UCLA Labor Studies | October 11, 2024

UCLA’s labor studies faculty and staff welcomed new, existing and prospective students to the 2024-2025 academic year at the program’s annual open house and mixer event held at Ackerman Union earlier this week which drew over 85 attendees. 

Labor Studies Chair Chris Zepeda-Míllan, professor of public policy and Chicana/o and Central American Studies, opened the event sharing how his family’s work experiences and his personal upbringing led him to this interdisciplinary field of study. 

“I come from a family of migrant farmworkers on my father’s side, and I was raised by a garment-worker grandmother and a single mother who was the only person in our family with a union job,” he said. “I saw the major differences — the security and benefits that I had because of my mother’s job that nobody else in my family had.”

Zepeda-Míllan also emphasized the importance of studying labor issues at a time of growing economic inequality across the globe and in Los Angeles. At the same time, he highlighted rising interest in the labor movement and labor organizing. He said labor studies faculty are instrumental in helping students understand the challenges facing workers and also the potential solutions. 

“Luckily we have an amazing group of faculty and staff to teach our students about these global, national and local inequalities and the critical role that workers and worker power plays in challenging those inequalities,” he said. 

Faculty members Virginia Espino, Loretta Gaffney, Trevor Griffey, Tobias Higbie, Janna Shadduck-Hernández, Lucero Herrera, Caroline Luce, Kristoffer (Kit) Smemo and Victor Narro discussed their courses and their academic interests which included labor law, ethnographic research, labor history, creative writing and spirituality and social justice, among many other interests. 

Gloria Chan, labor studies student affairs officer, reviewed course requirements necessary to earn a labor studies degree. To declare a labor studies major, students must have a minimum grade point average of 2.5 with at least 12 units completed at UCLA, and must have completed all non-language labor studies preparation. Students interested in the labor studies minor, on the other hand, must have a minimum grade point average of 2.5 and should have completed 45 units at UCLA.

Elizbeth Espinoza, labor studies academic programming manager, explained her role in connecting students with unique engaged-learning opportunities, special courses, and internships in the labor movement. Espinoza also assists students in identifying job opportunities and fellowships that lead students into fields including government, education, law, communications and human resources. 

During the mixer session, labor studies faculty facilitated small group discussions with students, allowing attendees to learn more about the program and its wide-reaching, interdisciplinary curriculum. 

UCLA Labor Studies is the first major of its kind at the University of California. Renowned for its commitment to engaged student learning in community worker settings, rigorous hands-on research and courses that explore some of the most pressing labor and social justice issues, the program became a major in 2019 after being established as a minor in 2014. 

Prospective students are encouraged to explore labor studies’ curriculum and requirements by visiting the program’s website, and can learn more about the program’s faculty here. Academic advising meetings can be scheduled here.