Education for women and working class students - BBC Sounds