Library Subject Guides
Top left: Adapted from ‘Grunwick Strike ’77’, by 'B' on Flickr, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. This image has been modified from the original (e.g., cropped and converted to black and white).
Top right, bottom left: © Hull Daily Mail, all rights reserved. Images with kind permission of the Hull Daily Mail and from research archive of Dr Brian W. Lavery.
Bottom right: Copyright: © The Rowntree Society, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
The curation on this page illuminates the narratives, complexities, communities, and resistance of working-class women, foregrounding the role of intersectionality within class, as explored through literature, art, and media.
Hello, I am Lola! I am a third-year English Literature student born in Sheffield and raised in San Francisco. I am deeply passionate about how narratives are cultivated: how and what information is curated, canonised, or omitted entirely. I am invigorated by the opportunity to foster a wider class consciousness at the university through the lives and narratives of working-class women from the 20th century to the present, placing an imperative emphasis on intersectionality.
All The Houses I've Ever Lived In
by
In an era of fraught economic conditions and ever-expanding inequality, the voices of working-class women provide tremendous insight and lived truths. Amid cost-of-living crises, reductions of public services, housing instability, and amplified class divides, such narratives expose the impact of systemic intricacies along the intersecting lines of class, gender identity, race, and ability. In centring working-class women’s narratives, this project will attempt to reaffirm their cultural and political significance and contribute to an increasing representation and diversification of the library’s presented material.
The reading list below is accessible to everyone; however, please be aware that links to electronic resources are restricted to University of York students and staff. You can also view the list on a separate webpage.
You will find promotional material for this curation on the University of York Library & Archives Instagram page under the highlight named 'Student Curator'.
Visit the See Yourself on the Shelf page to find out more about our student library curator work.
If you have any questions regarding 'Honouring the Lives of Working-Class Women in England, 20th Century to Present', please contact the library at lib-enquiry@york.ac.uk
'See Yourself on the Shelf' used with permission from the University of Kent.
Walnut Whip production, c.1920. © The Rowntree Society. Source: www.rowntreesociety.org.uk. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
I aspire to curate a project that foregrounds a class-conscious, intersectional perspective within feminism that highlights narratives and existences often overlooked in media and literary discourse. I aim to assemble a thoughtful body of work that reflects the lived experiences of working-class intersectional marginalisation. I understand there are limitations, but such ignites an extended invitation to my peers, with hopes of an ongoing student engagement. I aim to create a curation that may begin with me here at the university library, but lives on through reinterpretation and further development to establish a dynamic, democratic collection for students in the future. Curation, to me, is a political and creative act, one that has the power to disrupt dominant narratives and empower those who resonate, and those who are allied in the cause. I want my internship project to exemplify this ethos while honouring the trust placed in me as its curator. I hope that the curated material presented will at the very least scratch the surface of such robust narratives, with the aim of introducing you to ideas, people, and experiences you may have not encountered yet. In granting this visibility, I encourage my peers to continue this exploration, championing engagement with working-class narratives of all kinds.
