HOW CLASS WORKS - 2010: Audio Files Presented at the Conference
A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook
June 3-5, 2010
The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to offer MP3 audio files for sessions recorded during the How Class Works-2010 Conference, linked to those sessions in the conference program below. The audio files are raw and unedited recordings of full sessions. Each audio file contains an introduction by the chair of the session followed by the individual presentations. Individual presentations last approximately 15 minutes for sessions with four participants and 20 minutes for sessions with three participants (not counting the chair). To hear a specific speaker, open the session audio file and scroll through it to the presentation you want. Some sessions in the conference program do not have audio files because their presenters asked for privacy or because the sessions were cancelled after the program went to press. These sessions are not listed in the linked program below
Thursday, June 3
1:45-3:15pm
1.1 New Media in Labor Studies and
Working Class Studies
Alyssa Lenoff, Center for Working-Class Studies,
Youngstown State University: New Media: Implications
for Working-Class Americans
Joseph B. Atkins, Journalism, University of Mississippi:
Giving Voice to Southern Workers: The
Development of “Labor South”
John Russo, Center for Working-Class Studies,
Youngstown State University: The Uses of New
Media at the Center for Working-Class Studies: A
Two-Year Assessment
1.2 Class and Gender
Francine Moccio, Former Director of the Institute
for Women and Work at ILR School at
Cornell University: Live Wires For a Labor Cause:
Women Electricians in New York City
Hester Eisenstein, Sociology, Queens College:
Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women’s
Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World
M. Thandabantu Iverson, History Labor Studies,
Indiana University-Northwest: Beyond Reductionism:
Seeing Class Through Race and Gender in Black
Healthcare Workers’ Lives
Melda Y. Öztürk, Economics, Ondokuz Mayıs
University and Özgün Akduran, Public Finance,
Istanbul University: Women’s Labor in Tobacco
Producing: Before and After Privatization
1.3 Pedagogy of Class I
Sarah Ryan and Emily Lardner, The Evergreen
State University: Social Class as a “Night School”
Theme: Two quarters at The Evergreen State College
Heather A. Howley and E.R. Carlin, University
of Akron, Wayne College: Empathy: The Placebo
Effect
Joel Saxe, Communication, University of Massachusetts-
Amherst: Generational Debt: catalyst to
social change and critical class(room) consciousness?
Raymond A. Mazurek, English & American
Studies, Penn State University, Berks Campus:
Students Gaze in a Working-Class Mirror: Teaching
the Working-Class Experience in America
1.4 Country Studies 1
Ozgur Narin, Economics, Ondokuz Mayis University
and Ozgur Mutlu Ulus, Acıbadem University:
Alpagut Factory Occupation: First Experience
of Workers' Self Management in Turkey
Tara Martin, Sociology, University of New Mexico:
Crosscurrents of Memory: Myth, Rank and File
Memory, and Britain’s Winter of Discontent
Hugo Chesshire, Political Science, Brock University:
In Hostile Waters: The 2009 Concessions of the
Canadian Autoworkers Union
1:45-3:15pm
2.1 Class Dynamics in Higher Education
and the Professions
Amy E. Stich, Sociology of Education, SUNY
Buffalo: Working-Class Reputation and the Syntax of
Rusted Space: A Damaging Discursive Practice within
Higher Education
Kristin Cipollone, Sociology of Education, SUNY
Buffalo: When College is the Only Choice: Post-
Secondary Selection Processes of Middle- and Upper
Middle-Class Students Attending an Affl uent Public
High School
Julie Withers, Butte College: Class Act: Negotiating
class dynamics at a rural community college
2.2 The Working Class after
Neoliberalism
Colm Breathnach, Geography and Sociology,
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow: Mapping the
Global Working Class Today
Neil Davidson, Geography and Sociology, University
of Strathclyde, Glasgow: Theory and 21st
Century Workers: Defi nitions, Boundaries, Interests
Patricia McCafferty, Geography and Sociology,
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow: From Workshop
of the World to Service Sector Central: Glasgow’s
East End Today
2.3 Class Issues in History
Gregory Wood, History, Frostburg State University:
Smokes on a Train: Smoking and Class Struggles
on the New York City Subway, 1904-1913
John Lloyd, History, California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona: Crowds, Class and Community:
The Pittsburgh ‘Mob’ and the Strike of 1877
Peter S. McInnis, History, St. Francis Xavier University:
Incident at Reesor Siding: Bushworkers and
the Historical Memory of Violent Confrontation
Vilja Hulden, History, University of Arizona: The
payoffs of class privilege: The National Association of
Manufacturers vs. labor in Congress, 1902-1914
2.4 Calling the Labor Movement to
Discover the Working Class
Bob Fitch, Former Union Organizer, Author:
Needed: A Labor Left that refl ects real democracy and
unites workers by reaching across restrictive jurisdictional
lines
Joseph B. Atkins, Journalism, University of Mississippi:
A Call for an Independent, Consciousness-
Raising Labor Media
Martin Fishgold, Editor, The Unionist, AFSCME,
past president of the International Labor
Communications Association: The Failure of
Unions and Their Media to Reach Out to the Working
Class
Steve Early, Writer, Organizer: The High Price of
Health Care for Some: How EFCA Became The First
Casualty of ObamaCare
2.5 Country Studies II
Frido Wenten, Political Science, Free University
Berlin: Changing class relations and labour struggles
in post-1978 China
Kurtuluş Cengiz, Sociology, Abant Izzet Baysal
University: The New Industrial Class of Turkey between
Community and Market: A Cross-Section from
an Anatolian City/Kayseri
Ugo Palheta, Sociology, Sciences-Po Paris: Class
Struggle, Struggling Classes. The Social Stratifi cation
of the “anti-CPE”
Friday, June 4
9-10:30am
4. Plenary Session: Right Wing Populism
and the Working Class
Bill Fletcher, Jr., Executive Editor, blackcommentator.com
William K. Tabb, City University of New York
10:45am-12:15pm
5.2 Class Dynamics in Brazil
Berenice Abreu, Social History, Universidade
Estadual do Ceará: The Ship Sail on: the Politics of
Class and Brazil´s Northeast Fishermen’s Movement
Frederico de Castro Neves, Labor History, Universidade
Federal do Ceará: Working Class Protest
and Revolt in Rural Brazil
William Mello, Labor Studies, Indiana University:
The Legion of Workers: Class Formation and Right
Wing Labor Organizations in Northeast Brazil
5.3 Rank and File Research from the
National Labor College
Eduardo Rosario, National Writers Guild: Dismantling
The Manufacturing Clause: Another Victim
of Deregulation
Joe Potestivo, International Union of Elevator
Constructors: The Case of the I.U.E.C., Local One
New York City: Succeed Together or Fail Individually
John Graham, United Brotherhood of Carpenters:
Health Impact of Emergency Response and Recovery
Work at the World Trade Center Following 9-11
Lainie Kitt, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
and American Federation of Teachers,
Adjunct Professor, National Labor College: Post-
Traumatic Stress among Housing Authority Workers
in New York City after 9-1, Chair
Leah Rambo, Sheet Metal Workers International
Association: Embracing Diversity: The Key to Building
Strong Unions
5.4. What Do Working Class Students
Need in Higher Education? - a roundtable
discussion
Sherry Lee Linkon, Center for Working-Class
Studies, Youngstown State University
Chynna Haas, Working-Class Student Union
Jack Metzgar, Chicago Center for Working-Class
Studies
Nancy Berke, English, LaGuardia College, City
University of New York
Tim Francisco, Journalism, Youngstown State
University
5.5 Mothering from the Margins
Kinohi Nishikawa, Literature, Duke University:
Sons and Mothers: Broken Family Narratives in the
Post-Civil Rights Moment
Leigh Campoamor, Cultural Anthropology, Duke
University: “Who Are You Calling Exploitative?”
Child Laborers, Sacrifi cial Mothers, and the Uncaring
State in Lima, Peru
Sara Appel, Literature, Duke University: Safely
in the Net: Interdependence and the Working-Class
Superhero in Katherine Arnoldi's The Amazing 'True'
Story of a Teenage Single Mom
5.6 The Construction of Class
Consciousness
John P. Beck, Labor and Industrial Relations,
Michigan State University: Murdering Labor?:
How Contemporary Unions Have Fared in the American
Mystery Novel, 1979 – 2009
Karen Veitch, Literature, University of Sussex:
The Poetics of Class-Consciousness: Reading Genevieve
Taggard in the Context of New Masses
Magnus Nilsson, Comparative Literature, Malmö
University: Swedish Working-Class Literature and the
Construction of Class
Michael J. Boyle, Graduate Center, City University
of New York: Evangelical Faith and Working-
Class Politics: Forever at Odds?
5.7 Class and the LGBT Experience
Jeff A. Cabusao, English, Bryant University and
Todd Shaw, Political Science, University of
South Carolina: Barriers Beyond Stonewall: Class,
Race, and the LGBT Economic Justice Movement
Kim Palmore, University of California at Riverside:
Classing Queers: Heteronormativity, Culture,
and Queer Conventions
Sara R. Smith, University of California, Santa
Cruz: Gay and Lesbian Teachers and the Struggle
Against the Briggs Initiative, 1976-1978
Yvette Taylor, Sociology, Newcastle University:
Lesbian and Gay Parents: intersecting spatialites of
class and sexuality
2:00-3:30pm
6.1 Class and Law I
Ahmed A. White, University of Colorado School
of Law: Law, Liberalism, and Class Violence: The
Legacy of the “Little Steel” Strike of 1937
Anne Marie Lofaso, West Virginia University
College of Law: The Role of Employee Voice in Protecting
Collective Job Security
Carla D. Pratt, Penn State University Dickinson
School of Law: Race, Class, and the Formation of
Law and Legal Systems
6.2 Why Is There No Socialism in
America? Reflections from Hubert
Harrison and Ted Allen
Jeff Perry, Author, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of
Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918, and literary executor
for Ted Allen
Sean Ahern, New York City Teacher and Independent
Scholar
Bill Fletcher, Jr., Executive Editor, blackcommentator.
com
6.3 Telling Labor Stories
Betty Wilson, Curriculum developer for the City
of New York, UAW Local 1981, National Writers
Union, DC37: Mr. Jefferson's Piano and Other
Central Harlem Stories
Jane LaTour, DC37 AFCSME: Sisters in the Brotherhood,
working women organizing for equality in New
York
Sue Doro, National Writers Union SF Bay Chapter;
UALE, Retired IAM, Retired AFGE: Home,
Heart & Hard Hats, Blue Collar Goodbyes
Timothy Sheard, Assistant Director, Infection
Control & Epidemiology, SUNY/Downstate
Hospital, Brooklyn, UAW Local 1981, National
Writers Union New York Chapter Steering Committee:
The Lenny Moss mysteries
6.5 Pedagogy of Class II
Anthony Tambureno, OISE University of Toronto:
Bringing labor history to youth: Reflections on the
West Virginia Labor History Project
Emily Drabinski, Instruction Librarian, Long
Island University, Brooklyn: Teaching About Class
in the Library
Michelle B. Gaffey, English, Duquesne University:
A Pedagogical Response to, “I’m never shopping at
Wal-Mart again!”
Sharon Szymanski and Dianne Ramdeholl, The
Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies:
Shock Therapy: Class Pedagogy for Electricians
6.6 Studies in Service Work
Çağdaş Ceyhan, Communication Sciences, Anadolu
University and Mustafa Berkay Aydın,
Sociology, Middle East Tecnical University:
Retail Workers' Working Conditions, Opinions of 'Organization'
and Culture : A Case Study From Ankara/
Turkey
Lou Martin, History, Chatham University: Industrial
Workers and the Shift to a Service Economy in
West Virginia, 1950-1990
Marquita Walker, Labor Studies, Indiana University
School of Social Work: Strength through
cultural heritage: Lived experiences of hotel workers
during a union organizing drive
David Van Arsdale, Sociology, SUNY Onondaga
Community College: The Proliferation and Consequences
of Temporary Help Work: A Cross-Border
Comparison
6.7 Screening and Discussion: Pakathi –
Soweto’s “in the Middle” Class
Mosa Phadi, University of Johannesburg
3:45-5:15pm
7.1 Class in Action: Worker Centers and
Organizing
Angela MacWhinnie, SEIU Organizer
Jack McKay, Director, Food and Medicine
James Haslam, Director, The Vermont Workers'
Center
7.2 Class and Law II
Ellen Dannin, Penn State University Dickinson
School of Law: Not a Limited, Confined, or Private
Matter – The Class-Based Definition of Who Is an
“Employee” under the National Labor Relations Act
James Grey Pope, Rutgers School of Law--Newark:
Race, Race Consciousness, and Constitutional
Law in the Making of the American Working Class,
1787-1964
7.3 Class Consciousness and Worker
Action
Christine F. Zinni, Filmmaker, SUNY Buffalo
and Ruth Meyerowitz, SUNY Buffalo: Round
The Clock: Buffalo Workers and the Fight For Jobs
With Justice
Claire Ceruti, Classifi ying Soweto project, University
of Johannesburg: Striking against a politically
explosive background: hidden possibilities in the
2005 - 2007 South African strikes
Esra Dabağcı, Sociology, Ankara University and
Mustafa Kemal Coş kun, Sociology, Ankara
University: Class Consciousness as Interpretation and
Changing Act of the Social Life: The Case of Mineworkers
in Turkey
René Rojas, Sociology, New York University:
Bringing the Shop Back In: Politics of Production
and Worker Militancy during the 2008-2009 Bronx
Cookie Strike
7.4 The Culture of De-industrialization
Christine J. Walley, Anthropology, MIT: Deindustrializing
Chicago: A Daughter’s Story
David Wray, Social Sciences, University of Northumbria:
Class or Collective Biography? : The
influence of cultural remnants in post-industrial, single
industry, communities
Scott C. Silber, Union organizer and community
organizer: Sticks and Stones: Storytelling in the
Traumatization of the Working Class and Recovery as
Resistance
8.1 Dinner
Speaker: Barbara Bowen, President, Professional Staff
Congress - CUNY, AFT 2334
Saturday, June 5
9:00-10:30am
9. Plenary Session: The Challenge of
Charter Schools
Leo Casey, Vice-President for High Schools,
United Federation of Teachers, NYC
Kamilah Jarvis, Chicago charter school teacher/
high school English
10:45am-12:15pm
10.1 Crashing the Boys’ Club: Women in
the Skilled Trades
Amy Bromsen, Political Science, Wayne State
University: Driven over the Brink at Chrysler: The
Struggle and Death of Linda Gilbert
Amy Peterson, Nontraditional Employment for
Women: NEW: You learn more than just the basics
Laurel Parker, IBEW Local 3, Empire State College:
Women Building Bridges in the Construction
Trades
10.2 Class in Literature I
Alisa Balestra, Miami University: The Many Articulations
of ‘Working-Class’ in Leslie Feinberg’s Stone
Butch Blues
Sherry Lee Linkon, Center for Working-Class
Studies, Youngstown State University: Deindustrialization
Lit: Stories from the Next Generation
Tim Libretti, English, Northeastern Illinois University:
The Reconfiguration of Class Consciousness
through Anti-Colonial Nationalist Politics in the Novels
of Milton Murayama: Theorizing Working-Class
Literary Studies in the Age of Cosmopolitanism
Sarah Attfield, University of Technology, Sydney,
Australia: UK Grime and the Expression of Working
Class Culture
10.3 Class Dynamics in Communities I
Alpkan Birelma, Ataturk Institute for Modern
Turkish History, Bogazici University: In search of
the “working class”: Workers’ subjectivity and agency
in a neighborhood of Istanbul
Ajay Panicker, Sociology, Saint Cloud University
and Sudarshana Bordoloi, Geography, York
University: Class formation and the Local/Global
Dialectic: Explaining Proletarianization in Kerala,
India
Joseph Varga, Labor Studies, Indiana University
of Bloomington: Geographies of Class in South Central
Indiana
Fran Shor, History, Wayne State University: U. S.
Consumers and the Problematics of Solidarity with
Global Sweatshop Workers
10.4 Class Conflict in the Ivory Tower
Michelle M. Tokarczyk, English, Goucher College:
So You Think You’ll Find Another Tenured Position?:
The Case for Fighting Where You Stand
Steve Street, Buffalo State College: Class under
Glass: The Two Faculty Tiers in Higher Education as
a Microcosm of Class Dynamics
Sharon O’Dair, English, Univeristy of Alabama:
Universal Access, Prestige-Driven Research, and the
Creation of a Class System in the Academic Profession
10.5 The Changing Labor Process and
Working Class Experience
Ümit Akçay, Economics, Ordu University: Young,
Cheap, Flexible and Un-unionized: New Participants
of Working Class, The Call Centre Workers
Charley Richardson, Labor Extension Program,
University of Massachusetts Lowell: Working
Alone: Isolation and Class Solidarity in the Modern
Workplace
Laura Clawson, Working America: The Decline
of Associationalism and Prospects for Working-Class
Mobilization
Nancy Lessin, United Steelworkers' Tony Mazzocchi
Center for Health, Safety and Environmental
Education: Hiding the Injuries of Class: Management’s
Plan for Individualizing Harm, Destroying
Solidarity and Hiding the Toll of Work-related Injuries
and Illnesses
Paul Landsbergis, Department of Environmental
and Occupational Health Sciences, State University
of New York Downstate School of Public
Health, Brooklyn, NY: Changing Nature of Work
and Worker Health: Evidence and Labor Union Interventions
10.6 Theories of Class
Hira Singh, Sociology, York University: Class and
Caste: Trajectory of an Erroneous Discourse from Max
Weber to Louis Dumont
Konstantinos Passas, National University of Athens:
Class Structure of Greek Society: A Comment on
Productive and Unproductive Labor
Ron Scott, Organizer, Founding Member of the
Detroit Branch of the Black Panther Party: Beyond
Money: Towards a New Definition of Class
Andor Skotnes, History, The Sage Colleges: Paper:
Rethinking Nicos Poulantzas and the Structural Determination
of Class
10.7 Class Tracks in Language
Jacqueline Preston, English, University of
Wisconsin-Madison: Collective Rhetorics: Tropes,
Schemes, and Ideographs in Two Rural Communities
Kim Hackett, English Composition, University of
Akron: Language Differences in a Juvenile Correctional
Classroom: A Teacher’s Experience
Janice Kelly, Communication, Molloy College
and Millie Burns, Art, Marymount Manhattan
College: Conflicting Messages: Hip Hop Reality
TV shows Moguls’ Formula For Success, Class, and
Culture
2:00-3:30pm
11.1 The Working Class in Contemporary
U.S. Politics
Carl Davidson, Author, and Co-chair, The Committees
of Correspondence for Democracy and
Socialism
Randy Shannon, Treasurer of Pennsylvania 4th
Congressional District Chapter of Progressive
Democrats of America, The Committees of Correspondence
for Democracy and Socialism
Renee Y. Carter, Co-Chair, The Committees of
Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
11.3 The Arts in Working Class Activity
Erika Schneider and Jon Huibregtse, Framingham
State College: Art in Federal Buildings: Class
struggles for an acceptable past
Carol Quirke, American Studies, SUNY Old
Westbury: “A United Nations in One Union Shop:”
Local 65 Distributive Workers Union and Representing
Diversity
Ruth Meyerowitz, SUNY Buffalo: Channels: Stories
From the Niagara Frontier: Three Years of Short
Films about Effective Community Based Strategies to
Deal with Issues of Class, Poverty and Public Policy
11.4 Country Studies IV
Erik Bengtsson, Economic History, University
of Gothenburg: Workers’ Party, Workers’ Politics?
Blue-collar workers in the Swedish Social Democratic
Party today
Hugo Ceron-Anaya, Sociology and Anthropology,
Washington College: Golf, Class, and Business in
Mexico: A Case Study
Claire Ceruti, Classifi ying Soweto project, University
of Johannesburg: Are Soweto’s Unemployed a
Labour Reserve?
3:45-5:15pm
12.2 Country Studies V
Cemil Boyraz, International Relations, Istanbul
Bilgi University: Working-Class Reactions against
Neo-Liberalism: An Analysis of Privatization Process
in Turkey after the 1980s
Funmi Adewumi, Industrial Relations and
Economics & Management Sciences, Osun State
University: Trade Unions in the Global Economy: The
Challenge of Social Movement Unionism
Tim Fowler, Political Science, Carleton University:
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up
nowhere: Canadian labour and strategic voting.
12.3 The Language of Class in Politics
Betsy Leondar-Wright, Sociology, Boston Col
lege: TALKING OFTEN VS. TALKING LONG
Towards a Sociolinguistics of the Class Cultures of
Activist Groups
Robert M. Zecker, History, Saint Francis Xavier
University: “Do You Take us for Kaffi rs or Zulus?”
Race, Labor and Housing Competition as Seen in the
Slovak Immigrant Press
Steve McClure, Geography and Geo-information
Science, George Mason University: Actionable
intelligence: zoning, land use and election outcomes in
Prince William County Virginia