INQUIRER REPORTER AND LIMBO AUTHOR
TO DISCUSS CLASS MOBILITY

The increase in prosperity and financial security that accompanies the transition from the working class to the middle class is generally considered an integral part of the American Dream. But for those who make the transition, says author Alfred Lubrano, it can be fraught with ambivalence and anxiety. "Straddlers" may become alienated from the values of their working-class origins while still struggling with conformity to middle-class norms, never feeling entirely at home in either world. On Thursday, Sept. 22, at 8 p.m. in Carpenter 21, Lubrano will discuss these issues in a talk titled "Living in Limbo."

Lubrano, an award-winning Philadelphia Inquirer reporter and commentator for National Public Radio, is the author of Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams. The son of a Brooklyn bricklayer, he is himself a "straddler," and Limbo interweaves his own memoir with his interviews of other "straddlers" who have negotiated the often-overlooked cultural obstacle course of social mobility. His interviewees describe the often-painful conflicts that arise with family and friends when they cross important dividing lines of socioeconomic class, including entrance into college.

Lubrano's lecture is presented by the Office of Intercultural Affairs. The following day, the topic will be taken up in one of the biweekly "Diversity Conversations" sponsored by the Dean's Office, Office of Intercultural Affairs, Center for Science in Society, Center for Ethnicities, Communities and Social Policy, and the Program in Gender and Sexuality. Titled "College as Choice: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams," the open discussion will take place at the Multicultural Center from noon to 1 p.m. Lunch will be served.

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