Infinitely more palpitating and varied: Celebrating working class scholarship

Abstract

This document presents the closing remarks delivered at the International Conference of Working-Class Academics. Hall reflects on his family history and the privileges associated with colonialism, illustrating how academic achievement is often shaped by unseen advantages. Based on Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure and David Harvey's work on land enclosure, he traces the exclusion of working-class voices from universities to historical processes that walled off knowledge from the communities that produced it. Valuable knowledge, it is argued, often emerges from communities, offering insights frequently overlooked in academic settings. Hall draws on three conference ideas- creative placemaking, zine making, and curriculum and class, to imagine a more inclusive university, better connected to the communities it serves. He closes with poems by Rabindranath Tagore and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, calling on working-class academics to write, create, and stand up as insurgent artists rather than remain sedentary within the academy.