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The 2007 Conference of the Working Class Studies Association at Macalester College
The 2007 Conference of the Working Class Studies Association Other Colleges and Universities involved:
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 The
2007 Conference of the Working Class Studies Association President’s Letter: Looking Ahead to the 2007 Conference Dear Sisters and Brothers: I am hoping to see many of you at the June 14-17 Conference – “Class Matters: Working Class Culture and Counter-Culture.” Our local program committee has been reading, sifting, and organizing sessions out of the many wonderful proposals that you and others have sent in. More than 150 individuals have proposed papers, presentations, performances, roundtables, films, workshops, readings, tours, and more! Sessions will engage labor history, classroom pedagogy, working class experiences on campus and in the world, labor and grassroots activism, representations of workers and self-representations by workers, and culture from bowling and baseball to poetry and music. Presenters will come from across the U.S., plus Canada, Great Britain, France, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, and Australia. Wow! The quality and breadth is stunning. Anyone who doubts that Working Class Studies is emerging as a field of scholarship and activism need only look over our completed program (er, when it is completed, that is). I feel very, very privileged to be president of this wonderful organization and to be in the catbird’s seat as this year’s conference comes together. The local program committee, which Barb Jensen is co-chairing with me, is especially committed to building a local audience, from undergraduate and graduate students to trade unionists, cultural workers, and immigrant organizers. We are building through a series of other events, such as this May’s conference on Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed, which will be hosted by the University of Minnesota, immigrant rights rallies, marches, and protests, and the convention of the Organization of American Historians, which is also happening in Minneapolis at the end of March. We are not only casting our net to draw in social scientists, literary scholars, theorists and practitioners of pedagogy, memoirists and poets, filmmakers and musicians, but we are also constructing sessions which will bring them into engagement with each other, hopefully provoking particularly dynamic conversations. At the risk of offending some of the presenters by not mentioning them, let me just share some information which gives an indication, from my seat, of the breadth of the conference. We will hold a memorial plenary session honoring and appreciating Tillie Olsen’s lifetime of work. Janet Zandy is organizing this session and Tillie’s daughter, Julie Olsen Edwards, is planning to be with us. Archie Green, the recognized founder of the field of labor folklore, will be part of a panel which will discuss the new book, THE BIG RED SONG BOOK, which situates, contextualizes, and analyzes the IWW’s use of music in its labor activism. Dedicated, dedicated teachers from classrooms ranging from public schools and community colleges to liberal arts colleges and universities will share their classroom strategies and experiences. We will screen a number of new and even unfinished films, engaging their producers and directors in discussions. There will be an unprecedented array of workshops, offering us opportunities to sharpen our skills in organizing, teaching, creating. There will be rich sessions on labor history and literary and musical analysis. And there will poetry, music, and theater, performed for us and by us, throughout the conference. I am still working on all the logistic details. We have comfortable dormitory rooms reserved at very reasonable prices, ranging from $25 to $40 a night. There will be inexpensive on-campus meals available, too. We are working on plans for a banquet on the Friday night. The college has wonderful facilities, all within easy walking distance from each other. This website includes a registration form, the call for papers, logistic details, and, eventually, the details of the program. If you have questions please email me at rachleff@macalester.edu or call me at 651-696-6371. Please, even if you have not submitted a proposal, plan to join us June 14-17. This will not only be intellectually stimulating and politically inspiring, but it will also be community-building for the Working Class Studies Association. It’s a great chance to renew old friendships and to make new ones. Please come! Love and Solidarity, To register for the conference, print out the registration
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