The UO’s Labor Education and Research Center is launching a new speaker series with presentations on the Greek financial crisis, organizing by women and issues of race and labor.

The Labor Research Colloquium will bring together UO faculty and graduate students from across disciplines to explore labor-related issues. Talks will be held in January, February and May in the Miller Room of the Erb Memorial Union with a video link to the UO’s White Stag Building in Portland.

“Most adults spend most of their waking hours at work,” explained LERC associate professor Gordon Lafer. “What happens in those hours — and how it shapes the rest of our lives — is an extremely rich topic for scholarship. By launching a new and ongoing colloquium series for UO scholars, we hope to encourage more research in this field.”

The colloquium reflects the broad reach of labor studies. The field draws interest from researchers who look at a range of social, economic and cultural issues through the lens of labor and those who provide it.

“Labor is a topic that is studied by political scientists, historians, law faculty, and sociologists, in international studies and ethnic studies, and in women's studies and numerous other disciplines,” Lafer said. “And it's made richer and more intelligent by being able to bring those different backgrounds to a common discussion.”

In addition, Lafer said, the Labor Education and Research Center is in a good position to help faculty and graduate students make connections with labor unions and other workers' organizations in Oregon who may be good partners for field research.

Information on the colloquium is available on the event’s Facebook page. The speaker schedule is:

Jan. 24, 4-5 p.m.
Geoff Kennedy, instructor in political science and international relations will discuss Greece’s financial crisis and how labor law was changed, wages were lowered and unions attacked.

Feb. 13, 4-5 p.m.
Larissa Petrucci, doctoral student in sociology, will talk about organizing by women and nongenderbinary employees in high-tech fields.

May 2, 4-5 p.m.
Political science professor Joe Lowndes and ethnic studies professor Daniel HoSang will discuss how ideas of race get reworked in different times, such as how poor and working-class white workers are now described in terms previously used for the African-American poor.