Working class academics, when did you first discover ‘academic’ was an actual job that you could potentially do? For me it was during 3rd year undergrad. Based on a lightbulb moment conversation with the person who encouraged me to apply for funding & do postgraduate studies.
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As a scientist, I think I only know socially one working class UK academic (met him during my PhD). And it's nice he has a permanent job, I am so proud of him. Class mobility in the UK is abysmal because of many things, including how we define it.
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The biggest thing I've noticed is the expectation that most people can just spend another 6 months or a year finishing off their PhD whilst not being paid and be fine financially
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My blood boils.
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I think class is a hard one to talk about; my Dad was a joiner - but am I still working class now? How relevant is it anyway relative to salary which I think has more of an impact on opportunities than a stricter definition of class these days.
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Of course. I think it's harder to talk about because of stigma. My dad was a working class boy who even though passed the 11 plus didn't get to go to grammar school because his parents didn't value education and moved from Sheffield to Bradford and didn't correctly enroll him.
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He married a Cypriot whose parents were second generation American Cypriots from New York who moved back to Cyprus and my parents also moved to Cyprus. Thus my dad can be seen to have escaped the class hierarchy in the UK.
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I'm his daughter who has been living in the UK for 13 years and I'm sick of it all. I am hoping to move back to Cyprus soon, hopefully before 2021. All the time I've been here in the UK upper middle class men from pub schools have told me "you're Cypriot, that means no class".
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Not sure why so many public school wankers in my environment but I try to avoid them now. Although I have to say the ones in academia tend to be better behaved.

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One reason I never returned from Canada, after coming here for grad school. Nobody even knew what a Lancashire accent was. "Are you from New Zealand? You don't sound English" is better than "you don't belong here"
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