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The Student-Volunteer: The Making of a Swarthmore Subject: An Ethnographic Study of Swarthmore College, Chester, and the Volunteerism that Connects the Two
(2012) Meng, Angela; Falconi, Elizabeth A.
In my Sociology/Anthropology thesis, I explore the role of Swarthmore College and Swarthmore students volunteering in Chester, city nearby to the College. Drawing from various theories, I argue that Swarthmore students become neoliberal subjects of Swarthmore College and of the State in their work as volunteers who provide the goods and services in Chester that the government has not provided. Despite Swarthmore’s decades-long commitment to volunteerism and civic service in Chester, I find that the nature of a four year college and the lack of institutional memory create a fragmented arc of volunteerism in Chester. Ultimately, this kind of volunteerism empowers the individual neoliberal subject and reifies Swarthmore’s unique identity as a liberal arts college oriented towards the common good. However, what is lost are the sustainable, long-term impacts of the College on Chester and its community.