UCLA IRLE | November 12, 2024

A new capacity-building training hub, the UCLA Strategic Research Lab (SRL), that will equip researchers who work at the intersection of labor, tenant rights, environmental justice, immigrants rights and other social movements with cutting-edge strategic research skills was launched earlier today. 

The establishment of the innovative lab is rooted in the belief that “knowledge is only power when used strategically” and will offer a variety of educational opportunities for students and movement researchers to level up their skills to support their members’ organizing efforts. The lab’s team also understands that the construction of knowledge relies heavily on access to information, and is committed to ensure researchers are equipped with the best methods to collect and analyze key data in their pursuit of social and economic justice.

“When we conceived of this lab we were guided by the way research and data was leveraged in social movements of the past,” said Chris Zepeda-Millán, the SRL’s faculty director and professor of public policy and Chicana/o and Central American studies. “From the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Research Department’s power structure manuals of the 1960s, to the contemporary Labor Movement’s comprehensive campaigns, social movements have always been more effective when they use strategic research to inform their organizing.”

The SRL will offer year-round workshops, individual consultations, and data analytics camps that will train participants in technical skills and research methodologies to effectively inform their strategies and enhance their understanding of the complex and rapidly-evolving social movements landscape. 

“We want attendees of our programming to walk away feeling more confident and prepared to tackle their current campaigns and we also hope to provide job seekers with the hard skills needed to access careers as researchers in progressive labor and community-based organizations,” said Justin McBride, SRL’s project director. 

Project Director Justin McBride instructs Jaquelin Tafolla during a “Public Sector Budget Analysis”  workshop at UCLA’s Strategic Labor Research Conference during summer 2024. / Reed Hutchinson

The SRL will also conduct quantitative and qualitative, contemporary and historical research projects on worker and community activism, including: histories of organizing campaigns, analysis of current unionization trends and surveys to assess public opinion on organized  labor, politics and public policies.

“The lab aims to train researchers and bolster organizing strategies to support labor and other social movements throughout the state of California and beyond,” said Zepeda-Millán.  

The SRL builds upon UCLA’s Strategic Labor Research Conference, an annual summer conference launched in 2023 that has attracted hundreds of researchers from across California and the nation for a weekend-long event featuring dozens of workshops.

“Our annual conference has proven to be a huge success and we heard from our partners that they wanted more strategic research opportunities” said Zepeda-Millán, “Now, through the SRL, we hope to be ready to welcome in more researchers from a variety of sectors and backgrounds while advancing UCLA’s broader public mission.”

Gloria Perez (IRLE) will support the SRL team as a programming and operations coordinator and Cristhian Lin (MPP) will serve as a graduate student researcher for the lab. 

Visit the UCLA’s Strategic Research Lab’s web page here.