Transcript

This story was created using a mix of verbatim extracts from the transcripts and text created by members of the group.

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So, for my Doctorate I read this fantastic life-changing book by an academic who became my absolute hero. This person’s work had and continues to have a really profound effect on my thinking about the intersectional qualities of class from a culture studies perspective.

 

Anyway, I couldn’t believe my luck when I got the chance to do a short professional development course this person was tutoring on.

 

So, for me it was like this superstarry, haywire moment when you're standing at the shoulders of giants rather than standing on their feet.

 

But actually, it was a profoundly disappointing experience, because I remember sitting before a session reading a magazine – just some magazine I’d picked up on to pass the time on the train; I think it was Q magazine or something about music.

 

Anyway, suddenly this academic, who I admired so much, walked past me, gave me a cursory look and said, “OMG how can you possibly read that; it’s chewing gum for the mind?”

 

I was absolutely gutted. I literally shrunk. You know, it was such a shocking moment for me because I so much identified with their work and not just as an individual, but also in terms of my understanding and my engagement with the world.

 

Anyway, I’ve recovered myself since then, because now I just think, to Hell with you superstar academic, who I've since met at a couple of conferences.

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And, I even presented a paper at one that my university was hosting. And, it was alright, you know, because it's about going back to that moment of belonging; about owning the self.

 

So, I actually talked about music magazines in my presentation and I referenced Raymond Williams assertion that Culture is Ordinary and explained how one of the areas of cultural exchange within working class cultures is print magazines.

 

And so, I kind of was able to theorise that as a counter argument. But you know it was a moment of profound symbolic violence for me, which was very, very painful at the time, and I'm sure all of us have experienced that, you know, going to a tutorial where – and because I’m self-taught - you say Barthes (Ba(r) – thes) and then somebody says Bart and you're like ooohh.

 

And those moments; they’re very painful, but they are actually very formative; and they're really useful. And they’re really helpful, and they help us to develop and to grow and to think and to learn and to better engage.

 

And I think they also help us to understand how not to do that in our own working lives; or in our interactions with our students and I guess with our colleagues.