On the Boarders of the Academy: Challenges and Strategies for First Generation and Working Class Graduate Students and Faculty

Edited by Dr. Alecea Standlee
Forthcoming from Syracuse University Graduate School Press

First-generation college students face an array of challenges, from failure to integrate into college culture to lack of family, economic and peer support. Thanks to a vast body of research these problems are widely understood, and many federal, state, and institutional interventions are in place to support first-generation students as they traverse the undergraduate curriculum. Less well appreciated are the comparable, though not identical, problems besetting those first-generation students who go on to graduate school and, in small numbers, enter the professoriate. These populations have been largely left out of the conversation around first-generation college students, except with regard to their status as mentors for undergraduates.

This volume seeks to redress that imbalance by providing a forum for work that engages with the unique challenges faced by first-generation graduate students and faculty within and across lines of race, class, gender and disciplinary specialty. In particular, the editor seeks submissions in the following areas of interest:

Cultural difference
Academic preparedness
Integration
Professionalization
Economic issues
Work-life balance
Social and cultural capital
Family responsibilities and relationships
Peer relations
Mentorship strategies and relationships
Academic and social skills


Abstracts of proposed contributions (500 words or less) should be submitted by September 15, 2013. Finished papers (4,000–7,000 words, Chicago style) will be due February 15, 2014. Correspondence regarding the suitability of proposed contributions is welcome. Please direct submissions and inquiries to Dr. Alecea Standlee at 117 Marsh Hall, Department of Sociology, Concord University, Athens WV, 24712; 304-384-6054 astandlee@concord.edu