The workshop begins at 12:15 p.m. on Sept. 4 in Belk Pavilion, Room 208.
Join colleagues for this workshop with guest speaker Sherry L. Linkon. As ecnomic inequality grows and in the aftermath of an election that drew significant attention to white working-class communities, understanding social class seems more important than ever.
But teaching about class isn’t easy. The concept is complex and contested, and it can generate uncertainty for faculty and resistance among students, who come from a range of backgrounds and experiences. In this session, we’ll dig into the challenges of teaching about class and strategies for making it clearer, more engaging, and more relevant for students.
Bio: Sherry Lee Linkon is a professor of English and director of the Writing Program at Georgetown University. Her teaching and research involve two main areas: teaching and learning in the humanities and the interdisciplinary study of working-class culture. In working-class studies, Linkon’s work focuses on social class in higher education, deindustrialization, and contemporary working-class literature. Her edited collection “Teaching Working Class” (Massachusetts, 1999) was named one of the most important academic books of the 1990s by Lingua Franca magazine. With John Russo, she co-authored “Steeltown USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown” (Kansas, 2002) and co-edited “New Working-Class Studies” (Cornell, 2005). Her forthcoming book, “The Half-Life of Deindustrialization,” examines early 21st century working-class narratives reflecting the continuing effects of economic restructuring, primarily in Rust Belt cities. She was the founding president of the Working-Class Studies Association, and she edits a weekly blog, Working-Class Perspectives.
Please register online.