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Social science research has long recognized the relevance of socioeconomic background for mobility and inequality. In this article we interrogate how and why working-class and first-generation backgrounds are especially meaningful and take as our case in point the professoriate and the discipline of sociology, – i.e., a field that intellectually prioritizes attention to group inequality and that arguably offers a conservative empirical test compared to other academic fields. Our analyses, which draw on unique survey items and open-ended qualitative materials from nearly 1,000 academic sociologists, reveal significant background divergences in academic job attainment, tied partly to educational background. Moreover, and especially unique and important, findings demonstrate significant consequences across several dimensions of inequality including compensation and economic precarity, professional visibility, and isolation at departmental, college or university, and professional levels. We conclude by highlighting how our discussion and results contribute in important ways to broader sociological concerns surrounding mobility, group disadvantage, and social closure.

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This paper describes a story-sharing program, called Our Stories, in which faculty and staff at a regional comprehensive university share their personal experiences about attending college as first-generation, working class, or financially insecure (FGWCFI) students with an audience of undergraduate students of various backgrounds. Using preliminary qualitative and quantitative data, we find evidence that these programs validate the experience of these student attendees and build their social, cultural, and psychological capital. This paper reviews literature on outreach to first-generation students, provides an overview of the story-sharing program, discusses how these events support student success, and suggests that such outreach efforts may replicate well at other state comprehensive universities.