Robert Chlala

Robert Chlala is a postdoctoral scholar and professor whose work is at the intersection of labor, urban development, movement-building and abolition. Chlala recently completed his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Southern California and is now an assistant professor at California State University Long Beach. His book manuscript and publications in journals explore the growth of the cannabis market in relation to urbanized racial capitalism, sexuality, gender and social movements in Los Angeles. 

As an IRLE Visiting Scholar, Chlala is co-leading a first-of-its-kind statewide study of California cannabis workers with a team uniting the UCLA Labor Center, UCLA Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity (CARE) at Work, California State University Long Beach and community partners. The California Cannabis Workers Survey centers the voices of cannabis workers and community members to track the unique experiences and challenges of the industry. 

An extension of this project, the “UCLA Cannabis Worker Collab,” has presented preliminary survey findings at cannabis community centers and hosted several connection sessions with cannabis workers across the state. The cannabis study led by Chlala emphasizes equity and expands upon research produced alongside workers, labor unions and advocates in the cannabis industry since 2013. 

Brady Collins

Brady Collins is a researcher and professor who specializes in examining labor conditions in ethnic enclaves. His recent work focuses on retail workers in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. Collins is a former policy analyst at Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA). He earned his Ph.D. in urban planning from UCLA and is currently an associate professor at Cal Poly Pomona in urban politics and governance. 

As part of the Visiting Scholars Program, Collins is collaborating closely with UCLA Labor Center Director Saba Waheed and a team of researchers to study work conditions in L.A.’s Koreatown neighborhood and emerging Korean enclaves in Southern California. 

The team previously co-authored the report “Overcooked & Underserved: The Challenges of Koreatown’s Restaurant Workers,” which examines the labor and housing conditions of immigrant workers in Koreatown restaurants. The report synthesized existing literature, publicly available demographic and industry data, policy reports and original worker surveys and interviews. The findings shed light on challenges experienced by these workers, such as low wages and housing insecurity, and sparked press coverage in LAist, La Opinión and The Daily Bruin.

Collins also co-taught UCLA labor studies’ Labor Summer Research Program in 2024, an experience he said was “extremely valuable.” Collins shared that the hands-on teaching aspect of his partnership with the IRLE has allowed him to draw curricular and pedagogical insights into the labor studies discipline that he hopes to one day apply in the creation of similar programs at other universities. 

Karen Lau

Karen Lau is a second-year Ph.D. candidate at St. George’s, University of London, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her research focuses on inequalities in occupational health outcomes for migrant workers and seeks to uncover the relationship between migration status and employment as social determinants of health. 

As part of the Visiting Scholars Program, Lau is collaborating with UCLA Labor Occupational & Health Safety (LOSH) to perform a secondary data analysis of the California Work and Health Survey (CWHS) investigating the association between precarious employment, migrant status and work injury. Lau uses advanced quantitative methods to understand how migration and employment affect health outcomes.

Lau also had the opportunity to complete LOSH’s Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program (WOSHTEP) and attended the national Occupational Health Internship Program (OHIP) orientation week, where she gained insights into California workplace safety legislation enforcement and heard worker testimonies about workplace hazards. 

Lau shared that these experiences have profoundly influenced her interpretation of her research and reinforced her commitment to ensuring workplace safety for all. Lau noted that collaborating with the IRLE as a Visiting Scholar has given her insights into California’s leading labor and occupational safety requirements which have informed her ability to propose actionable recommendations in her research to address the challenges facing migrant workers.

Darío Valles

Darío Valles is a professor and multidisciplinary anthropologist who uses community-engaged ethnographic methods to study gender, sexuality, race and immigration linking Central America, Mexico and the United States. Valles is an assistant professor in the Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies (CHLS) Program at California State University Long Beach and formerly taught at UCLA and other universities. 

In the Visiting Scholars Program, Valles is collaborating with a team of researchers at the UCLA Labor Center to conduct a wide-ranging study on childcare and domestic workers in California, an industry largely comprised of immigrant Latina women and critically engaged with Valles’ areas of expertise. The study will supplement synthesized sectoral data with in-depth focus groups with care workers and allies, integrating their valuable lived perspectives.

The study is a partnership between the UCLA IRLE and California State University Long Beach. It also received impactful funding from the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Latina Futures 2050 Lab. In alignment with the Latina Futures Lab’s mission to increase insights into the contours of Latina lives through applied research, the childcare workers project seeks to illuminate the vital contributions of childcare and domestic workers in California to the well-being of the state and future generations. 

Valles shared that the IRLE and the UCLA Labor Center are the “most ideal collaborators for this project” because of the Institute’s wealth of researchers and scholars, as well as its embedded history of strong community partnerships with labor unions, worker centers and community groups. 

Valles is excited to co-lead the study with Ana Luz González Vásquez, project director for POWER in Workforce Development at the Labor Center, stating he is inspired by her “trailblazing scholarship” in sectoral analysis. Valles also highlighted the opportunity to mentor UCLA graduate student researchers, especially Latina students participating in the Latina Futures Program, as a valuable aspect of his residency in the Visiting Scholars Program.