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LERA 24th Annual PhD Student Consortium

"Moving from Voice to Identity: Centering Workers’ Intersectional Identities in Theory & Research"

Saturday, June 4, 2022, 11:15 am – 1:30 pm ET
Plenary Stream
(Held in Conjunction with the LERA 74th Annual Meeting, June 2-5, 2022)

This consortium is sponsored by contributions from:
Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Florida International University, College of Business
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and IWER
Michigan State University, School or Human Resources and Labor Relations
Pennsylvania State University, School of Labor and Employment Relations
Rutgers University, School of Management and Labor Relations
University of California-Los Angeles, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment
University of Toronto, Center for Industrial Relations and Human Resources
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Labor & Employment Relations

24th PhD Student Consortium Co-Chairs:
Alysa Hannon Yaminette Diaz-Linhart

Alysa Hannon
Rutgers University 

Yaminette Diaz-Linhart
Brandeis University

 

"Moving from Voice to Identity: Centering Workers’ Intersectional Identities in Theory & Research"

This year’s PhD consortium reflects on the theme of LERA’s 74th annual conference, “Elevating Voice and New Voices in the Workplace and Beyond,” through the lens of recent scholarship in Industrial Relations (IR) that has called for a centering of workers’ intersectional identities as well as the socio-structural dynamics which both ground and shape them (Lee & Tapia, 2021; Tapia, Ibsen & Kochan, 2015). This work has critiqued ideas like the notion of an analytically leverageable ‘general worker’ and, relatedly, traditional conceptualizations of class and worker power which ignore social categorical identities and structures (e.g., race and gender, among others).

The consortium will feature two sessions, one panel and one workshop. In conversation with scholars leading this critical work, the first session will explore implications for the IR field and for labor scholarship, examining the assumptions that underly traditional IR theory and what is required to update and align them with workers’ lived experiences. The second session will explore ways of operationalizing these ideas in research by learning from and exchanging best practices with a group of senior PhD students who conduct practitioner-oriented research in direct collaboration with organizations and workers. Ultimately, the consortium aims to facilitate a conversation around what it means to move from voice to identity amid the broader context of this year’s conference and to inspire students to define the scope of future labor research.  

2022 LERA PhD Student Consortium Agenda

11:15 - 11:40 am ET: Participant introductions and welcome to the consortium by co-chairs
11:40 am - 12:20 pm ET: Panel   |   The Future of Industrial Relations and Labor Research: Making the Case for Critical (IR) Theory
 12:20 - 12:30 pm ET: Break
12:30 - 1:10 pm ET: Workshop  |   From Theory to Practice: Best Practices for Conducting Research in Collaboration with Workers and Worker Organizations 1:10 - 1:30 pm ET: Conclusion

RSVP

You will have the opportunity to RSVP to this event at the time that you register for the LERA 74th Annual Meeting, June 2-5, 2022, Virtual. If you are already registered and would like to attend this consortium, please contact [email protected] so it can be added to your registration.

Please also fill out this form to ensure the co-chairs have accurate information about the attendees and so they can prep the speakers to discuss the questions and issues that most interest you.

Registration

The registration fee includes access to both the PhD Student Consortium and to the entire 4 days of LERA meetings being held June 2-5, 2022.

Register at https://LERAweb.org/lera-74th-am. For best price register by the early bird discount deadline, March 25, 2022. Registration fee is deeply discounted for LERA student members.

Reimbursement

Depending on fundraising, students attending the consortium may be reimbursed all or a portion of the student rate ($45) for their meeting registration fees following the conference. You will need to be present at the consortium and sign-in in the chat, and following the consortium, refunds will made to the card you used when you registered.

References:

Tapia, M., Ibsen, C.L., Kochan, T.A. (2015). Mapping the frontier of theory in industrial relations: the contested role of worker representation, Socio-Economic Review, 13(1), pp. 157-184, https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwu036

Lee TL, Tapia M. Confronting Race and Other Social Identity Erasures: The Case for Critical Industrial Relations Theory. ILR Review. 2021;74(3):637-662. doi:10.1177/0019793921992080

 

Speaker Bios:

Tamara L. Lee, Esq. is an industrial engineer and labor lawyer by professional training. She received her Ph.D. from the department of labor relations, law and history from the ILR School at Cornell University. Her academic research focuses on the popular participation of workers in macro-level political and economic reform in Cuba and the United States. She also conducts research on the political practice of workers under the National Labor Relations Act, the intersection of labor and racial justice, cross-movement solidarity building and the impact of radical adult education on workplace democracy. Her teaching focuses on identity politics in the workplace, and labor market discrimination.

Maite Tapia is an Associate Professor at the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on worker voice within the workplace as well as worker organizing and movement-building within the broader society, confronting specifically workers' social identities and systemic inequality.

She received her PhD in the Department of Comparative and International Labor at the School of Industrial Relations at Cornell University in 2013.

She has published in leading scholarly journals such as the ILR Review, Industrial Relations, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Socio-Economic Review, Work Employment, and Society, the Journal of Industrial Relations, and the International Journal of Human Resource Management. In addition, she is the co-editor and co-author of a 2014 Cornell University ILR Press book "Mobilizing against Inequality: Unions, Immigrant Workers, and the Crisis of Capitalism" as well as the 2022 LERA Research Volume “A Racial Reckoning in Industrial Relations: Storytelling as Revolution from Within”. Her research has been funded by the Hans Boeckler Foundation. 

Professor Tapia received the John T. Dunlop award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) to recognize ‘outstanding academic contributions to research’ (2019) as well as Luis Aparicio Prize for ‘academic excellence’ at the International Labor and Employment Relations Association (ILERA) in 2021. She is currently a member of the Executive Board and Program Committee of LERA.

Mrs. Anna Roberts is a proud mother of 5 and wife. Blessed to be a member and Trustee of Fall River's African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and alicensed Cosmetologist and Instructor. Through that career, she found a passion to help others that were in need of support.  A combination of lived and worked experience fueled a passion in working with individuals dealing with mental health, substance use disorders, and homelessness/instability. Now a Certified Community Health Worker and Social Worker, Anna is a Housing Manager at Boston Medical Center and founded a  community non-profit organization, Together We Stand Corporation, that provides support for those in need through youth programming and sober housing in Fall River Massachusetts.