How Class Works

Abstract

The first State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook conference on working-class studies was the best structured, most enjoyable semi-academic meeting I have ever been to. Without being claustrophobic, organizers effectively matched the content of individual panels with plenary presentations in service of the subject: “How does class work?” Often conference themes get only the most nominal attention. Here, organizers apparently stuck to their guns when accepting proposals for panels and papers, and presenters largely stuck to the program. Attendees broke up into individual panels and repeatedly came together as a group throughout the day for plenaries. This worked on an informal basis as well. Plenary sessions always started off with a buzz as folks reintroduced each other in the mornings or, later in the day, compared notes on the panels they had just been to. Stony Brook is launching a working-class studies program, and its semi-yearly conference is to be the social science version of the Youngstown State University conference on class (they will alternate years). My sense is that the conferences will feed each other. Many people who had been to Youngstown also came to Stony Brook. And while at Stony Brook, they recruited for Youngstown.