Month: July 2019

WCSA 2019 Conference Update

The final program for the WCSA 2019 conference, “Beyond the Heartlands,” at the University of Kent is now available.  The conference website contains information on registration, conference fringe, and membership.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter: @wcstudies and @DIndustrialKent

 

WCSA at LAWCHA & MLA

IMG_1389
Kathy Newman, Carnegie Mellon University, presenting “Waterfronts and Garment Jungles: Reconsidering Unions and Gangsters in Postwar Film” at LAWCHA’s 2019 Annual Conference, “Workers on the Move: Workers’ Movements.”
IMG_9914
Karen Gaffney, author of Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual and Toolbox, serving as the keynote speaker for UNC-Pembroke’s annual Social Justice Symposium, Oct. 2018.
IMG_9911
Students discussing Karen Gaffney’s Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual and Toolbox at UNC-Pembroke’s annual Social Justice Symposium, Oct. 2018.
IMG_0579
Ben Clarke, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, presenting, “The Writing Classes: Rethinking Working-Class Literature” at the annual Modern Language Association conference, Jan. 2019.
IMG_0581
Lindsay Bartkowski, Ph.D. candidate at Temple University, presenting “Elisions in Working-Class Studies: Domesticity and the Feminization of Labor” at the annual Modern Language Association conference, Jan. 2019.
IMG_0532
Michele Fazio, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, discussing her family archival project at LAWCHA’s 2019 Annual Conference, “Workers on the Move: Workers’ Movements.”
IMG_1393
Eric Kaufman, Ohio State University, presented “Class Condescension or Affectionate Solidarity? Representation of Labor in 1950s American Musical Theater” along with Kathy Newman, Carnegie Mellon University, “Waterfronts and Garment Jungles: Reconsidering Unions and Gangsters in Postwar Film,” on the panel “The Dramatic Media’s Representations of Workers, Unions and Labor Conflict in 1950s America” at LAWCHA’s 2019 Annual Conference, “Workers on the Move: Workers’ Movements.”
IMG_1384
Paul Mischler, Indiana University, talking about “Narratives of Parental Influence in Activist Life Stories: Breaking With/or Carrying on Family Traditions” at LAWCHA’s 2019 Annual Conference, “Workers on the Move: Workers’ Movements.”
IMG_0519
Carol Quirke, SUNY Old Westbury, presenting “The Memorial Day Massacre: Stories They Never Told Me, Pictures I Couldn’t Help But See” at LAWCHA’s 2019 Annual Conference, “Workers on the Move: Workers’ Movements.” Marcella Bencivenni, Hostos College and City University of New York, served as chair and panel respondent.
IMG_0533
“Families and Radicalism: Oral Histories, Archives, Forgotten Stories and Narratives of Resistance” panel at LAWCHA’s 2019 Annual Conference, “Workers on the Move: Workers’ Movements,” featuring Michele Fazio, Carol Quirke, Marcella Bencivenni, and Paul Mishler.

WCSA in Action

American Studies Association ~ Nov. 2018

IMG_0046
A panel at the American Studies Association, Class Contingencies: Visibility and Absence in Contemporary Working-Class Representations, featuring Sherry Linkon, Robin Brooks, Joseph Entin, and Derrick A. Jones.
IMG_0054
Terry Easton, Associate Professor of English, Univ. of North Georgia, talking about his community project, “Border Crossing with Oral History and Photography.”
IMG_0048
Michele Fazio, Scott Henkel, Christie Launius, Vanessa Fonseca-Chavez, and Terry Easton at the American Studies Association, Nov. 2019, talking about the emerging field of working-class studies.
IMG_0031
Sherry Linkon presenting, “Deindustrial Intersections: Narrating Race, Gender, and Precarity in Contemporary Working Class Novels.”
IMG_0057
Dr. Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, Assistant Professor of English, Arizona State University, discussing her interdisciplinary ethnographic project, “Following the Manito Trail,” that documents Hispanic New Mexican, or Manito, migration from New Mexico to different parts of the United States during the last century.

A Year in Review

Members of the WCSA have been actively participating in conferences throughout the past academic year, including the American Studies Association, the Modern Language Association, the Southeastern American Studies Association, and the Labor and Working-Class History Association.  This week will feature a number of images of folks in action.

Southeastern American Studies Association ~ March 2019

IMG_0893
Students presenting works in progress at the Southeastern American Studies Association March 2019 conference: (front row) Castiel Dixon, University of North Georgia, “Falling Down, Falling Apart, and Finding Home in Reservation Blues;” Robyn McNeil, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, “Blues, Body, and South: The Representation of African-American Women Blues Entertainers in Poetry;” (back row) Asia Muhammad, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, “The Walking Dead: Michonne, Tropes, and Exploitation;” Crystal Hester, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, “The Modern Epic: Comics and Working-Class Literature;” and William Adam Hollis IV, University of North Georgia, “‘The expression of a thousand present miseries’: Stephen Crane and Class.”
IMG_0952
The panel, “Talking Back through Working-Class Literature,” at the Southeastern American Studies Association March 2019 conference: Asia Muhammad, Crystal Hester, Castiel Dixon, Robyn McNeil, William Adam Hollis IV, and Michele Fazio.
IMG_0917
Michele Fazio, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Terry Easton, University of North Georgia, presenting with their students at the Southeastern American Studies Association March 2019 conference.

 

 

 

Documentary on T-Bone Slim

Owen Clayton was recently awarded a Newberry Library Short-Term Fellowship to research the hobo poet, songwriter, and newspaper columnist T-Bone Slim (real name Matti Valentinepoika Huhta). Slim was a prominent member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or Wobblies, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, and is probably their second-most famous songwriter behind Joe Hill. His song ‘The Popular Wobbly’ has been covered by many musicians, including Pete Seeger. For more on Slim’s writings, check out Owen’s article in the new issue of the Journal of Working-Class Studies.

Owen has also been involved in filming a documentary (which will hopefully be out in 2020) about Slim with John Westmoreland, a professional musician who also happens to be Slim’s great nephew, along with documentarian Bruce dePyssler, and Slim’s great granddaughter Vanessa Lynn.

Below is a slideshow of John Westmoreland presenting at LAWCHA’s 2019 annual conference and on the set.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

CFP: Routledge Literature & Social Class

Gloria McMillan, Ph.D. Univ. of Arizona, is editing a Literature and Social Class companion text for Routledge and seeks contributors who explore literature with a class emphasis and its intersections with other demographic markers such as race, gender, and culture.  This collection of essays has three themes:

  • History of the Intersections of Class
  • Theory of Class (Invisibility) in Literature
  • New Trends in exploring through a Class Lens

For more information, please contact Gloria at  glomc@dakotacom.net.