Insider Without: Journey across the Working-Class Academic Arc
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13001/jwcs.v2i2.6081Keywords:
Insider without, working class academic, class consciousness, class culture, intersectionality, resistance, rejecting respectability, reclaiming identityAbstract
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.