Most scholarly study and artistic representation in the world have been about the great and powerful. Working-Class Studies aims to focus both broadly and intimately on working-class lives, cultures, politics, economics, and social movements. The Working-Class Studies Association formed in 2003 to further this goal. We are an international group dedicated to developing working-class studies as a field within higher education and public discourse.
As captured in the “Studies” part of our title, the WCSA’s core is in the academy and the teaching professions where members come from a variety of roles and disciplines. But since our founding, we have fostered connections with our communities, especially activists and independent artists and scholars.
Aspiring to work alongside other fields like Women & Gender, Race & Ethnic, and Labor Studies, we entertain a wide variety of definitions and perspectives on working-class lives with an insistent focus on actual lived experience. We also value interdisciplinarity and the connections that can arise when working across boundaries.
The WCSA is a non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status and a board elected by our members. Members publish the open access, peer-reviewed Journal of Working-Class Studies twice a year, edit and contribute to the multi-authored blog Working-Class Perspectives and collaborate to produce work such as the Routledge International Handbook of Working-Class Studies.
We post regular updates on new books and upcoming events on our website, and distribute a newsletter. Our Working-Class Academics section of WCSA works toward greater class equity within colleges, universities, and communities, and includes scholars at the forefront articulating this experience. The WCSA Creatives snapshots working-class artistic production.
Many members are active in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on their campuses as first-generation, working-class college-goers or graduates. Members encourage each other through informal support systems, mentoring, networking, and sharing syllabi and pedagogical practices that integrate working-class content and epistemologies through an intersectional lens.
We hold an annual WCSA Conference on-ground and online with panels, plenaries, and exhibits on all aspects of working-class life and on occasion, symposiums. A highlight of the Conference includes the WCSA Awards ceremony that recognizes and celebrates new work in the field.
Come Join Us!
If you are interested in the field and want to be a part of our Association please: Join WCSA. We encourage members to come to the annual conference as well as organize in your communities. The featured map is based in results from a survey given to members in 2022 and it pins where many are currently living. Click the view larger icon in the upper right to access it in Google Earth. We look forward to meeting you!