Interlopers in Class: A Duoethnography of Working-Class Women Academics

This paper introduces the concept of the interloper for examining classed and gendered dislocation. Focusing on academia, which we view as a classed and gendered field, we draw on Bourdieu and feminist standpoint theory to account for how we, as women of working-class origin, have experienced ‘breaches’ through which we have come to understand ourselves in classed and gendered terms. Coming from different cultural backgrounds, we also reflect on how understandings of class are context-specific. We employ a duoethnographic method which emphasizes the value of subjective experiences for organizational and social analyses. The paper shows how the concept of the interloper may shed light on the dynamic, relational character of constructions of class and gender; the maintenance work that is performed; and how a sense of permanent inbetweenness characterizes our ongoing movement between the fields of the family and academia