Greetings from the Higgins Labor Program at the University of Notre Dame, where we are actively building our online presence with original content. One of our signature features is the Labor Song of the Month, a vehicle for lovers of labor and music to riff on a work-related tune — a classic protest song, a pop ditty about work, a rock rant about class, etc.
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The rise of contingent or precarious contracts within academic markets is the latest manifestation of the regulatory failures that bedevil delicately balanced apprenticeship institutions.
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Usually I fear that the enterprise we call social media presages worldwide doom, but once in a great while I find it promises whimsical delight, as when a Facebook friend recently began posting seemingly random snippets of song lyrics. It’s been a fun diversion identifying the songs and coming up with witty rejoinders while ignoring posts from others demanding that I “like” the American flag and join boycotts of the National Football League (NFL).
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Our monthly series on new books in labor and working-class history continues with Emily E. LB. Twarog’s Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in Twentieth-Century America, released today by Oxford University Press.
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Always, on the first day of class when I taught the introductory United States history survey, whether as a graduate student or later as visiting faculty at different universities, I asked the students why they thought they were required to take the course.
Read more →Working groups, involving facilitators and up to twelve discussants, allow conferees to explore in depth a subject of shared concern before and during the annual meeting. In these seminar-like conversations, participants have a chance to discuss questions raised by specific programs, problems, or initiatives in their own public history practice with peers grappling with similar issues.
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October 31, 2017 will mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s defiant act of protest against the Church. What does this distant anniversary of a theological controversy have to do with the labor and class issues of our time?
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I am very glad to have been asked to contribute to this blog. The world of contingency, especially in the history and labor studies disciplines, has been my own personal world since 1980, with a very few breaks. I have been privileged to participate, almost continuously, in the labor movement and the part of the faculty labor movement that represented contingent faculty for better, or worse in some cases.
Read more →In the summer of 2005, I was young undocumented immigrant, with little hope and few prospects for a dignified future. Having just graduated high school not long before, I watched as my friends began college, took their first full time jobs, or joined the military.
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