Access to Inequality Reconsidering Class, Knowledge, and Capital in Higher Education

Access to Inequality is a passionate and lyrical account of the workings of class and privilege in higher education. Beautifully written, it constitutes both a carefully considered, reflexive ethnography of access to elite knowledge and a powerful call for real democratization of our universities. -- Diane Reay, University of Cambridge Amy Stich's Access to Inequality: Reconsidering Class, Knowledge, and Capital in Higher Education is the most original and important book on knowledge and power I have read in recent years. Here, Stich demonstrates the ways colleges-in particular, less elite comprehensive schools-are using art programs and museums to 'open up' privileged knowledge to broader communities. Stich puts us at the center of the resulting tensions and complexities, illuminating a discussion of cultural capital with stunning and nuanced ethnographic detail. This is a masterful intervention. -- Greg Dimitriadis, University at Buffalo, State University of New York