MassBay Community College Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brandi Perri, has been awarded a prestigious Working-Class Studies Association 2024 Award which recognizes the best work in the field of Working-Class Studies. Professor Perri’s dissertation, “The Unseen Worker? Rethinking Who and What is Invisible in the Blue-Collar Workplace,” was honored with the Constance Coiner Award for Best Dissertation. The Working-Class Studies Association supports scholarship, teaching, and activism related to working-class life and cultures.
According to their website, The Working-Class Studies Association reviews “new books, dissertations, articles, and essays that illustrate the ongoing growth and relevance of Working-Class Studies across disciplines and toward diverse audiences.” The 2024 Awards recognize significant contributions to Working-Class Studies made in the previous two years, 2022 and 2023.
“Receiving the Constance Coiner Award for Best Dissertation from the Working-Class Studies Association is such an honor,” said Perri. “My dissertation is the culmination of over five years of ethnographic work, where I worked alongside janitors—observing, taking notes, participating in their daily routines, and conducting interviews with 50 participants. I examined whether they truly feel invisible on the job, as much of the service work literature suggests, how they perceive the managerial changes at their sites, and what matters most to them. I am currently working on turning this dissertation into an accessible book that will amplify workers’ voices, examine how power operates in the workplace, and highlight the importance of and potential in unions. This research was more than just an academic project for me. As a third-generation janitor, being able to uplift the voices of janitors was a significant achievement, and to be recognized for effectively researching working-class people is incredibly powerful not only for myself, but also for sociological and working-class scholarship.”
One of the award judges commented on Professor Perri’s work, “This dissertation illustrates the effectiveness of working-class background researchers working on projects about working-class people as Perri has the trust of the workers and understands their situations. This is a very engaging dissertation.”
Professor Perri has worked in MassBay’s Humanities and Social Sciences division since 2022. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Women’s Studies from SUNY Purchase College, a Master of Arts in Humanities and Social Thought: Gender Politics from New York University, a Master of Arts in Sociology and her PhD in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
MetroWest Medical Center