Making of a Teenage Service Class: Poverty and Mobility in an American City
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One fine day, a long, long time ago, while I was knee-deep in fieldwork, Andrew Deener casually started referring to it as “the book.” All the painful anxiety this book has caused is thanks to him. I am only partially serious. There were many moments of pleasure and gratification that came along with the anxiety. Actually, now that I can allow myself some nostalgia as I write this last bit of the book, I recall fondly the intense joys of solidarity, allegiance to a cause, and unconditional familial love I experienced in Port City. In fact, I relished my fieldwork, and I owe to my Port City friends and family my passion, my words, and my identity as a sociologist. It was with my Port City friends and family that I nurtured intersectional brown solidarity.
I would also like to thank Andrew Deener—his love for the discipline, wide breadth of knowledge, and talent as an ethnographer deeply shaped my work. Andrew always pushed me to reach for things that I thought I could not, and I owe him for that confidence in me. I also owe him for always thinking through my ideas with care, rigor, and a critical eye while also assuring me of its significance. My other mentors, Bandana Purkayastha and Claudio Benzecry, were in my corner from day one—pushing me to write, think in new ways, and meet the benchmarks. They nourished my love for sociology and paved the way for this book in crucial ways. Bandana worked hard to ensure my progress in the program when an ongoing research project fell through due to technical issues and I had to start from scratch, and she painstakingly taught me the ways of U. S. academia, including navigating its exclusionary mechanisms while still finding joy and meaning in my own work. Claudio was always available to think through my ideas and provide new directions. He also often ensured that I was included in academic spaces I would otherwise avoid. A special shout-out also to my mentor Gaye Tuchman, the coolest professor I knew in graduate school who told me the feelings were mutual. (I am only kidding. I might have just dreamt this.) Gaye read my work and was always available to share her intellect and humor.
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