Upcoming Events
Past Events
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Alice Kessler-Harris Dissertation Prospectus Award
12/1/2022•VirtualThe Alice Kessler-Harris Dissertation Prospectus Award will be awarded to the best dissertation prospectus about working people, their lives, workplaces, communities, organizations, cultures, activism, and societal context in any period and place. All PhD candidates are eligible to apply.
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LAWCHA Dissertation Proposal Workshop
October 25, 2022•VirtualThe Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA) is pleased to announce its inaugural Dissertation Proposal Workshop. The workshop supports doctoral students working on dissertations about working people, their lives, workplaces, communities, organizations, cultures, activism, and societal context in any period and place.
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The Alice Kessler-Harris Dissertation Prospectus Award
12/1/2022•VirtualThe Alice Kessler-Harris Dissertation Prospectus Award will be awarded to the best dissertation prospectus about working people, their lives, workplaces, communities, organizations, cultures, activism, and societal context in any period and place. All PhD candidates are eligible to apply.
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Book Talk :Megan Birk, The Fundamental Institution Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms
August 18, 2022•Online
Please join The Labor and Working Class History Association on August 18, 7PM EDT for a discussion with Megan Birk as she presents her new book, The Fundamental Institution: Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms. As always, this event is free and open to the public.Read More -
LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Ángela Vergara, Fighting Unemployment in Twentieth-Century Chile
September 16 at 7PM ET•via Zoom
Register here to attend!
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LABOR OnScreen :Round Two!
THURSDAY, AUGUST 26th at 7 PM EST•via ZoomJoin Us for Round Two of LAWCHA’s Film Club, LABOR OnScreen! THURSDAY, AUGUST 26th at 7 PM EST. Register here! Dear colleagues and friends — We all had a great time at the inaugural session of LABOR OnScreen a few weeks ago, where we discussed the great movies Salt of the Earth and The Killing Floor. Turnout was impressive, with historians, public school teachers, students and labor activists in the mix, and the conversation was thoughtful and stimulating. The evening was made particularly special due to the participation of Elsa Rassbach, the producer of The Killing Floor, who shared her insights about making the movie — and how the proposed labor history series for public TV that The Killing Floor was to be part of got squelched. All in all a really enjoyable event.
- Spirited and Comradely Conversation Devoted to Essential Working Class Films Each Zoom session will consider two narrative (non-documentary) movies, linked by theme or genre; participants should view the films on their own beforehand (we’ll provide info about where they can be streamed)
- Come with a question related to one or both films, and dive into discussion about great labor-related movies!
- Open to Labor Historians and Educators, Union Members (and Supporters), Organizers and Activists, Movie Buffs, Students, and Anyone Passionate about Cinematic Explorations of Workers’ Lives
The theme for this conversation will be Retro Working Class Comedies, and the films we’ll focus on will be Car Wash (1976) and 9 to 5 (1980). Both are widely available for rent on streaming services like YouTube, Amazon, iTunes, and etc. 9 to 5 is also available on the Fox Movie Channel (FXM) if FXM is included in your cable subscription. These are both fun movies, of course, but they highlight realities for working people that remain relevant today. Join us for an engaging evening of movie talk! Attached is a flyer for the next session — please circulate it widely and invite interested friends and colleagues to join us!In Solidarity —Toni Gilpin Rick Halpern Anne BalayRead More -
LABOR OnScreen :Inaugural Session
Thursday, July 29th, 7 – 9 p.m. ET•via ZoomIntroducing the LAWCHA Film Club! LABOR OnScreen Inaugural Session: Thursday, July 29th, 7 – 9 p.m. EST Register here!
- Spirited and Comradely Conversation Devoted to Essential Working Class Films Each Zoom session will consider two narrative (non-documentary) movies, linked by theme or genre; participants should view the films on their own beforehand (we’ll provide info about where they can be streamed)
- Come with a question related to one or both films, and dive into discussion about great labor-related movies!
- Open to Labor Historians and Educators, Union Members (and Supporters), Organizers and Activists, Movie Buffs, Students, and Anyone Passionate about Cinematic Explorations of Workers’ Lives
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LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Alice L Baumgartner, South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War
July 22 at 7 PM EST•via Zoom
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Alice L. Baumgartner tells the story of why Mexico abolished slavery and how its increasingly radical antislavery policies fueled the sectional crisis in the United States. Southerners hoped that annexing Texas and invading Mexico in the 1840s would stop runaways and secure slavery’s future. Instead, the seizure of Alta California and Nuevo México upset the delicate political balance between free and slave states. This is a revelatory and essential new perspective on antebellum America and the causes of the Civil War.
Register here!
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Workers on the Front Lines :LAWCHA 2021 Annual Conference
May 26-28, 2021•Chicago, IllinoisBecause of the uncertainty caused by the global pandemic, LAWCHA has decided to move the 2021 Workers on the Front Lines conference to a virtual format. We hope that those who submitted a proposal will still participate. We are asking all panel organizers to let us know by November 30 if you or anyone on your panel wishes to withdraw your proposal. If we do not hear from you, we will assume that your entire panel still wishes to be considered for inclusion on the program. More details about the conference format will be announced as soon as possible. Please contact [email protected]
Read Morewith any questions. Be it in pandemics, natural disasters, industrial “accidents,” or wars, workers always have been and remain on the front lines. -
LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Deborah Willis, The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship
March 18, 2021 at 7PM EST•via Zoom
Register here to attend
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Gendering Labor History :A Conversation with Alice Kessler-Harris and Thavolia Glymph
February 25, 2021•via Zoom
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For thirty-five years, Alice Kessler-Harris worked to make gender central to
labor and working-class history through her role as an Editor of the Working
Class in American HIstory Series at the University of Illinois Press. She joined
founding editors David Brody and David Montgomery in 1985, shortly after
the third founding editor, Herbert Gutman, passed away.
In November 2020, Alice stepped down as an editor of the series, and we
welcomed Thavolia Glymph onto the board. Thavolia of course has done
critical work herself in bringing gender and race into the heart of our field. At
this historic moment of transition. LAWCHA is pleased to host a conversation
with Alice and Thavolia about gender and labor history.
The conversation will be moderated by Tera Hunter, another crucial player in gendering labor history.
We invite all LAWCHA members and friends to join us for a stimulating conversation!
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LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Toni Gilpin, The Long Deep Grudge A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland
February 18, 2021•via Zoom
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LAWCHA’s Pandemic Book Talks feature talks by LAWCHA members whose books launched in the midst of (or just before) the pandemic. Book talks feature a presentation and a discussion.
View the February 18th talk with Toni Gilpin on The Long Deep Grudge A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland.
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LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Alexandra Finley, An Intimate Economy: Enslaved Women, Work, and America’s Domestic Slave Trade
January 21, 7pm (EST)•via Zoom
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LAWCHA’s Pandemic Book Talks feature talks by LAWCHA members whose books launched in the midst of (or just before) the pandemic. Book talks feature a presentation and a discussion. Join us on January 21, 2021 for Alexandra Finley, An Intimate Economy: Enslaved Women, Work, and America’s Domestic Slave Trade.
Through the personal histories of four enslaved women, Finley explores the intangible costs of the slave market, moving beyond ledgers, bills of sales, and statements of profit and loss to consider the often incalculable but nevertheless invaluable place of women’s emotional, sexual, and domestic labor in the economy. The details of these women’s lives reveal the complex intersections of economy, race, and family at the heart of antebellum society.
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LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Jarod Roll, Poor Man’s Fortune: White Working-Class Conservatism in American Metal Mining, 1850–1950
December 17, 2020•via Zoom
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LAWCHA’s Pandemic Book Talks feature talks by LAWCHA members whose books launched in the midst of (or just before) the pandemic. Book talks feature a presentation and a discussion. Join us December 17 for Jarod Roll’s, Poor Man’s Fortune: White Working-Class Conservatism in American Metal Mining, 1850–1950 (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).
With painstaking research, Roll shows how the miners’ choices reflected a deep-seated, durable belief that hard-working American white men could prosper under capitalism, and exposes the grim costs of this view for these men and their communities, for organized labor, and for political movements seeking a more just and secure society. Roll’s story shows how American inequalities are in part the result of a white working-class conservative tradition driven by grassroots assertions of racial, gendered, and national privilege.
Please join us at 7pm (EST) on Thursday, December 17, 2020.
Please register here in advance and join us via Zoom. (link) -
LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Robert Chase, We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners Rights in Postwar America
November 19, 2020•via Zoom
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LAWCHA’s Pandemic Book Talks feature talks by LAWCHA members whose books launched in the midst of (or just before) the pandemic. Book talks will feature a presentation and discussion. Join us November 19 for Robert Chase, We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners Rights in Postwar America (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).
At 7pm on November 19 Robert Chase, Associate Professor of History at Stony Brook University, will give a 30-minute talk on Zoom about his new book, We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America, followed by Q&A.
Drawing from three decades of legal documents compiled by prisoners, Chase narrates the struggle to change prison from within. Told from the vantage point of the prisoners themselves, “We Are Not Slaves,” weaves together untold but devastatingly important truths from the histories of labor, civil rights, and politics in the United States as it narrates the transition from prison plantations of the past to the mass incarceration of today.
Please register in advance and join us via zoom (link).
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LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Touré Reed, Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism
October 15, 2020•via Zoom
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October 15, 2020
LAWCHA’s Pandemic Book Talks feature talks by LAWCHA members whose books launched in the midst of (or just before) the pandemic.
Join us for Touré F. Reed, Professor of History at Illinois State University
Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism (Verso, 2020)
View the book talk here.
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LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Marjoleine Kars, Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast
September 17, 2020•via Zoom
Read MoreLAWCHA’s Pandemic Book Talks feature talks by LAWCHA members whose books launched in the midst of (or just before) the pandemic. Book talks will feature a presentation and discussion. Join us September 17 for Marjoleine Kars, Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast (The New Press, 2020).
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The Challenges & Opportunities Ahead for Southern Workers :A Virtual Plenary Event hosted by The Southern Labor Studies Association
September 11, 2020 @ 4PM•via ZoomHosted by: Nancy MacLean William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy, Duke University Main Speakers: Marybe McMillian President of North Carolina State AFL-CIO Bill Fletcher Author, Activist, and Former Head of TransAfrica Forum
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