Past Conferences
How Class Works - 2006 Conference (June 8-10, 2006)
All
Thursday sessions open to the public
Conference registration begins 6:00 p.m. Thursday in SAC Lobby
THURSDAY JUNE 8
- 2:00 – 3:45 p.m.
Old Chemistry 144
1.0 Working Class Studies Association round-table discussion on the current social
context and specific organizational capacities for building working class studies;
with
Sherry Linkon- American studies, Center for Working-Class Studies, Youngstown
State University
Peter Rachleff, history, Macalester College
Tim Strangleman, Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University
and conference participants.
THURSDAY - 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
1.1 Is the Strike Making a Comeback?
Old Chemistry
144
Peter Rachleff, history, Macalester College, “The Northwest Airlines mechanics
strike, 2005”
Chris Rhomberg-sociology, Yale University
“
Mobilization and conflict in the urban public sphere: the Detroit newspaper strike”
Joshua Freeman, history, Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center, “The
NYC Transit Workers strike, 2005”
1.2 Race and Class – I
Old Chemistry
134
Elaine McCrate- economics and women’s studies, University of Vermont
“
The racial gap in workplace autonomy”
David Purcell-graduate student, sociology, University of Cincinnati
“
When does cultural capital matter? An examination of race, class, and gender
in the corporate workplace”
Alan Derickson- history, Pennsylvania State University
“
Class unconsciousness and race consciousness: sleep deprivation and overwork
among Pullman porters in the early 20th century”
1.3 Queer and Class
Old Chemistry 135
Renny Christopher-English, California State University, Channel Islands
“
Queer as (middle class) folk”
Dwayne Eutsey-writer, Delmarva Foundation in Easton, Maryland
Donald Delauter-Institute of Museum and Library Service
“
Hidden injuries: memoirs of growing up gay or straight and working class”
1.4 Work, class, memory, and the visual
Old
Chemistry 138
Tim Strangleman-Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University
“
Memories of work/visualizing labour: understanding the photography of work”
Sherry Linkon-center for working-class studies, Youngstown State University
“
Memorializing steelwork: Segal, Springsteen, and Youngstown”
Courtney Maloney-English, Carnegie Mellon University
“
A corporate history of work: labor photography and cultural memory”
THURSDAY 7:30 P.M. OPENING PLENARY SESSION
SAC
Auditorium
(jointly with the Provost Lecture Series)
Susie Orbach, author, Fat is a Feminist Issue, “Obesity and the Body Politic”
FRIDAY JUNE 9
2.0 PLENARY SESSION - 9:00 – 10:30 a.m
SAC
Ballroom A
“
In the Groves of Academe: The Political Economy of Academic Labor”
Barbara Bowen, president, professional staff congress – CUNY, AFT local
2334
Molly Nolan, history, New York University
Asad Raza, graduate student and GSOC-UAW activist, New York University
Organized by New Labor Forum
FRIDAY 10:45 – 12:15
2.1 State Capitalism in the Global Economy
SAC
303
John Manley-emeritus of political science, Stanford University
“
Theorizing the welfare state”
Stephen Resnick and Richard D. Wolff-economics, UMass Amherst
“
State capitalism in the global economy”
2.2 Organizing Long Island’s working class:
the future of a movement
SAC
305
Jennifer Gordon- law, Fordham University
2.3 Globalization and Labor
SAC 304
Victor Mayorga-graduate student, political science, Hunter College
“
Dialectics of globalization: a study of D.R.-C.A.F.T.A. its causes and consequences”
Mehmet Odekon-economics, Skidmore College
“
Globalization and labor”
Gerrie Casey-anthropology, John Jay College, CUNY
“
Women clerical workers and their union in Puerto Rico: unions changing gender
and national identity in a colonial setting”
2.4 The Missing Story of Ourselves: Poverty and the Promise of Higher Education
(photography and commentary) SAC Gallery
Vivyan Adair- director, women’s studies, The ACCESS Project at Hamilton
College
Bich Ha Pham, director, Hunger Action Network of New York State
Jacqueline Pope, political science, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Jillyn Stevens, director of policy, advocacy, and research, Federation of Protestant
Welfare Agencies
2.5 Class in the Classroom
SAC 302
Ruthann Coyote-graduate student, higher education administration, University
of Arizona in Tucson
“
The effect of socioeconomic status on academic success in an affluent college
environment: if I’m so smart, why do I feel so out of place?”
Stephen Hess-graduate student, higher education administration, Boston College’s
Lynch School of Education
“
Does class matter? The peer culture of working class undergraduates at a private
university”
Christine Heilman-rhetoric/composition, College of Mount St. Joseph
“
Understanding how cultural differences create working class-related patterns
of student intellectual development”
2.6 Class Awareness Today
SAC 306
Claire McClinton-coordinator, the Community/Advocacy Organization Poverty Roundtable
“
Social and class consciousness: lessons from the Great Sit-Down Strike”
Joyce Mills-public health nurse and anti-poverty activist, Oakland California
“
Health care politics: class identity and the destruction of the social contract”
Michael Polson-community organizer in the West Sonoma County area
“
Illegal, under-the-table, and contingent work in a ‘redeveloping’ local
economy”
2.7 Experiences of Work
SAC 311
Jonathan DeBusk and Abe Walker, graduate students, sociology, CUNY Graduate Center,“The
truth behind the counter: contingent labor, emotional labor, and tight surveillance
at Starbucks”
Anna Pollert-sociology of work, Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan
University
“
Being an unorganized worker in 21st century Britain: the experience of problems
at work and routes to resolution”
Amy Niehouse-senior organizer trainer, Organizing Institute of the AFL-CIO
“
How union organizing changes relationships and promotes a better society”
FRIDAY 12:45 – 1:45
Working Class Studies
Association annual membership
meeting
SAC 305
FRIDAY 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
3.1 Class and Health
SAC 304
Martha Livingston-health and society, SUNY College at Old Westbury
“
Class and health”
Carles Muntaner- nursing, public health sciences, and psychiatry, University
of Toronto, “Exploitation and mental health among nursing home workers”
Stephen Rose-health professions, University of New England- Westbrook Campus
“
Embodied inequalities: perspectives on class and health”
3.2 Class and Gender
SAC 305
Mary Jo Bona-Italian American Studies & English, SUNY-Stony Brook
“
Classifying immigrant voices in the Progressive Era: mediating the question of
class status for Rosa Cassettari and Hilda Polacheck"
Tabitha Morgan-graduate student, American Studies and English, Commonwealth College,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“’
She never had said a word’: working-class women’s cultural texts
and the art of protest”
Cindy Loch-Drake-graduate student, history, York University, Toronto, Canada
“
Masculinity, class, and packing workers in postwar Edmonton”
Kris Paap- applied sociology, SUNY-Institute of Technology & senior research
fellow, Center for Women and Work, Rutgers University
“
Contradictory constructions of class and power in the unionized building trades”
3.3
Middle Class Dynamics
SAC 303
Ann Curry-Stevens-social work, York University, Toronto, Canada
“
Understanding Canada’s middle class: avenues for a new solidarity”
Sabine Salandy-labor market policy analyst, Community Service Society
“
Are we all middle class? Class identity in New York City”
Jerome Joffe- economics, St. Johns University
“
Class transformation of physicians”
3.4 Linking the Classroom with the Working Class
SAC
306
William Mello-coordinator, division of labor studies, Indiana University-Kokomo
“
The ABC of Brazil’s labor movement: working-class education and unions”
Paul C. Mishler-labor studies, Indiana University South Bend
“
Going to school with the workers: workers’ lives, college level labor studies,
and the development of trade union activism”
Max Mishler-SEIU Local 32 BJ
Stuart Eimer-sociology, Widener University
“
The pedagogy of class in the SEIU 32BJ Youth Brigade”
3.5 Organizing Contingent Workers
SAC 302
Joe Berry-adjunct labor education specialist and program developer, Chicago Labor
Education Program, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, “Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: organizing adjuncts
to change higher education”
Suren Moodliar, Coordinator, North American Alliance for Fair Employment (NAFFE)
Ray Mazurek-English, American Studies, Berks-Lehigh Valley College, Pennsylvania
State University, “The deprofessionalization of academic labor and the
rise of the academic working class”
3.6 Class and veterans: discovering class in the
recovery process
SAC 311
Nancy Romer-psychology, Brooklyn College
Jose Vasquez, Iraq Veterans Against the War, New York City
Jim Murphy, Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War
3.7 FILM
Class Dismissed (with filmmakers Loretta
Alper and Pepi Leistyna) SAC
308
FRIDAY 3:45 – 5:15 p.m.
4.1 Country Studies in Class Dynamics – I
SAC
311
Olawumi Funmi-senior lecturer & consultant, industrial relations and personnel
management, University of Lagos, Yaba-Lagos, Nigeria
“
The Neo-colonial state: globalization and the Nigerian working class”
Franco Barchiesi- African-American and African Studies, Ohio State University
“
Wage labor, precarious employment, and social citizenship in the making of South
Africa’s post-apartheid transition”
Jason Schulman- graduate student, political science, City University of New York,
Graduate Center
“
Workers without parties? The changing class character of the British, Australian,
and New Zealand Labor Parties”
Jayati Lal-sociology and women’s studies, University of Michigan
“
Contesting classes, protesting proletarianization: Indian factory women’s
routes to the working class”
4.2 Class Markers in Community
SAC 302
Michelle Tokarczyk- English, Goucher College
“
Class and the kitchen: lower-class attitudes toward eating”
Jaime Becker-graduate student, sociology, UC Davis
“
Solara: Hidden class assumptions in a low-income housing cooperative”
Elizabeth Swift-graduate student, Department of American Studies, University
of New Mexico
“
Class, consumption, and cultural authority: museum shop merchandising at national
museums”
John Gudmundson-lecturer/first year English coordinator, Ontario College of Art
and Design, Toronto, Canada
“
Mythical workers: the construction of class in Icelandic immigrant communities”
4.3 Class Issues in Mental Health
SAC 306
Joseph Schwartz- psychotherapist, London, UK
“
Transitional class dynamics and mental health”
Barb Jensen- psychology, Metropolitan State University, Minneapolis, “Shooting
in the dark: class bias in psychology and psychotherapy”
Anne Noonan- Center for Research on Women, Wellesley Centers for Women
“
In that place but out of place: urban adolescents’ perceptions of social
class position and difference as experienced in relationship with important adults
at work”
4.4 Organizing the Curriculum: Teaching the American
Labor Movement
SAC 304
Rob Linne-English education, director adolescence education, Adelphi University
“
Is the American school curriculum anti-labor: a rationale for change”
Leigh David Benin-social studies education, Adelphi University
“
Which side are you on? Organizing the curriculum around labour’s struggle”
Adrienne Sosin-education, Adelphi University
“
Labor and the law: a curriculum framework”
4.5 How Class Works in the Writing Classroom: Embodied
Experience of Pedagogy
SAC 303
Andrea Diane Davis-graduate student, rhetoric & writing, Michigan State University “Proxemics
and embodied pedagogy”
Michele Fero-graduate student, rhetoric& writing, Critical Studies in Literacy
and Pedagogy, Michigan State University
“
Theories and lived experience of class within Rhetoric and Composition”
Julie Lindquist-rhetoric & writing, Director of Critical Studies in Literacy
and Pedagogy, Michigan State University
“
Cultural rhetorics and the experience of argument”
4.6 Law and the construction of class – class and the construction of law
SAC 305
Ellen Dannin-law, Pennsylvania State University
“
NLRA values, labor values, American values”
Jim Pope-law & Sidney Reitman Scholar, law, Rutgers University
“
Class, law, and power in the workplace”
Risa Lieberwitz-industrial & labor relations, Cornell University
“
The role of law in promoting the corporate university”
4.7 FILM
Getting Out (with filmmaker George
Stoney) SAC 308
FRIDAY – 7:30 p.m.
4.8 BANQUET
SAC Ballroom A
Award for Lifetime Contributions to Social Justice for Working People
presented to George Stoney and Annette Rubinstein
Dinner speaker: Fred Mason, President, Maryland/DC Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
and co-convenor, US Labor Against the War - “New developments in the labor
movement”
FRIDAY 10 p.m.. – 1 a.m.
4.9 PARTY
with The Corduroys, rock and alternative country band, University Café,
Stony Brook Union
SATURDAY JUNE 10
5.0 PLENARY SESSION- 9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
SAC Ballroom A
“
The Ruling Class”
Steve Fraser, historian, New York City; editor-at-large, New Labor Forum
Gary Gerstle, history, University of Maryland
Nelson Lichtenstein, history, UC Santa Barbara
SATURDAY 10:45 – 12:15
5. 1 U.S. Health Care Systems
SAC 303
Elena Padilla-scholar-in-Residence, St. Barnabas Hospital, South Bronx; professor
emerita, NYU Wagner Graduate School
“
Escalating inequality of health status and health care institutions: a new urban
medical anthropology”
Merlin Chowkwanyun-graduate student, history, University of Pennsylvania
“
Institutional class analysis and movement building around the Health Policy Advisory
Center (Health/PAC), 1960 – 1980s”
Robb Burlage-NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, Columbia University
“
Academic ‘medical empires’ to metropolitan ‘medical-finance
complexes”
5.2 Race and Class – II
SAC 302
Peniel Joseph-Africana Studies, SUNY Stony Brook,
Yohuru
Williams-history and
Director of black studies, Fairfield University, “The Black Power movement
and class struggles”
Gary Hicks-graduate student, American Studies, University of Massachusetts at
Boston
“
Descending from the mountaintop: the struggle against the “three evils” named
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 38 years after his death”
Jeff Perry, Treasurer, Mailhandlers Local 300 (NY-NJ), “The continuing
legacy of Ted Allen”
5.3 Gender and Race in the Building Trades
– see Kris Paap in 3.2
5.4 From Daily Life to Public Policy: Deconstructing
the Hidden Rules of Class
SAC 305
Felice Yeskel-co-founder and co-director, Class Action
Chuck Collins-senior fellow, Class Action
5.5 Class in the Writing and Literature
Classroom
SAC 308
Harry C. Denny- writing & rhetoric, SUNY-Stony Brook
“
Writing centers and politics of community, identity, and social justice”
Christie Lynn Launius-director, women’s studies, Augusta State University
“
Negotiating ethnicity, gender, and class in Real Women Have Curves”
Mark Davies-education, Hartwick College
“
From self-deprecation to social transformation: creating space to critique the
impact of class on students”
5.6 Class and the Community Economy
SAC 304
Paul Kershaw-director, social care and social citizenship network, University
of British Columbia, Human Early Learning Partnership
“
How class works in nurturing neighborhoods: findings from the British Columbia
Early Development Instrument Mapping Project”
Jesse Goldstein-graduate student, political science, York University, Toronto
“
Community unionism against asset building: financial services and community organizing”
Peter Ranis-political science, City University of New York, Graduate Center and
York College, CUNY
“
Eminent domain: a way out for American labor?”
5.7 Class in the Media
SAC 306
Tom Zaniello-honors house, Northern Kentucky University
“
Bigger than Enron: worker bees and class in the cinema of globalization”
Deepa Kumar-journalism and media studies, Rutgers University
“
Outside the box: corporate media, globalization, and the UPS strike”
Frank Emspak-executive producer worker Independent news, School for Workers,
Labor Education, University of Wisconsin Extension
“
Worker Independent News: a case study in media, class consciousness, and the
fight for political power”
SATURDAY 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
6.1 Country Studies in Class Dynamics – II
SAC
306
David Applebaum-history, Rowan University
“
Class struggles in contemporary France”
Matias Scaglione-graduate student, sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“
Workers’ control in Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)”
Juliane Edler-graduate student, political science, York University, Toronto,
Canada
“
East Germans, class, and racism after ‘unification’”
6.2 The Making of the English Working Class revisited
SAC
302
Mary Davis-labor history, London Metropolitan University
Roger McKenzie- graduate student, working lives research institute, London Metropolitan
University
6.3 How Class Works in Writing, Sociology, and Women’s Studies Courses
SAC 303
Penny Lewis-graduate student, CUNY Graduate Center & Instructor, Social Science,
Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
“
Start here, go anywhere?”
Caroline Pari-English, Borough OF Manhattan Community College, CUNY
“
Revising essay 1: work and social class identity”
Kathlene McDonald-English, City College Center for Worker Education/CUNY
“
Working women, working students”
6.4 From Revolutionary Socialism to the Post-War
Accord: Possibilities for Working
Class Activism
SAC 305
Marcella Bencivenni-Hostos Community College, the City University of New York “Italian-American
working class radicalism: the legacy of revolutionary syndicalism”
Carol Quirke-American Studies, SUNY College at Old Westbury
“
The United Steelworkers of America, Steel Labor, and a union culture of restraint – 1936-1950”
Jacob Kramer-writing fellow, Queens College of the City University of New York & graduate
student, United States History, CUNY Graduate Center
“
The Progressive response to working-class radicalism during World War I”
6.5 Class and the Control of Social Institutions
SAC
311
Patricia Magdic-education, Aurora University
“
Who owns higher education? The struggle at California University of Pennsylvania”
Faith Wilson-education, Aurora University
“
Downsized discourse: classroom management, corporate talk, and the shaping of
correct workplace attitudes”
6.6 Class Consciousness
SAC 304
Seth Adler- sociology, University of California at Santa Cruz
“
Working class unconsciousness: a content analysis of class terminology in major
institutional databases and Internet search engines”
Diane Purvin-postdoctoral research fellow, Wellesley Center for Women
“
Class acts: presentation of self and other in social research”
Zeynep Tufekci- sociology, University of Maryland at Baltimore County
“
How techno-hype helps legitimate class stratification”
Gabrielle Raley-graduate student, University of California, Los Angeles
6.7 FILM
Farmingville (with filmmaker Catherine Tambini) SAC 308
SATURDAY 3:45 – 5:15 p.m.
7.1 Class and the Distribution of Income in the United
States
SAC 304
Andrew Lindner-graduate student, sociology, Penn State University
“
The great Middle Class: developing a class map of social relations”
Edward N. Wolff-the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and New York University
Ajit Zacharias-the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
“
Class and household economic well-being in the United States, 1989-2002”
John Milios-political economy, National Technical University of Athens
George Economakis-economic analysis, University of the Aegean
“
Working class and petit-bourgeoisie: class position and class stance”
Pellegrino Manfra- social sciences, Queensborough CC/CUNY
“
An analysis of the law of comparative advantage and income inequality in the
United States”
7.2 “Red Heads:” Doing VERY radical organizing/being
in the working
class
SAC 303
Page Delano-English, BMCC/CUNY
Katt Lisard-program director, World Culture Open
Ellen Geist-graduate student, creating writing, NYU
7.3 Reading the Labor Movement: Critical Literacy
Instruction
SAC 311
Adrienne Sosin-education, Adelphi University
Lucia Buttaro-literacy, Adelphi University
Miriam Pepper-Sanello-education, Adelphi University
Susan Eichenholtz-education, Adelphi University
7.4 Social Class and Higher Education in the U.S
SAC 305
Maynard Seider-sociology, Mass. College of Liberal Arts
“
Higher education and social reproduction: how class works at a state college
and an elite private college”
Shakira Hart and Mariah Arias-graduate students, sociology, Massachusetts College
of Liberal Arts Working
“
Social reproduction and the experiences of African-American and Latino/a students
at a state college”
7.5 FILM
Meeting Face to Face: the Iraq-U.S.
Labor Solidarity Tour (with filmmaker Jonathan Levin and executive producer Michael
Zweig) SAC 308
SATURDAY 5:30 – 6:15
Conference sum-up
discussion
SAC 304
