Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

IRLE Public Talk with Labor Center Director Candidate Saba Waheed
2023-10-06 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 4320 Public Affairs, 337 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, 90095, United States
Dear IRLE Community,
Please join us for our final campus visit for the position of UCLA Labor Center Director. Each applicant will give a talk and lead a conversation on their vision for the future of the Labor Center. We encourage staff, community members, and affiliated faculty to join us and provide feedback on each candidate.
This provides our community the opportunity to interact with prospective applicants and truly get a sense of what each applicant envisions should they be selected as the next Labor Center Director. The public talks will be thirty minutes long, followed by thirty-minute Q&A sessions. We hope you consider joining us next week for our third and final public talk. RSVP details are listed below:
Friday, Oct. 6, 2023 Location:
10:00 am – Check-In and Reception
10:30 am – Public Talk Begins
11:00 am – Q&A
11:30 am – Community and Board Members Engagement
Location:
UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, UCLA Campus
337 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Room 4320
RSVP HERE
Live Zoom Option:
https://ucla.in/3ES4kLD
Meeting ID: 993 1343 5211
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Saba Waheed on How Research and Narrative Change Can Advance Worker Movements

Saba Waheed is Research Director at the UCLA Labor Center. She has over twenty years of research experience developing projects with strong community participation. With her team at the UCLA Labor Center, she coordinated the first-ever study of domestic work employers, launched a multi-year study of workers and learners, and conducted research on the impact of the pandemic on nail salon workers and owners. She has also conducted research related to gig workers, young workers, Black workers, LGBTQ+ grocery workers and retail workers. Saba teaches the Labor Summer Research Program, guiding students through an applied research project. Previously she worked as the Research Director at DataCenter where she co-developed the “research justice” framework which aims to address the structural inequities embedded in traditional research methods. In addition to her research work, Saba is an award-winning writer and co-produces the podcast Re:Work. Saba strongly believes that research and media are powerful tools for community storytelling. She received an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University and a BA in English and Religious Studies from UC Berkeley.
Saba Waheed’s talk will trace her contributions in research justice and narrative change and how these areas align with the UCLA Labor Center’s aim to expand its research capacity, storytelling, and school-to-movement pipeline. The talk will pay particular attention to how participatory methods and teaching tools, like popular education, position workers as creators of knowledge and advocates of their own working conditions. Such approaches are a core feature of the Labor Center’s critical engagement with immigrant and worker communities and collectively shape research policy, action agendas, and recommendations for worker and social movements across multiple scales. The talk will also detail her vision for the Labor Center: to implement and amplify research and leadership programs in academic and other public spaces; to support staff development and equity; to build strong and transparent structures; and to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the organization. This vision is rooted in the value of collaborative methods of engagement with staff, the IRLE, and faculty, alongside our union, community, and student partners. Last, the talk will be grounded in the Labor Center’s mission that recognizes how the university serves public interest needs and leverages resources to improve the lives of immigrants, working people, those locked out of the workforce, and our student base.

Screening and Talkback: "Backstreet to the American Dream"
2023-10-10 18:00 - 20:00 | James West Alumni Center
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and in partnership with UCLA Labor Studies, enjoy a screening of the award-winning documentary “Backstreet to the American Dream,” directed and written by Patricia Nazario ’91, with executive producer/Medal of Freedom recipient Dolores Huerta.
This modern-day look at the classic American Dream is done through the quintessential 21st Century entrepreneurial endeavor — food trucks. “Backstreet to the American Dream” is a deep dive into the birthplace of the $2 billion global industry, Los Angeles. The 90-minute feature profiles two trucks and juxtaposes the experiences of American entrepreneurs and Mexican immigrants.
After the screening, enjoy a talkback from the filmmaker, the protagonist and two faculty members at the UCLA Labor Center who were featured in this film.
Date: Tuesday, October 10th
Time: 6-8pm
Location: James West Alumni Center
RSVP: CLICK HERE

Meet the Speakers:
Patricia Nazario ’91 is an international and Congressional Award distinguished journalist. She was on assignment for the National Public Radio affiliate, KPCC, in Los Angeles, when she realized the food truck revolution was a game-changer and began producing the independent bilingual documentary for theatrical release “Backstreet to the American Dream.”
Gaspar Rivera Salgado is a project director at UCLA Labor Center, as well as a core faculty member of the Labor Studies interdepartmental program, under the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. He is also the director of the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies. He teaches classes on work, labor and social justice in the U.S. and immigration issues.
He also directs the Institute for Transnational Social Change and has extensive experience as an independent consultant on transnational migration, race and ethnic relations,and diversity training for large organizations.
Victor Narro is a nationally known expert on immigrant rights and low-wage workers. He has been involved with immigrant rights and labor issues for almost 40 years and is currently a project director for the UCLA Labor Center. Teaching classes that focus on immigrant rights, low-wage workers, the labor movement, and spirituality, mindfulness and self-care in social justice activism, Narro is a core faculty member for Labor Studies. He also teaches courses in the Public Interest Law Program at UCLA’s School of Law.
Doña Guillermina, is the owner/operator of El Pescadito, a mariscos lonchera. Guillermina was born in Nayarit, Mexico, and is the oldest of nine siblings. In 1976, she gave birth to her first child, Felipe. Shortly after arriving to the U.S., she found work on a food truck. She bought her own in 1982 and has been parking in the same neighborhood ever since.

“Manufacturing Freedom”: Elena Shih Book Talk
2023-10-19 12:15 - 13:45 | Haines Hall 352, Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
About the event
The UCLA Transnational Gender and Labor Working Group, IRLE, and CSW|Streisand Center invite you to join Professor Elena Shih to discuss her new book, Manufacturing Freedom: Sex Work, Anti-Trafficking Rehab, and the Racial Wages of Rescue (UC Press, 2023).
About the book
Sex worker rescue programs have become a core focus of the global movement to combat human trafficking. While these rehabilitation programs promise freedom from enslavement and redemptive wages for former sex workers, such organizations actually propagate a moral economy of low‑wage women’s work that obfuscates relations of race, gender, national power, and inequality. Manufacturing Freedom is an ethnographic exploration of two American organizations that offer vocational training in jewelry production to women migrants in China and Thailand as a path out of sex work. In this innovative study, Elena Shih argues that anti‑trafficking rescue and rehabilitation projects profit off persistent labor abuse of women workers and imagined but savvily marketed narratives of redemption.
About the author
Elena Shih is Manning Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University, where she directs a human trafficking research cluster through the Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Shih is the author of two books: Manufacturing Freedom: Sex Work, Anti-Trafficking Rehab, and the Racial Wages of Rescue (University of California Press), and White Supremacy, Colonialism, and the Racism of Anti-Trafficking (Routledge). Shih serves on the editorial boards for The Anti-Trafficking Review, a peer-reviewed journal of the Global Alliance to Combat Traffic in Women, and openDemocracy’s Beyond Trafficking and Slavery op-ed platform. In 2018 Shih was appointed to the Rhode Island State Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights. Recent op-eds about her research and organizing as a core collective member of Red Canary Song appear in the New York Times and Providence Journal. She earned a PhD in Sociology from UCLA, and a BA in Asian Studies from Pomona College.
*Please RVSP for the room number and to secure lunch.
Date: Thursday, October 19, 2023
Time: 12:15 – 1:45 pm PDT
Location: Haines Hall 352, Portola Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90095
View event flier PDF
RSVP HERE

Fly in Power Film Screening and Q&A
2023-10-20 17:00 - 20:00 | Darren Star Screening Room 1422, 235 Charles E Young Dr., Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
About the Event

The UCLA Transnational Gender and Labor Working Group, IRLE, and CSW|Streisand Center in collaboration with Red Canary Song and SWOP LA invite you to join the film screening of Fly in Power, followed by a Q&A with Elena Shih and a SWOP LA speaker.
Fly in Power follows Charlotte, a Korean massage worker and core organizer of Red Canary Song (RCS), a social justice collective of Asian diasporic massage workers, sex workers and allies who basebuild through mutual aid. Through her history, we learn how the carceral system is pitted against Asian migrant women and their survival. The documentary is a glimpse into the intimate spaces that not only connect these women and non-binary queers, but is also a testament to the global advocacy of women’s rights to work and thrive. The documentary is directed by Yin Q, a Queer, Chinese American parent, writer, and sex worker rights advocate, and Yoon Grace Ra, a cultural organizer working with audio/visual media.
This film has been produced entirely by women, non-binary, trans and queers of the Asian diaspora—more than half of the production team are former/current sex workers. Each story centers the narrative of an Asian massage worker in her own words, enabling us to witness the trust built between the film team and the participants with their own agency of storytelling and editing. Fly in Power premiered in March this year in Flushing, Queens. Since then it has been shown at various universities and film festivals including the San Francisco Sex Worker Film Festival, the Los Angeles Asian and Pacific Islander Film Festival where it won Grand Jury Prize Best Documentary, and the 46th Asian American International Film Festival.
A catered reception will follow after screening and Q&A.
*The Darren Star Screening Room is located in Melnitz Hall and situated on the northeast corner of the UCLA campus in Westwood, next to the Broad Art Center and the Murphy Sculpture Garden.*
Date: Friday, October 20, 2023
Time: 5 – 8 pm PDT
Where: Darren Star Screening Room
235 Charles E Young Dr N Melnitz Hall 1422 Los Angeles, CA 90095
View event flier PDF
RSVP HERE

Labor Studies 10 presents: #HotLaborSummer Panel
2023-10-24 15:00 - 17:00 | UCLA Fowler Auditorium
Join Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center, in conversation with Los Angeles labor community organizers who led the fight for workers this summer. Speakers will include strike captains from UNITE-HERE, SAG-AFTRA, WGA, and SEIU 721, who will discuss their experiences on the picket line.
Learn how a #HotLaborSummer can transform the American labor movement from the ground up and what fights remain ahead for workers in 2024 and beyond.
Date: Tuesday, October 24th
Time: 3pm
Location: UCLA Fowler Auditorium – 103B / Zoom
RSVP: bit.ly/LS_hotlaborsummer
*Light refreshments will be served

Labor Studies Coffee Chat with the Labor Studies Student Union (LSSU)
2023-11-07 14:00 - 15:00 | Kaplan Hall A26
Join us on Tuesday, November 7th from 2-3 pm for a coffee chat with leaders from the Labor Studies Student Union (LSSU).
This will be a space to not only learn more about the LSSU, what it stands for, why it was created, and what the future of this union is, but also a space to give feedback on the Labor Studies program and what you’d like to see from us!
Date: Tuesday, November 7th
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Location: Kaplan Hall A26
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Port of Los Angeles Field Trip
2023-11-09 08:00 - 17:00 | Port of Los Angeles
UCLA Labor Studies and @ILWU Local 13 invite students to a free worker-centered tour of the Port of Los Angeles.
You will have the opportunity to take a boat tour of the Port, view memorials to workers on the waterfront, visit a union hall, and learn about the role of unions in the logistics industry. Lunch and transportation to/ from UCLA will be provided for free.
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2023
Location: Port of Los Angeles
RSVP: bit.ly/LS_LAPort

Schedule:
7:45am: Arrive at UCLA Gateway Plaza
8am-9:15am: Bus to Port of Los Angeles
9:30-10:30am: Port of LA Boat Tour
10:30-11:15am: Visit Harry Bridges Memorial in San Pedro
11:30-2:15pm: Visit ILWU Local 13 Memorial Hall (lunch included)
2:30-4pm: Bus to UCLA Gateway Plaza

Labor Studies Coffee Chat with Professor Victor Narro
2023-11-21 14:00 - 15:00 | Kaplan A26
Join us on Tuesday, November 21st from 2-3 pm in Kaplan A26 for a coffee chat with activist, Labor Center project director, and Labor Studies Professor, Victor Narro

Professor Victor Narro is an experienced activist, with thirty years as a leader in the immigrant and labor rights movements. Additionally, he has worked as a labor/immigration attorney for just as long and also serves as the UCLA Labor Center’s project director. During the academic term, he teaches at the UCLA Law School as well as to Labor Studies undergraduates. Each summer, his course, Spirituality, Mindfulness, Self-Care & Social Justice, draws in students from all over looking to avoid burnout while organizing.

Date: Tuesday, November 21st
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Location: Kaplan Hall A26

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Labor Studies Speaker Series: Molly Benitez
2023-11-29 10:30 - 12:00 | 4320 Public Affairs, 337 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, 90095, United States
Molly Benitez (they/them) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Portland State University. Molly’s research sits at the intersections of race, gender/sexuality, and labor and utilizes ethnographic and autoethnographic methods to record and analyze the experiences of LGBTQ+ trades workers.
They are currently working on their manuscript tentatively titled, Becoming Your Labor: Identity Production and the Affects of Labor where they weave together these intersections along with theories of work and affect theory (traced through women of color) to analyze how the conditions of work (physical, social, and cultural) produce and reproduce workers’ identities, bodies, and communities, or how work works on laborers.
In 2018 Molly co-founded the Seattle-based Reckoning Trade Project and Junqtion, a virtual community space made by and for LGBTQ+ trades workers. In 2022 Molly founded the LGBTQ+ Trades Worker Archive housed at the Harry Bridges Labor Center at the University of Washington. Molly currently sits on the board of the National LGBTQ Worker’s Center.
Talk Title: This is our house and you’re coming into it”: Embodiment and the Affects of Labor
Description: “This is our house and you’re coming into it”: Embodiment and the Affects of Labor, shares the experience of Z, a young, non-binary, biracial, queer person as they navigate their first few weeks in a pre-apprenticeship construction trades program. Z shares how they negotiate their gender identity, trauma, and anxiety in a labor field that has been historically dominated by white, cis-gender, working-class men as well as the strategies they deploy for survival.
Thinking along with Z’s experience, Dr. Benitez utilizes affect theory, traced through women of color feminisms and queer of color theory, to articulate how the ‘affects of labor’—the visceral and active consequences of our working environments—produces and reproduces workers’ bodies, identities, relationships, and communities, often in small, imperceptible ways that have lifelong consequences. This talk highlights the way work— all of our work—is a dialectical process in which workers produce for labor and are in turn produced by their labor
RSVP: https://forms.office.com/r/dMc1akkQW3
Event Location: In-Person + Zoom
Public Talk: 10:30am-12pm
In-Person: Labor Studies Speaker Series events will take place at the Public Affairs Building 4320. Coffee and water will be served.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92369635586?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 923 6963 5586
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Labor Studies Speaker Series: Heather Berg
2023-12-01 16:00 - 17:30 | 4320 Public Affairs, 337 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, 90095, United States
Heather Berg writes about work, sex, and social struggle. Her 2021 book, Porn Work, explores workers’ creative strategies for surviving (and sometimes thriving) in an industry in crisis. Winner of the Working-Class Studies Association’s C.L.R. James “best book” award, it locates porn workers as experts on the politics of precarity. Her current book project, Lumpen Theory: Notes from the Sex Worker Left, engages anti-capitalist sex workers’ political thought on the family, class, the state, and violence. Berg is the editor of the South Atlantic Quarterly special issue “Reading Sex Work.” Her writing on sexual labor, gig work, and feminist political economy appears in Signs, WSQ, Feminist Studies, and Critical Historical Studies, among others. A graduate of UC-Santa Barbara’s Feminist Studies PhD program, she is assistant professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
Talk Title: Sex Workers, Against Work
Description: “Sex Workers, Against Work” surveys Berg’s research on sex workers’ struggles for labor justice now and a world beyond work in the future. The talk moves from porn workers’ interventions on the set shop floor to anti-capitalist sex workers’ critical encounters with the civilian labor Left.
RSVP: https://forms.office.com/r/qPxD1tqBE0
Event Location: In-Person + Zoom
Public Talk: 4-5:30pm
In-Person: Labor Studies Speaker Series events will take place at the Public Affairs Building 4320. Coffee and water will be served.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92337485806?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 923 3748 5806
Passcode: [REDACTED]

The Fight For Quality Public Education and Worker Rights
2023-12-05 14:00 - 15:30 | Fowler Auditorium A103B, 308 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
Join us on December 5th at 2pm at Fowler Auditorium A103B for a talk with UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz.
Cecily helped to lead a successful 3-day strike in March 2023 that brought together 60,000 teachers and classified workers of the Los Angeles Unified School District. She has emerged as a leading voice for worker rights and quality public education.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
Date: Tuesday, December 5th
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Fowler Auditorium A103B

Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America
2023-12-07 12:00 - 13:30 | UCLA Bunche Hall 6275
Join us on December 7th from 12-1:30pm at UCLA Bunche Hall 6275 for a book talk with Margot Canaday as she discusses her new book, “Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America.” Lunch will be provided.
Margot Canaday, Princeton University Dodge Professor of History, is an award-winning historian who studies gender and sexuality in modern America. She is the author of The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth Century America (Princeton, 2009) and co-editor of Intimate States: Gender, Sexuality, and Governance in Modern U.S. History (Chicago, 2021). Her book, Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America (Princeton, 2023), explores the ways that the workplace has mattered for queer people over time, both as a site of vulnerability and exploitation but sometimes also of deep meaning.
Co-sponsored by the UCLA History of Gender & Sexuality Working Group, History Department, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Center for the Study of Women, Luskin Center for History and Policy, Gender Studies Department, LGBTQ Studies, Labor Studies, and the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute
Date: Thursday, December 7th
Time: 12pm – 1:30pm
Location: UCLA Bunche Hall 6275

Labor Studies Speaker Series: Charmaine Chua
2023-12-07 15:00 - 16:30 | Public Affairs Building 4320, 337 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles
Charmaine Chua is a Singaporean scholar and organizer, and is currently an assistant professor of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her interdisciplinary scholarly and political work is interested in how planetary networks of production and distribution shape the organization of racialized and classed divisions within capitalist social formations, with particular attention to how these divisions are lived and contested through workers and community struggles.
She is currently writing two books, The Logistics Counterrevolution: Fast Circulation, Slow Violence and the Transpacific Empire of Circulation, and How to Beat Amazon: The Struggle of America’s New Working Class (co-authored with Spencer Cox). Her work has been published in The Socialist Register, Theory and Event, Antipode, Environment and Planning D, The Boston Review, and Jacobin, among other venues, and her research has been quoted or featured in news outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, De Correspondent, and Le Monde. She is an editor of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space , a founding faculty member of the Marxist Institute of Research, and organizes with Cops off Campus, Amazonians United, and UCSB Academics for Justice in Palestine. In 2023, she was named a Freedom Scholar, an award recognizing academics who demonstrate a long-term commitment to supporting social movements.
Talk Title: The Logistics Counter-revolution: Fast Circulation, Slow Violence, and the Transpacific Empire of Circulation
Description: The rise of the global logistics industry has profoundly impacted global workers’ struggles by organizing goods movement through a politics of just-in-time circulation. Although scholars have often dubbed this phenomenon “the revolution in logistics,” in this talk I argue that the so-called ‘logistics revolution’ is better understood as a counter-revolution. Tracing the historical conjuncture of the rise of logistics with the end of formal empire, I ask: What did the rise of logistics look like from the vantage of the decolonizing Global South? As anti-colonial leaders and trade unions in Southeast Asia pursued economic sovereignty during the “Third World’s” transition to independence, they nationalized industry, seized colonial property, and sought to build national shipping and industrial capacity. To contain this threat to private enterprise, US and UK shipping corporations, backed by their states, pursued the globalization of supply chain infrastructures.
RSVP: bit.ly/laborspeaker_chua
Event Location: In-Person + Zoom
Public Talk: 3-4:30 PM
In-Person: Labor Studies Speaker Series events will take place at the Public Affairs Building 4320. Coffee and water will be served.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/98707640233?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 987 0764 0233
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Voices For New Democracy Forum: The Fight For Immigrant Rights
2023-12-10 16:00 - 17:00 | Zoom
Join us on December 10 at 4pm PT/7pm ET through Zoom for a discussion on immigrant rights.
With the 2024 election less than one year away, immigration has once again emerged as a pivotal issue in the upcoming Presidential race. Trump is already ramping up anti-immigrant rhetoric, while Biden has failed to secure immigration reform.
What can we do to continue to fight for immigrant rights in this critical time?
Featured Speakers:

Jose Calderon, Professor Emeritus, Pitzer College
Pablo Alvarado, National Day Labor Organizing Network
Karely Amaya, Undocumented Student Leader

Date: Sunday, December 10
Time: 4pm PT/7pm ET
Location: Zoom

Labor Studies Speaker Series: Sara Gia Trongone
2023-12-13 12:00 - 13:30 | Public Affairs Building 4320, 337 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles
Sara Gia Trongone is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research examines contemporary labor movement renewal in the U.S. and the ways in which unions and worker organizations adapt to a changing economy. In her dissertation, she explores how workers win social, economic, and political power, the conditions under which those wins spread or scale, and what induces social movement organizations to coordinate through a comparative case study of four worker organizations in Chicago. Her research has been published in Mobilization and Work and Occupations. She is a Graduate Research Fellow with the Institute of Research on Poverty and an active member of the Wisconsin labor movement. Prior to starting her Ph.D. program, she received a master’s degree from the NYU Steinhardt School of Education, focusing on critical pedagogy.
Talk Title: Working for the Public Good: Organizational Dilemmas & Strategy in Public Sector Unions
Description: This talk examines the growing surge of labor mobilization in the public sector and its roots in Chicago after the 2008 financial crisis. Through a matched case comparison of two public sector union locals, I explore why the U.S. has seen a wave of ‘common good’ strikes among educators but not other public sector workers. Using comparative-historical analysis, I generate a theoretical framework that accounts for variation in strategic decisions among unions operating outside of a traditional market relationship. I find that strategy is mediated by what I call organizational dilemmas, or the set of obstacles and opportunities that derive from how the state organizes public services, the nature of the labor process, and the structure of workers’ organizations.
RSVP: bit.ly/laborspeaker_trongone
Event Location: In-Person + Zoom
Public Talk: 12-1:30 PM
In-Person: Labor Studies Speaker Series events will take place at the Public Affairs Building 4320. Coffee and water will be served.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/97048837464?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 970 4883 7464
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Labor Studies Coffee Chat with the #Opportunity4All Campaign!
2024-02-28 12:00 - 13:00 | Bunche Hall 3153
Join us on Wednesday, February 28th between 12 pm to 1 pm for a coffee chat with members of the #Opportunity4All campaign!
This is a casual event for Labor Studies students to learn about ways to support undocumented students and find ways to become involved.
Date: Wednesday, February 28th
Time: 12pm – 1pm
Location: Bunche Hall 3153
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Thinking Gender 2024: "Dystopian Realities, Feminist Utopias"
2024-03-01 08:30 - 18:00 | Collins Alumni Conference Room at UCLA James West Alumni Center
UCLA’s CSW|Barbra Streisand Center presents 34th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference on Friday, March 1st, 2024.
Thinking Gender 2024’s conference theme, “Dystopian Realities, Feminist Utopias,” considers what it means to live in the cataclysmic wake of racial capitalism, settler colonialism, and neoliberalism. At the same time, the theme celebrates how feminist, queer, and BIPOC scholarship, activism, and art enact utopias by imagining alternatives to hegemonic structures.
The theme seeks to explore how dystopianism serves as an apt metaphor to explore and critique social and political issues related to gender, race, class, and sexuality and how utopianism is an ethical mandate to imagine a better present and future.
IRLE is a co-sponsor of this event.
Date: March 1, 2024
Time: 8:30am – 6:00pm
Location: James West Alumni Center, The Collins Conference Room
RSVP HERE.

Career Development Workshops within the Labor Commissioner’s Office and Department of Industrial Relations
2024-04-23 14:00 - 15:30
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office (LCO) is hiring! Join UCLA Labor Studies and the UCLA Labor Center to learn more about career opportunities within the LCO and Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) to support their mission of improving working conditions for California’s workers.
This winter and spring, the UCLA Labor Center will lead workshops to provide students with resources for preparing state employment applications. The workshops will break down the application process, teach best practices for applications, and provide time for students to ask questions about the process and start working on their applications. A member of the LCO team will also talk about their experience and path to the LCO.
The workshops will include a resume workshop, so please come to the session with a completed resume.
Workshop Date: April 23rd @ 2-3:30pm
Location: Zoom
RSVP HERE.
—
Check out the current job listings here: calcareers.gov

Job control number: JC-425332 or click here
Job control number: JC-425361 or click here
Job control number: JC-425373 or click here

UFW Meet & Greet and Support
2024-04-24 14:00 - 15:00 | Bruin Reception Room, 308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join us on April 24th at 2pm PT at UCLA Ackerman Union, Bruin Reception Room for a meet & greet and support for the United Farm Workers (UFW).
You will get the opportunity to meet & greet UFW President Teresa Romero.
General ticket admission: $25
Student ticket admission: $15
Venmo: @sffw_ucla
Funds will support UFW farmworker organizing
Contact: larry.frank.00@gmail.com

Community Labor Rally for Farmworkers
2024-04-24 15:00 - 16:30 | Bruin Reception Room, 308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join us on April 24th at 3pm PT at UCLA Ackerman Union, Bruin Reception Room for a community labor rally for farmworkers.
Hear from UFW President Teresa Romero, the first woman to lead the United Farm Workers Union, on the development of the best labor laws in US history that provide unparalleled support for new organizing of farmworkers. Learn about their recent campaigns and how you can help.
The rally will feature:

Art, Food, and Music
Solidarity
Farmworker Testimony
Student and Community Speakers
Labor and Food Education

Date: Wednesday, April 24th
Time: 3pm PT
Location: UCLA Ackerman Union, Bruin Reception Room
Contact: ufw.ucla@gmail.com

Canceled: Career Development Workshops within the Labor Commissioner’s Office and Department of Industrial Relations
2024-05-07 14:00 - 15:30
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office (LCO) is hiring! Join UCLA Labor Studies and the UCLA Labor Center to learn more about career opportunities within the LCO and Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) to support their mission of improving working conditions for California’s workers.
This winter and spring, the UCLA Labor Center will lead workshops to provide students with resources for preparing state employment applications. The workshops will break down the application process, teach best practices for applications, and provide time for students to ask questions about the process and start working on their applications. A member of the LCO team will also talk about their experience and path to the LCO.
The workshops will include a resume workshop, so please come to the session with a completed resume.
Workshop Date: May 7th @ 2-3:30pm
Location: Zoom
RSVP HERE.

Labor @ UCLA Research Showcase
2024-05-24 11:00 - 13:00 | Online – Zoom
Our second annual Labor@UCLA Research Showcase is part of Undergraduate Research Week, a week-long presentation of undergraduate research and creative inquiry at UCLA.
Now in its tenth year, Undergraduate Research Week, which will be held May 20-24, 2024, is UCLA’s largest undergraduate conference.
The Labor@UCLA Research Showcase will spotlight UCLA undergraduate student research in the field of Labor Studies. Labor Studies is an interdisciplinary program of study which critically analyzes the theory and practice of current workplace issues. Students develop a deeper understanding of the relationships between their education and society at large and how they, as college graduates, can transform the nature of work.
Students who were selected will be presenting on past or current work developed for a capstone, honors theses, or other Labor Studies and related classes (both approved and related).
The showcase will be in a Zoom webinar format.
Date: Friday, May 24th
Time: 11 AM – 1 PM
Location: Zoom
RSVP to attend the event HERE.

Labor Summer Research Program 2024 Final Presentations: Workers and Learners in Los Angeles County
2024-08-21 10:00 - 14:00 | Online – Zoom
This summer, students participating in the Labor Summer Research Program (LSRP) collected surveys and interviews about how working students navigate barriers and opportunities in fulfilling their educational, career and work goals.
Join us on Wednesday, August 21st, as student researchers share their findings, key issues impacting workers and learners, and share strategies and solutions to support students who work and workers who study.
There will be four webinars, and you are welcome to join as many sessions as you’re able to – similar data will be presented at each webinar but with different student teams.

Webinar 1: 10:00-10:55AM: Aline Silva Rodrigues, Carolyn Morelos, Jack Butcher, Klara Daniaud, Marshall Olmos, Mehar Madan, Mireya Rodriguez, Yesenia Aragon, and Zihan Zhang.

Webinar 2: 11:00-11:55AM: Angelina Quint, Gabrielle Aung, JJ Jacho, Jun Li, Kayla Lopez, Keyshawn Sealie, Luisa Ortiz, and Simran Kaur.
Webinar 3: 12:00-12:55PM: Emilia Benitez, Hina Malik, Jimmy Mancilla, Joaquin Antonio, Mia Tracy, Sean Clenista, Victoria Fierro, and Vijay Rikhye.
Webinar 4: 1:00-1:55PM: Joseph Wu, Sofia Barajas, Sophia Raymond, and Ritika Sarma.
RSVP: bit.ly/LSRP24RSVP

2024 Labor Studies Open House
2024-10-08 12:30 - 14:00 | Bruin Reception Room, 308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join us for our in-person Labor Studies Open House! Learn about the Labor Studies Major and Minor and meet your faculty, staff, alumni and fellow students!
Date: Tuesday, October 8th
Time: 12:30pm – 2pm
Location: Bruin Reception Room (Ackerman Second Floor)
RSVP deadline: October 1st, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Event Details:

Open to current students and those interested in Labor Studies.
Food will be provided.

For questions, please email laborstudies@irle.ucla.edu.
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Filipinos That Strike
2024-10-21 17:30 - 19:30 | United Teachers Los Angeles, 3303 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90010, United States
Please join UTLA educators, leaders, and organizers in partnership with UCLA Labor Studies for the launch of the ongoing oral history and archive project to document the role of Filipinos in the UTLA 2019 and 2023 strikes.
The event will be held on the 2nd floor of UTLA. Please park at the UTLA parking lot, whose entrance is on Berendo between 6th and Wilshire Blvd. Park and bring your parking ticket with you for free validation.
Date: Monday, October 21st
Time: 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Location: United Teachers Los Angeles, 3303 Wilshire Boulevard #10th fl Los Angeles, CA 90010
To RSVP, click HERE.

How Should Culture Industry Workers Respond to Artificial Intelligence?
2024-12-04 11:00 - 12:15 | Royce 362 & Zoom
How Should Culture Industry Workers Respond to Artificial Intelligence?
Join Us for a Roundtable Discussion
Discover how SAG-AFTRA members are tackling the challenges posed by AI in the culture industry. Learn about:

Negotiating the first contract regulating AI use in film and television.
Organizing strikes against video game makers over AI technology misuse.
Advocating for state and federal legislation to control AI.

Event Details
Date: December 4, 2024
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM
Location: Royce 362 & Zoom
Panelists
Zeke Alton is a professional Actor and volunteer SAG-AFTRA negotiator for TV/film, interactive media, animation, and commercials. He has a background in contract negotiation, system design/management, and strategic planning. His performance credits span film, television, and all genres of voice acting. He is known for roles in video games such as The Callisto Protocol and Call of Duty, and Animated series like Boss Baby: Back in the Crib.
Woody Schultz is an actor and producer and serves on both the Los Angeles Local and National Boards of SAG-AFTRA where he is also national chair of the AI Task Force, Vice-Chair of the Innovation and New Technology Committee and member of the Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee. He was also a member of the negotiating committee for the most recent TV/Theatrical contract.
Sarah Elmaleh is an actor and voice director with a passion for collaborative creation, and serves as Chair of the Interactive Negotiating Committee. Best known for roles in AAA games like Hi-Fi Rush, Halo Infinite and Gears 5, and for indies like Afterparty, Pyre and Gone Home, her directing credits likewise span production scope from Goodbye Volcano High to Fortnite. Led by her desire to foster stronger inter-disciplinary collaboration within games, she has spent years organizing, advising, and educating in the games industry and academic programs.
RSVP BELOW:
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Data Economies and Futures: An In-Depth Dialogue
2025-02-12 12:00 - 13:30 | 3312 Murphy Hall
Join UCLA Data X for a discussion on how data and digital ecosystems have reshaped our world, intertwining technology with entrepreneurial and economic outcomes, and changing the way people live and think on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 3312 Murphy Hall, 12 pm panel and Q&A, 1 pm lunch.

What ethical and practical questions does this shift raise?
What skills do students need now to remain relevant in an AI-driven job market?
What policies must be in place to ensure our economic security?

Moderator:
Ramesh Srinivasan
Professor of Information Studies and Design|Media Arts departments; Director, UCLA Digital Cultures Lab; Community Engagement, UCLA DataX
Panelists:
Tobias Higbie, Professor of History and Labor Studies and Director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, UCLA College, Social Sciences
Velibor Misic, Associate Professor of Decisions, Operations and Technology Management, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Shreya Shreya, Easton Fellow, MBA Candidate, UCLA Anderson School of Management

Book Talk: Post/Revolutionary Conditions: Renewed Visions of the Iranian Freedom Struggle with author Alborz Ghandehari
2025-02-27 15:00 - 16:30 | 2125 Rolfe Hall
Join the UCLA IRLE and CSW|Streisand Center’s Transnational Gender and Labor Working Group for a book talk on Post/Revolutionary Conditions: Renewed Visions of the Iranian Freedom Struggle with author Alborz Ghandehari on February 27, 2025 at 3 pm at 2125 Rolfe Hall.
The discussion will offer an intersectional analysis of how radical and progressive movement builders have re-envisioned liberation in the post-’79 era, despite new forms of oppression under the Islamic Republic and from US and other foreign imperial powers. Post/Revolutionary Conditions shows how potent reimaginings of a radically democratic future have been shaped by multiple generations of protest and kindred struggles globally.
About the author:
Alborz Ghandehari is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah. His research centers social movements in Iran and Southwest Asia/North Africa, as well as movements in the region’s diasporas.
To RSVP to attend the talk and book signing, click here

Visualizing Oral History
2025-03-04 15:00 - 18:00
Los Angeles-based artist Phung Huynh, whose work centers on Southeast Asian refugee experiences, will discuss labor issues through an immigrant/refugee lens.
She’ll share insights on her Metro public art commission, the 1990 Century City janitor strike, and Professor Virginia Espino’s oral history work on No Más Bebés. Together, they’ll explore how oral history and visual storytelling can shape meaningful community projects.

Date: March 4, 2025
Time: 3:30 – 6 pm
Location: Boelter Hall 2760

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The UCLA CSW|Barbra Streisand Center presents Thinking Gender 2025: "Gendered Labors and Transnational Solidarities"
2025-03-07 08:30 - 18:00 | Collins Alumni Conference Room at UCLA James West Alumni Center
Join the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center for their 35th annual graduate research “Thinking Gender” conference. The event will feature engaging student presentations and a keynote address by labor rights organizer Adriana Paz Ramirez (International Domestic Workers Federation). The UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment is a proud cosponsor of this year’s conference.
The 2025 Thinking Gender theme, “Gendered Labors and Transnational Solidarities,” highlights the rich repertoire of organizing strategies as well as contemporary and historical examples of campaigns led by precarious workers around the world. We are bringing together feminist, queer, and BIPOC scholars, artists, and organizers to reflect upon the meanings of labor solidarity and care to imagine a more livable society.
Event Details

Date: Friday, March 7, 2025
Time: 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM PST
Location: James West Alumni Center, The Collins Conference Room, Los Angeles, CA
To RSVP: CLICK HERE
