Summary of the Third Annual Class and Culture Conference

This short report reflects on the Third Annual Class and Culture Conference, drawing together themes from four panels on politics, identity, culture and education. Written from the standpoint of a working-class academic, it foregrounds the interplay between lived experience and scholarly inquiry. This analysis highlights how nostalgia can obscure contemporary inequalities, whilst epistemic injustice continues to marginalise working-class knowledge. It explores the tensions of belonging and estrangement experienced by working-class scholars and artists, emphasising the emotional and relational costs of social mobility. The paper concludes by reframing education as a site of liberation rather than deficit, advocating for approaches that centre working-class strengths. Overall, the conference is presented here as a key space of solidarity and critical dialogue, with implications for future research, practice and transformative change in higher education.