Privileged Brotherhoods: Feelings of Belonging and Entitlement Within Elite All-Boys Schools

• In Event: Critical Communities as Praxis and Belonging

Abstract

Despite increased attention on elite all-boys schools in national media and increased scholarship on single-sex schools internationally, there has been little recent focus on elite all-boys schools within the U.S. This paper addresses this gap. Narratives of particular brotherhoods emerge from interviews with 74 recent alumni of elite all-boys schools across the U.S. Drawing on the body of work on the emotional geographies of elite schools, the authors explore the ways in which brotherhoods produce a sense of belonging and a sense entitlement. These privileged brotherhoods are core to creating, reproducing, and operationalizing elite status within these contexts.

Authors

• Adam Howard, Colby College

• William Oldham, Colby College