Working in Class

Allison L. Hurst is an assistant professor of sociology at Oregon State University, where she teaches courses on the sociology of education and theory. She is also one of the founders and the current acting president of the Association of Working-Class Academics, an organization composed of college faculty and staff who were the first in their families to graduate from college. She has written two books on the experiences and identity reformations of working-class college students,The Burden of Academic Success: Loyalists, Renegades, and Double Agents(2010) andCollege and the Working Class(2012). Her current research focuses on the outcomes of college graduates, specifically the role of class and the impact of student debt.

Sandi Kawecka Nenga is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Her research interests include the sociology of youth, middle school peer cultures, youth engagement, social class as a lived experience, and the educational experiences of first-generation college students. Her research has been published in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Qualitative Sociology Review, Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Journal of Youth Studies, and Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research. Her current research interests are the experiences of first-generation Latino high school students in a college readiness program.