Teaching about Class

PART 2 OF 2

Do list members have any useful, ideally short and very accessible
articles on class privilege that I could use for first year students?
Or videos?

Basically, I'm going to be teaching two major texts that, I think,
help students re-think "crime": Sudhir Venkatesh's GANG LEADER FOR A
DAY and Carolyn Nordstrom's GLOBAL OUTLAWS.  I know from experience
that understanding how one's own perspectives may have been shaped by
being middle class (most of my students), in a country that denies
class exists, is difficult.  I could use some help!

Thanks!
L.

Lori J. Askeland
Associate Professor, English
Director, Women's Studies
Wittenberg University
Springfield OH 45501-0720
laskeland  AT  wittenberg.edu

Two ideas that may help: Peggy's McIntosh's article on "white privilege" and
the PBS video "A Class Divided" about Iowa elementary school children who
learn about diversity.


Barbara Barnett, PhD
Associate Professor
William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications
200 Stauffer-Flint Hall
The University of Kansas
1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
barnettb  AT  ku.edu

Lori Askeland asked for "useful, ideally short and very accessible articles on 
class privilege".

I don't know if this is "scholarly" enough for you but I think that
Thomas Benton's essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education,
"A Class Traitor in Academe", is quite excellent.  I know it
resonated with me. I think it is extremely accessible.

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Class-Traitor-in-Academe/46556/

It is no longer behind a paywall, as it was when I originally quoted 
from it in this blog post

http://scientopia.org/blogs/thusspakezuska/2008/03/13/patch-hunky-phd/

which was an attempt to look at class privilege and how it both obscures and
creates white privilege, starting from my personal experience.  I'd like to 
think this post is also pretty accessible!  

You would have to be the judge as to whether either of these pieces are useful 
for your purposes but I do think that Thomas Benton's essay is really really good.   
  

Suzanne E. Franks
bobtownsuz  AT  yahoo.com
"Thus Spake Zuska", a blog about gender, science, and engineering
at http://scientopia.org/blogs/thusspakezuska

I recommend bell hooks, Where we stand: Class Matters.  A chapter from this
text might work well.

Eloise Buker


-- 
Eloise A. Buker
Professor of Political Science, Emerita
Saint Louis University

Michael Zweig's anthology, "What's Class Got to Do with It?" (Cornell
Univ. Press, 2004) has several articles that could be useful,
including pieces on the intersection of class with race and gener,
with global concerns, etc.

Zweig's book, "The Working Class Majority: America's Best-Kept Secret"
is short and accessible by undergrads.

Finally, there's a new anthology of short, first-person pieces (with
lots of graphics and photos), edited by Betsey Leondar-Wright, "Class
Matters: Cross-Class Building for Middle-Class Activists" (New Society
Publishers, 2005) that might be useful.

I've used the first two successfully in both Women's Studies and
Economics classes; I'll be trying the third this fall. Good luck!

Kim Christensen 
Associate Professor of Economics and Women's/Gender Studies 
SUNY/Purchase College 
kim.christensen  AT  purchase.edu 

I would recommend:

1) White Like Me by Tim Wise

and

2) Class Matters (series of articles on race and class) by Betsy
Leondar-Wright


Hannah M. Mecaskey, 3rd Year MA Theology, Master of Divinity, Certificate of
Women in Religion
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
and the Graduate Theological Union

I use a great movie called People Like Us produced by the Center for
New American Media.

It's a great look at class in the U.S.: http://www.cnam.com/flash/index.html 

-- 
Celebrating 40 Years of Educating and Empowering Women 

Juli Parker, Ph.D. 
Director, Women's Resource Center 
Affiliate Faculty, Women's Studies Program 
UMass Dartmouth 
285 Old Westport Rd. 
N. Dartmouth, MA -á02747 
www.umassd.edu/wrc 

I also use chosen selections through out the term from People Like
Us. Avail at most univ libraries and many pub libraries because PBS is
one of the distributors. Its own problems are v accesible. 

Jeannie Pfaelzer