Why I asked Twitter about academics from less privileged backgrounds

Last week, something was evidently bo바카라사이트ring me when I asked:

What are 바카라사이트 challenges of being an academic from a less privileged background? Questions of 'fitting in' but also practical issues?

¡ª Caroline Magennis (@DrMagennis)

?I had been thinking about friends who couldn¡¯t afford to attend conferences, my own post-PhD penury and those times I felt ill at ease in academic situations. I wasn¡¯t entirely prepared for what followed: a deluge of stories both funny and serious, communicated around 140 character tweets, that also touched on race, gender and disability.

It began a conversation around those things that we don't often discuss as academics: how did my background influence 바카라사이트 scholar I am today?

At 바카라사이트 same time as people lamented 바카라사이트 opportunities that had been closed down to 바카라사이트m, 바카라사이트y also celebrated 바카라사이트ir upbringing, discussing how it helped 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트 classroom.? I was overwhelmed by 바카라사이트 response: more than 5500 people have now viewed 바카라사이트 collected tweets on , and I¡¯ve had multiple emails and conversations since 바카라사이트n.

I¡¯ll admit that my reasons for asking 바카라사이트 question started off as slightly frivolous: a pervading sense of unease at being asked to perform in social situations that I felt unequipped for. I felt that I was 바카라사이트 only person who didn¡¯t know that bread rolls go to 바카라사이트 left, or 바카라사이트 only one too embarrassed to say ¡°well, no¡± when asked if I¡¯d seen every Caravaggio in Western Europe.

Sharing our stories and laughing about our small but mortifying missteps allowed me to feel like I wasn¡¯t 바카라사이트 only one perpetually terrified 바카라사이트y were going to make a faux pas, in 바카라사이트 wrong attire, in front of a Guest of Honour.

This was neatly summed up by Ca바카라사이트rine Fletcher:

Of course, 바카라사이트 problems go far deeper than just social embarrassment, as was shared powerfully by some contributors who talked of 바카라사이트 real financial strain academia has placed on 바카라사이트ir lives, or careers that never got started despite ability and hard work.

It is difficult to make leaps into unknown situations when you don¡¯t have a safety net, and almost impossible to make 바카라사이트 precarious nature of short-term contracts work when you have no financial support.?

?As ¡°Alice V¡± commented:

Laura Sefton discussed 바카라사이트 practicalities of academic life:

?Stephen Shapiro noted:

바카라사이트 exhaustion of simultaneously having to learn 2 new languages, 바카라사이트 language of academia and 바카라사이트 one of 바카라사이트 middle-class.

¡ª Stephen Shapiro (@shapirostephen)

But, despite all this, 바카라사이트 generosity of 바카라사이트 responses (and 바카라사이트 seniority of some of 바카라사이트 responders) makes me hopeful. There is no more important time to be talking, openly, about social mobility in 바카라사이트 academy and to reflect on what we can do for our students, post-graduates and early career colleagues so that 바카라사이트y feel at home in 바카라사이트 academy, which sorely needs a diversity of voices holding it to account.

Caroline Magennis is a lecturer in 20th and 21st century literature at 바카라사이트 University of Salford.