The Working-Class Studies Association – an international, multidisciplinary network that supports scholarship, teaching, art, and activism related to working-class life and cultures – hosts conferences, cultural sharing and webinars.
Join us for lively, interactive, free online sessions with cutting-edge thinkers about class and social justice, organized by long-time WCSA leader Jack Metzgar and me, Betsy Leondar-Wright.
UPCOMING TALKING CLASS WEBINARS
Affordability & the Housing Crisis
- Mar 19, 2026
NYC Mayor Mamdani’s promises to create 200,000 new affordable apartments has been met with skepticism. But Josh Freeman draws hope from history, telling stories of effective government programs for affordable housing. His new book Garden Apartments profiles a government-assisted solution to the severe mid-twentieth-century housing shortage, and applies the learnings to today, when the high cost of living has become one of the hottest issues in US politics.
As always, Jack Metzgar and I will invite your stories and opinions in the discussion.
Unity & Disunity in Progressive Protest Movements
- Jan 15, 2025
In her new book, Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall writes about past examples when white working-class men, people of color and women have protested together to win victories — but also about times when disunity, racism and/or sexism have weakened social movements. She will draw out implications from that history to the path forward for progressive movements in the coming years.
Let’s tie stories of race, class & gender solidarity and division throughout US history to today’s urgent need for a unified mass movement.
Here’s the link to the recording of the event:
Schools are stacked against working-class kids, with Jane Van Galen
- November 20, 2025
In the next Talking Class webinar, Jane Van Galen, a retired education professor who writes the marvelous blog, Education and Class, will document hidden advantages of class-privileged students (like sorority rush consultants!), the systemic disadvantages of the nonprivileged (worsened by recent federal cutbacks in educational assistance), and the “black box” that keeps these inequities invisible.
In this free interactive webinar, facilitators Jack Metzgar and Betsy Leondar-Wright will invite your stories and insights into how the very educational system that promises equal opportunity actually tilts the playing field.
here’s the link to her slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ga3Fo8Vuq0Rx4b2uAz120b93h6XHYP70To4SkF5_R6c/edit?usp=drive_link
Here’s the link to the recording of the event:
How Can the Left Win Back the Working Class? with Joan Williams
- September 18, 2025
In this latest webinar in the Talking Class series, sponsored by the Working-Class Studies Association, Jack Metzgar and Betsy Leondar-Wright will ask the author of “Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back” about the broken relationship between working-class people and college-educated progressives.
As always, this will be an interactive session. Your thoughts will be welcome.
Here’s the link to the recording of the event:
Who is "working class" then and now?
- July 24, 2025
In this interactive webinar, facilitators Jack Metzgar and Betsy Leondar-Wright will invite your perspectives on how working-class identity has changed in your country.
Jeff Cabusao, the president of the WCSA, will compare working-class identities in Asia and the US;
Sarah Attfield will bring perspectives on class from Australia and the UK; and
Michael Zweig, author of “The Working-Class Majority” will talk about how the US working-class has changed over several generations.
Here’s the link to the recording of the event:
How Can Democrats Win Back Working-Class Voters?
with Dino Guastella
- May 8, 2025.
Labor leader Dino Guastella has insights into why the Democratic Party has lost so much working-class support, and what would turn the tide. Dustin “Dino” Guastella has answers to those questions that you may or may not agree with. Join the discussion with hosts Betsy Leondar-Wright and Jack Metzgar at our next Talking Class webinar.
Guastella is director of operations at Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia and a research associate at the Center for Working-Class Politics. You can read his posts on Jacobin and his Substack.
Here’s the link to the recording of the event:
Sociologists Have Class Too: How Class Background Shapes Academic Careers With Allison Hurst
- March 13, 2025.
In this webinar, the latest in the “Talking Class” series of the Working-Class Studies Association, hosts Jack Metzgar and Betsy Leondar-Wright will ask Allison Hurst about her interview-based study of sociologists who grew up poor, working-class, and/or were first in their families to earn a college degree.
Here’s the link to the recording of the event:
Exposing Myths About Race & Class to Reconstruct Democracy - with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
- January 23, 2025.
Talk about solidarity with white people in poverty with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, co-author with Rev. William J. Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign of the new book White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.
Here’s the link to the recording of the event:
- Wednesday, September 25th, 2024, 7 pm ET
How can a working-class background make you more successful as a professional?
Here’s the recording of the webinar:
What Professionals Get Wrong About White Working-Class Voters and Their Lives - with Farah Stockman, Jack Metzgar and Betsy Leondar-Wright
- October 30, 2022, 8 - 9:30 pm ET
Sponsored by the Working-Class Studies Association webinar
Frequently Asked Questions
Contact organizers Betsy Leondar-Wright, betsy@classmatters.org, and Jack Metzgar, jackmetz1@comcast.net.
Yes, we plan to continue this bimonthly schedule, so watch this space for upcoming webinars.