Parr Center Presents: Jennifer Morton (CUNY)

Jennifer Morton, The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility

In this talk, I argue that there are ethical costs upwardly mobile students must bear if they are to dramatically transform their life circumstances. These costs affect their relationships with family and friends, their sense of cultural identity, and their place in their community and they are ethical in so far as they concern those aspects of life that give it value and meaning. Using social science evidence, I show how these costs are the result of a complex tangle of economic, cultural, and structural factors that unjustly and disproportionately affect disadvantaged students and their communities. I suggest that we need to offer students a new ethical narrative of upward mobility that recognizes and acknowledges these ethical costs.

This event is free and open to all; refreshments will be provided!