Sociology's Melissa Osborne to discuss their new book, 'Polished,' on Oct. 9 at Village Books

WWU Associate Professor of Sociology Melissa Osborne will host an upcoming talk at Village Books in Fairhaven for their new book, "Polished: College, Class, and the Burdens of Social Mobility."  

An ethnography that draws on in-depth interviews with one hundred and fifty first-generation and low-income students across eighteen elite institutions, "Polished" uncovers the hidden consequences of the promise of social mobility in today's educational landscape. Sociologist Melissa Osborne reveals how the institutional support designed to help first-generation students advance can unexpectedly reshape their identities, often putting them at odds with their peers and families. This emotional journey can lead to alienation, mental health challenges, poor academic outcomes, and difficult choices between upward mobility and maintaining authenticity and community. "Polished" offers educators, advocates, and students a powerful perspective on the uncharted challenges of social mobility and personal identity during college.

Polished was recently chosen as book of the day by the New Books podcast; listen to that interview here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/polished.

Western Today staff recently reached out to Osborne to talk to about the new book, and what inspired them to write it; see the short Q&A below.

WT: What inspired you to write "Polished: College, Class, and the Burdens of Social Mobility"? 

MO: "I was inspired to write this book for three primary reasons. First, I was a first-generation college student and wanted to take the opportunity I had been given as someone pursuing a PhD and researching and writing a dissertation to shine a spotlight on the complex experiences of the first-generation and low-income student population. Second, when I was in graduate school and preparing for my dissertation proposal and looking for a topic, I was reviewing a lot of quantitative data about the historical and continued gaps in outcomes between first-generation students and their peers. 

At the same time, I was reading work about the development of specialized financial aid initiatives and student support programs and resources designed to close these gaps. This was a puzzling combination – why were these gaps enduring between first-gen students and their peers even in contexts where schools were developing substantial initiatives and resources to support them. I wanted to try and figure this out and knew that I would need to do qualitative research where I interviewed and spent time with students to understand why these disparities were so persistent. 

Finally, once I wanted to write this book because a lot of what I found in my research was about the socio-emotional and psychological impacts of social mobility during higher education. This is an area of the low-income and first-generation student experience that has been overlooked but is critically important for colleges and universities to understand and address."

WT: Could you share any unexpected findings or challenges you encountered while researching and writing your book? 

MO: "Well, COVID hit during the last stages of my data collection which involved flying across the country to various campuses to interview and spend time with students. So, I had to move to online interviews for my last follow-up interviews and that was certainly challenging! 

One thing that is perhaps interesting to folks at Western is that although Polished focuses on private “elite” schools, a lot of the findings apply to students at schools like Western as well. I did a comparison study in 2022-2024 where I did focus groups and interviews with 85 first-generation students at Western. I found that although there were certainly nuanced differences, a lot of these students expressed experiences that echoed the experiences of students from Polished. That project is in the write up stage and will be an article I’ll publish soon."

WT: What do you hope readers will take away from "Polished," and who do you envision as your primary audience? 

MO: "For folks working in higher education as staff, administrators, or faculty: I hope they’ll learn from the student experiences highlighted in the book and work toward developing practices, programs, and policies to meet their complex unmet needs. For low-income and first-gen students and their families: I hope they’ll find elements that they can connect to in the book and that it will help their make sense of their own experiences. For folks that are generally interested in sociology, education, or social mobility: I hope that the book will expand their understanding of how higher education changes people, the ways that social mobility impacts students, and the intensive experiences that these can result in."