These are the winners of the annual LRAN New Scholars grants.

2023

Katherine Mott, Ph.D. Candidate in sociology at Syracuse University. Her project is titled “Press to End Nightmare: Exploring Cultures of Solidarity and Resignation in Retail Grocery Work.”

Nabila Farcin, Lecturer at East West University. Her project is titled "Fractured Foundations: Unveiling Access to Post-Accident Remedies by Construction Workers in Bangladesh."

Claire Cohen, Assistant Professor at the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College. Her project is titled "How Teachers’  Unions Can Separate Austerity Myths from Facts."

Sara Trongone, Ph.D. Candidate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her project is titled "A City to Win: Labor Militance and Strategy in Post-Recession Chicago."

Clara Ribeiro, Ph.D. Candidate in geography at the University of Washington. Her project is titled "Migration, Precarity, and Social Reproduction: Brazilian Workers in Georgia."

Brett Halperin, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Human-Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. His project is titled “AI is Soulless': Hollywood Film Workers Strike and Emerging Perceptions of Generative Cinematography.”

2022

Alejandra Quintero, M.A. student in Industrial & Labor Relations at Cornell University. Her project is titled: "The Tale of Two Campaigns: Reflecting on Two Union Drives at a National Legal Service Provider.”

Carla Lima Aranzaes, Ph.D. Candidate in the School of HRLR, Michigan State University & Destiny Blackwell Skinner from C.A.U.S.E. Recruitment Committee. Their project is titled: "Examining Worker-Led Organizing in the U.S. South: "Don't Quit. Organize!"

Dr. Ericka Wills, Assistant Professor at the School for Workers University of Wisconsin-Madison. The project is yet to be titled.

Jaylexia Clark, Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Her project is titled "The Covid-Impact: Analyzing the Economic and Health Impacts of Covid-19 on Work Conditions Within the Gig Economy Between 2019-2021."

David Thompson & Wade Rathke, representing ACORN International, United Labor Unions Local 100 &  Georgia State University MSW. Their project is titled "Surveying Working Conditions and Community Impacts of Atlanta-Area Dollar Stores."

Youbin Kang, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His project is titled “Solidarity and disenchantment: Varieties of public transit workers’ solidaristic labor actions in New York City and Seoul, 1970-2020.”

2021

Johnnie Kallas, Ph.D. Student in the Department of Labor Relations, Law, and History at Cornell University. His project is titled: "ILR Labor Action Tracker."

Joseph R van der Naald, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. His project is titled: "Organizing Without and Under the Law: Public Sector Unions in Michigan and Ohio, 1950-1985."

Arielle Milkman, Ph.D. student in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her project is titled: "Toxic Mobilities: Worker Exposure in Contract Firefighting."

Todd Lu, Ph.D. Student in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His project is titled "At the Crossroads of Climate, Jobs, and Justice: Local Climate-Labor Partnerships in North Carolina.

Gabriela Quintanilla, Xiomara Loarte, Liana Kallman, and Frida Garza, M.A. students in Labor Studies at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Their project is titled "A Research Project and Short Film on the Experiences of Poultry Workers in the Hudson Valley During the Pandemic."

2020

Aaron Arredondo (University of Missouri), The Nuevo Midwest: Racialized Organizations, Community Life, and Workplace Experiences in a Diversifying Agroindustrial Town

Venus Green (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Black Domestic Work in America: Struggles for Labor and Racial Justice in Times of Crisis

Kevin Lee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), “Alt-labor” Service Providers?: Considering Worker Centers as Workforce Development Actors

Katherine Maich (Pennsylvania State University), Cleaning, Cooking and Caring in the time of COVID-19

2019

Spencer Cox (University of Minnesota), Unfulfilled: The Social Pathology of Work in an Amazon Fulfillment Center

Aurelia Crant and Takahito Kudo (Wayne State University), The Impact of Work-Stress Factors on Safety and Health

Sarah Fouts (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) and Nikki Thanos (New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice), Documenting Worker Power Through the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice

Isaac Jabola-Carolus (City University of New York), Regulating the Care Boom: Labor Standards and In-Home Care Work in Three U.S. Cities

2018

Luke Elliott-Negri (City University of New York), The Fissured Workplace at Amazon- An Exploratory Study

Amelia Fortunato (City University of New York), Black Strikebreaking & Intraclass Labor Politics in the Progressive Era

Jessica Halpern-Finnerty (University of California, Davis), Inter-firm contracting, jobs, and inequality in the U.S.: A national, regional, and industry analysis

Eric Larson (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth), Mike Araujo (Rhode Island Jobs With Justice), and Heiny Maldonado (Fuerza Laboral), Working in the Shadows: Race, Immigration, and Mass Incarceration in “Creative Economies"

Alexandrea Ravenelle (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Good Gig Jobs or Bad Gig Jobs? The Impact of Sharing Economy Work on Career Trajectory

2017

Connor Donegan (University of Texas, Dallas), Labor, Disability and Migration in Florida’s Convict Leasing Program, 1877-1919

Connor Gadek (American University), Police Unions Prevent Police Reform: Anthropology of U.S. Law Enforcement Officers in Intra-Class Antagonism

Melina Juárez (University of New Mexico, Albuquerque), From Margin to Margin: LGBTQ Latinxs in the U.S. Workforce

Brenda Rodriguez (Johns Hopkins University), Jessica Cook (DePaul University), Richard Wallace (Workers Center for Racial Justice), Marsha Love (University of Illinois, Chicago), Structural Racism in the On Demand Economy

Eleni Schirmer (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Changing Structures, Structuring Change: A Critical Analysis of Teachers’ Unions, Racial Politics and Education Privatization Movements in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1965-present

2016

Lucius Couloute Jr. (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Working on the Margins: An Examination of Former Prisoners’ Precarious Work Experiences

Hannah Johnston (Queens University), Organizing in the Age of Uber

Tommy Wu (City University of New York), Political Economy of the Chinese Restaurant Industry and the New Regime of Flexible Labor

2015

Arturo Carillo (University of Illinois, Chicago), Organizing Immigrant Workers in Low-Wage Industries: A Cross-Sectional Qualitative Study of Chicago’s Worker Center Organizers

Joshua Drucker (University of Illinois, Chicago) and Jacob Lesniewski (Dominican University), Estimating the Economic and Fiscal Impact of Wage Theft

Rebecca Galemba (University of Denver) and Raja Raghunath (Workplace Rights Project), Wage Theft in the Construction Industry in Denver, CO

Fabiola Ortiz Valdez (Syracuse University), Milking Cows and People: Labor, Gender and Moral Economy in New York State’s Dairy Industry

Daisy Rooks (University of Montana, Missoula), Rethinking Labor-Environmental Coalitions in Rural Areas and Small Towns

Jovanna P. Rosen (University of Southern California), Project Labor Agreements: Addressing Inequality Through Urban Development