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Thread. Dear All, I just want to say its so good to have more 'people like me'. Some may know I am doing research on working class academics. I've experienced conflict and microagressions with my use of that term, but you know what I am going to keep on using it as that is /1
how my respondents & I have defined ourselves. A feature of the research so far is the microagressions many have experienced when they talk about their class background. Why? I suppose we are all middle class now? Well no, I am a working class academic and proud. This not to /2
put down the experiences from any one who is not from that background, but my research is concentrating on the experiences of a very specific group of people. I have spoken to academics from across the UK & they have all been angry about one thing, how they feel they should /3
only talk about class when it is about other people. The working class, the disadvantaged etc means research respondents not researchers or lecturers, or other academics. But as Harding et al shows, research & scholarship benefits from lived experience. Conversations on /4
Twitter (some), and a small amount of interactions in academia have shown me that there is capital in writing about disadvantage, but very little benefit in standing by our side. Some may like writing about 'us' the disadvantaged, the working class, but certainly don't want /5
to be us, or defend us when we need it. @JennyAThatcher experiences in academia have said it all to me over the past few years. So, my first long winded point is to say that if you write about the 'disadvantaged' make sure you listen & are doing it for the right reasons /6
The other highlight from my research is that my respondents have talked about the positive aspects that they bring to academia (funny, we never hear about that?) If you are a working class academic, this research is for you. If you want to add to the research I am winding up /7
up my interviews as I'm going to be writing over the summer. If you have any comments about your experiences & particularly what you WC background brings to academia feel free to contact me on t.f.crew@bangor.ac.uk /end
Couldn't help but add some more :-).. Yes @NicolaAHarding too! & just to make it 100% clear working class academic means class and all its intersections. My research is intersectional! Just going to add that I have written in the past about Gypsy Travellers. I am not /end1 ;-)
a Gypsy Traveller, but i'm an Ally, so am not comfortable writing about their experiences unless they 1. benefit and are 2. involved. You can still care about the experiences of people that have been historically oppressed without you 'making of them'. I'm very proud of /end2
the 2 research studies I did for Gypsy Travellers as I have had feedback they are happy with the research. They were included in the research. But if I could not do that as part of my research practice (any subject), I would not feel comfortable doing the study. So my /end3
final (i promise) point: if you conduct research with people who've been oppressed, disadvantaged etc, why are you are doing it? who are you doing it for? how have you helped their situation? are you an ally post research? Do you continue listening or are you the 'expert'? end!!
