November 2015 Contents Message from the Chair - Noreen Sugrue 2 Message from the Newsletter Editor – Mark Sherry 3 What to do? The path of a graduate student 4 Are there any jobs out there? 17 Chicago teachers strike looms as a possibility 23 Report on gender pay gap in Colorado 24 Unions and the middle class 25 Labor and Employment Relations Association Conference 26 SSSP 2016 Conference – Westin Seattle Hotel, Seattle WA 27 Position available 29 New article by members 29 Will you stand with Walmart Families this Black Friday? 30 Please renew your SSSP membership! The log-in page for renewals and new memberships is http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/255/fuseaction/ssspmember.portal/userid/-1 Message from the Chair - Noreen Sugrue First, I feel very privileged to be succeeding Jackie Krasas. She was a wonderful Chair and I know I speak for all the division members when I say “thank you for all you have done Jackie”. I also should note Jackie, you will not be getting off that easily as there are plans to ensure you continue being a leader in and for the division ? . I want to encourage each of you to submit a paper for the 2016 meetings. The topic, Globalizing Social Problems, is timely and certainly one that I know all of our members spend a lot of time considering. We are sponsors or co-sponsors of ten sessions covering a wide range of topics. Also, if you have colleagues who are not members of our division but have something to contribute please encourage them to submit a paper to one of our sessions; it is always good to get more people involved. Finally, for those of you working with graduate students, please encourage them to submit a paper to the student paper competition. The 2015 meetings in Chicago were excellent. At most of the SSSP sessions generally and the Labor Study sessions in particular turnout was quite good. The discussions were lively and thought provoking exchanges. That type of intellectual activity is only possible when you have wonderful scholars, young and not so young, who are willing to challenge as well as support each other. Therefore, to each of you: THANK YOU! I would be remiss if I did not remind, cajole, encourage each of you to ensure that your membership in SSSP and the Labor Studies Division is up to date. If you have colleagues or students who have any interest in the questions or issues we focus on please encourage them to join the division. I know that meetings are a great time, and for many of us one of the only times, when we can see friends, hear great papers (and know that there are far too many we just could not get to!), and catch up with those we see too infrequently. I also know that asking people to attend a business meeting is not among the most enticing invites any of you will receive. Nonetheless, I ask your indulgence as I request that as many of you as possible please attend the division business meeting if you are in Seattle. It is at that time that you can offer guidance and ideas for session topics, recruitment, and a host of other issues. The meetings never run more than 1 hour. And if people wanted, depending on the time, I would be delighted to move the meeting to a coffee shop or a bar! Before closing I want to acknowledge and thank Mark Sherry for all of his work on behalf of the division; in particular I want to extend a special thanks to him for all of his wonderful work as editor of the newsletter. Mark, please know how appreciated you and your efforts are. I again just want to thank each of you for your efforts on behalf of and support of the Labor Studies Division. I hope to see many of you in Seattle as well as at the wonderfully fun Divisions’ Reception. Please join us on Facebook and Twitter. If any of you have ideas for how to improve what we do or just want information, please do not hesitate to contact me at nsugrue@illinois.edu. Again, thanks to all of you. Best, Noreen Noreen M. Sugrue University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Message from the Newsletter Editor - Mark Sherry I’ve changed the format somewhat in response to some of the comments I heard from Graduate Students at the SSSP Conference. In particular, I’ve written a much longer article about the career options for grad students. This is a really pressing issue for lots of our members, so I thought it deserved detailed treatment. You may notice that the Newsletter has not been produced for a couple of months. This is because I have been dealing with a serious health emergency in my family. I hope to produce Newsletters more often next year, and return to its regular bi-monthly schedule, all being well. I personally want to thank all the people who served the Section last year (particularly outgoing Chair Jackie Krasas), welcome the new Chair, Noreen Sugrue. I am really confident that under Noreen’s leadership, the Section will continue to thrive. I also want to thank everyone who volunteered to stand for election – we all appreciate it! I personally have some good news – I was promoted to Professor at the University of Toledo, as of Fall 2015. If you have any news – promotions, publications, jobs, articles, or anything else, please contact me and I’d be happy to publicize them. My email is markdsherry@yahoo.com What to do? The path of a graduate student Mark Sherry The University of Toledo Email: markdsherry@yahoo.com One of the things that I talked about with Graduate Students at the Annual Meeting was their uncertain paths – particularly how to land jobs. I will be organizing a session at the next AGM on employment in labor-related fields, both inside and outside academia. But I wanted to address these concerns immediately, since they seemed really pressing concerns for those who raised them. And since grad students are some of the most vulnerable people in our industry (particularly if they teach as well), I think these issues need to be discussed at length. I don’t want to assume that every grad student who reads this Newsletter is that far along their academic career, so I will provide my advice about grad school, from start to finish. Some of this may be old hat to you, but perhaps there will be something which you find useful. I’ve included a list of recent jobs that I’ve seen advertised (in the month before I wrote this article, from October to November), just to try to give you an up-to-date sense of who is hiring, what they are looking for, and so on. I will also talk about something I see as crucial: framing your work, so that it reaches the widest possible audience. And in terms of connecting with a larger body of people, I will also stress the central importance of networking and making connections with people in the field in order to maximize your job opportunities. I do want to stress that I personally don’t believe that education is just ‘a means to an end’ – with the goal of a job. There are many reasons why people are attracted to graduate study outside the realm of employment – particularly if they hold values which are deeply critical of the education/employment nexus. Having said that, this paper is a direct response to questions that grad students asked me, and I’m sure others, in our organization’s largest annual get-together, so they deserve serious contemplation. These are my personal reflections, and they may not represent the opinions of others in the field. So I hope some of these insights assist in terms of your graduate career. If you are grad students, you are emerging scholars in the field, and like everything else, take whatever you like, filter out the messages you don’t agree with, and if the paper is somewhat useful I will be satisfied. If you are not a grad student, but you work with them, I hope this is an article you will share with these emerging scholars. Beginning your grad studies If you are in the early stages of a graduate career, the first important choice to make is choosing a topic. It’s ideal to have a topic that you love and that can control your life for a long time. It’s important to choose carefully for a number of reasons. If you are concerned about employment in academia, try to ensure that it’s engaging with topics that are of interest to a large number of people (but if you are just interested in a particular topic for the joy of learning then this doesn’t need to be such a priority). One of the ways to do this is to read the current journals (rather than books, which take so much longer to publish) and find what topics people are writing about. And look at BOTH sociology studies journals and equally importantly look at the journals in other areas where you might be finding work or funding. Think creatively about how you can address the marginalization of particular sub-fields (and their positioning relative to wider concerns of the discipline). This was one of the concerns I talked about with emerging labor scholars at the SSSP Annual Conference – that they were concerned “there are no jobs in this area.” I don’t actually agree with this, for reasons I will spell out later, but I do think it is important to acknowledge those fears from the outset. In terms of overcoming the marginalization of certain sub-disciplines (in this case, labor studies), I personally believe that it is very useful to connect with many other areas of the discipline. If you can frame your work in ways that fits with other sub-disciplines, you may have a wider range of choices of employment options in the long-run. Let me give some examples, which I hope illustrate the point I am making: * One of the most common areas of employment in Sociology lies in teaching research methods. There is absolutely no reason why students in labor studies cannot promote their skills in methods, and even make that a focus of their work. Most of these jobs involve both quantitative and qualitative work (as you can see from the list of recent jobs I provide at the end of this article). So try to get as many skills, opportunities, and teaching opportunities in that area as you can. Often the other ‘area of specialty’ is left open, as you can see in the jobs listed at the end of this article. * Almost all of our work falls under the broad ambit of “race/class/gender” – so make sure you are highlighting all those areas of your work, and potentially look for publications in that field, as well as labor studies. There are so many large race/class/gender courses in our field, institutions are often looking for people who can teach them. That’s an opportunity for you. * Explore the ways your own work could fit into the Sociology of Culture. The sociology of culture is one of the biggest areas in our discipline; it is another place to network, find out about positions, and mold your own academic approach. * You may also be engaging with the issues of organizations, and organizational studies (which span far wider than Sociology alone) if you are writing on labor and work. Even seemingly-opposite fields (such as commerce and business) employ people who use these skills. It is possibly another area you can mine for employment opportunities. * Labor issues are social movement issues. See is you can engage with that literature – and that set of employment opportunities – in your work. * Our work is always about social inequality. Make sure you can frame at least some of your work in terms of that wider sociological agenda. * Engaging with Latino/a Studies might be an option for people who are working on issues related to migrant workers and various advocacy groups. Engaging with this field may have two positive effects: increasing your own academic knowledge (which makes it worthwhile no matter what), and increasing the areas in which you might find work. If you’ve chosen that path, it can help your career greatly if you network widely with that community of scholars, advocates, organizations, and activists. * African American people constitute some of labor’s most marginalized members. The campaign for $15 and other minimum-wage activities have been greatly influenced by struggles of African American people, and there have been overlaps and solidarity between activists from the Black Lives Matter campaign and this labor campaign. You can absolutely engage with this set of concerns in any work on labor campaigns regarding the minimum wage. * Issues associated with Occupational Health and Safety, another possible employment area, always emerge if you are discussing injured workers (and campaigns around them). They are not simply labor issues. Potentially, if you really focus on this area, you could encompass other fields such as Medical Sociology and even Disability Studies. The broader you cast your net, the more opportunities there are. * The lines are blurred between political sociology and the various fields of sociology. Political campaigns by unions demonstrate these blurred lines, and employment opportunities can arise in Politics as well as Sociology – another connection you might possibly like to explore. These are only a few examples, but I provided them because I think it’s useful to think as broadly as possible when you consider career options. Often simply reframing your existing work can mean that it addresses issues relevant to many fields beyond Sociology. Choosing an Advisor It’s tempting to just consider shared intellectual interests, and your ability to get along together. But there is more to be done here. Some Professors take on students but don’t get them to graduate, and I’d personally recommend working with someone who is a “finisher”. You want someone with a reputation for supporting their graduate students to completion – and even beyond, hopefully. Likewise, I’d personally recommend want someone who is generous with their intellectual effort and their time ahead of someone who is more well-known, but inaccessible. One of the functions of grad school, for me, is deep intellectual engagement with a cohort of other scholars who are interested. Of course, other grad students are an important element of this cohort, but it’s also vital to have an advisor who engages, enthuses, challenges, and stimulates your thinking. And I think that if you have three people on your committee, having three moderately well known scholars who push you to achieve your intellectual potential could be more useful than seeing a famous scholar once every three to six months. Likewise, an advisor who is intellectually lazy (not keeping up with recent scholarship in the field) can be a major drawback too. Getting a Grad Assistantship Not everyone gets (or wants) a Grad Assistantship. If you want one, you need to make that very clear to people. However, like other social resources, Grad Assistantships are influenced by people’s cultural capital (their appearance, behavior, background, and so on) and they are unevenly metered out. So there is one sense of joy, if you are fortunate enough to get a Grad Assistantship. And you certainly can use the opportunity of a Grad Assistantship to demonstrate a range of employable skills, including verbal and written communication skills, organization skills, networking skills, critical thinking skills, teaching skills and so on. But Grad Assistantships can also be a minefield, if you find yourself being expected to do more work than you are paid for, or if you find yourself developing new conflicts with your supervisors because of your new role. Like any employment opportunity, the possibility of communication breakdown exists here too. Getting Teaching Experience The opportunity to gain teaching experience as a grad student is invaluable. But unfortunately, in some Universities and Colleges, teaching opportunities are limited. In these cases, express your interest as early as possible and talk to as many people about your interest in teaching. This means definitely talking to people other than your advisor, but being mindful of that relationship also. Offer to give guest lectures. If you do a guest lecture, design a teaching evaluation sheet and ask for feedback from students. Also ask the faculty for written feedback about your performance as a teacher. All of these documents can go into your teaching portfolio. Also, ask questions of your peers and colleagues. How do they handle difficult students? How do they stimulate discussion in a class that is not responding? Write their comments in your diary, and experiment with them in your teaching. In your teaching portfolio, you will need to include a statement of teaching philosophy. As you do this, read as widely as you can on pedagogy and experiment with different teaching techniques. Find what works for you. Record your experiences in a diary – what works and what doesn’t work. Recording successes and failures is an important sign of reflexivity, perhaps one of the most important attributes of teachers. Your teaching portfolio should include the statement of teaching philosophy, teaching evaluations, a course syllabus if you have taught a class, and statements from “teaching observers” if your institution has them. But remember, the unionization campaigns of grad teaching assistants demonstrate what an exploited workforce this is – you need to be careful in this process that your own goal, getting a graduate degree, is not derailed by tasks that are not central to your personal goals. Exploitative teaching environments are one of those traps. Managing your Supervisors/Referees As an emerging scholar, you alone are ultimately responsible for the success of your graduate career. And a really important part of that process is developing a respectful long-term relationship with your supervisors, mentors or committee members. That’s difficult, because they are in a position of power over you, are often marking your work, and often misunderstand or misinterpret the nuances of your work (since you are more intimately aware of the literature in that particular topic). Part of your responsibility as a grad student then is to “manage” your supervisors, to keep them impressed by your work and your progress, and to generate excitement about your work. That may mean you have to enact performances that conceal hidden troubles and anxieties, and it may mean your relationship is not as honest as you would like it to be, but don’t forget that these people are not primarily your friends, they are your supervisors. And that means you need to be incredibly careful in managing those relationships (particularly since they will be writing letters of recommendation for you). There will probably be political tensions between you, some that you consider ethical issues, and that is absolutely a minefield that you need to navigate very carefully. Your supervisor will probably be well connected in the field, and you don’t want to interrupt the progress of your career because of ill-thought out remarks. Of course, there are some lines in the sand that people will not cross, and you have to make those tough decisions on your own. These often involve large issues (eg discrimination, intolerance, harassment) but they often are fought out at a terrible emotional cost. When you have experienced problems or communication breakdowns with an advisor, you need to be incredibly mindful of this when considering whether to include that person in your list of referees. Don’t include anyone who will not give you thoroughly wonderful references. If you don’t feel you can trust the person, that’s a hugely important sign, so go with somebody else. Publishing The grad school experience is a learning curve for publishing. It seems daunting at first, but publishing your work is just one more step in your career, and one that you will have to master sooner or later anyway. The sooner you start, the better. It’s great if you can develop some writing habits that work effectively for you – a place that inspires you, socks or clothes that make you feel relaxed and comfortable, or a time of the day when you feel more like writing than others. There are many areas where grad students can publish. It seems to me that one of the reasons grad students may be reluctant to publish is a lack of confidence. Don’t let that hold you back, please. As scary as it is to publish your early work, it is a vital mechanism through which you develop your academic profile. Opportunities to publish are a chance to become well known in the field. Also, use term papers as a basis for publication. And publish from your dissertation, as much as possible. Publish in different disciplines – often a paper can be reworked to address a slightly different theme and be published in a completely different journal. One important lesson you can learn is to understand the publishing hierarchy. When you are being evaluated in terms of your work, the publishing hierarchy works like this. From top marks to lower marks: an article in top ranked journal, lower ranked journal, book chapter, conference or seminar paper, submitted articles, completed draft of a dissertation chapter. Book reviews, depending on their length and content, appear at different places on the hierarchy in different disciplines. As a grad student you ought to be reading all the latest books in the field, so get into the habit of writing book reviews. It keeps you abreast of major works in the field, and enables you to get free copies of books! Expect rejection letters when you publish. And use these rejection letters to creatively redraft your work, to expand on certain ideas. Then resubmit, and if you are unsuccessful with the first journal, submit to another journal. It is important to think globally when you are publishing. There are many regional journals that you consider, as well as discipline-specific journals. Think about any article you’ve read and been interested in – where was it published? Could you publish there? Attending Conferences Conferences have many functions for grad students, including: * Informal socializing and making friends; * Networking and examining employment opportunities; * Getting feedback about your thinking from a wider range of people than you normally would encounter at your school; * Developing your professional reputation; * Gaining practice writing papers and providing opportunities for an added publication on your resume; * Enabling you to critically examine the state of the discipline, including identifying its strengths and weaknesses and deciding whether you even want to be there. Make the most of any conference opportunities that come your way. I personally think that there are few opportunities as valuable as the chance to meet other scholars in your field. I’ve personally reflected on my own meetings with scholars – and particularly thought about their ‘off the cuff’ remarks. It’s these remarks which have often had the most profound effects on the way I’ve re-read their work. For instance, I often raise the work of some scholars with these colleagues to hear their responses – and if I can have a reasonable amount of time with them chatting about the field, I pay deep attention to their responses. If people aren’t mentioning a wide range of authors, for instance, scholars who are diverse in terms of race/class/gender/sexuality/embodiment, then I re-read their work, critically, looking for those gaps. As others have indicated elsewhere, looking at the references of people’s published papers tells you a great deal. There have been campaigns about the under-citation of female scholars. Read the work of people you meet and look for these flaws. Finding flaws or limitations in someone else’s work, even if they are a leading scholar, is not a bad thing; far from it. It points you in directions that may help fill a gap in the literature, and that is always one of the scholarly contributions you want to make. Writing grant applications In some institutions (particularly teaching-intensive ones) it can be difficult to get experience writing grant applications as a graduate student. Alternatively, if you work in a research-focused institution, it can be easy (and even burdensome) to be required to constantly write grants without any real acknowledgement. Certainly, it is rare for faculty members to voluntarily ask grad students to collaborate on grants as a co-researcher. I truly hope that one day, the campaigns of grad students are successful in recognizing all their invaluable work, and that it becomes impossible for scholars to ignore their academic and other contributions to various grant applications. That may go some way to providing more recognition for hard work, as well as providing more tangible evidence of a grad student’s experience. If you work in an institution with little opportunity to develop grant-writing skills, do try to find some opportunities – even if it means going beyond your institution and into the community. Many community organizations are desperate for funding, and they could use the assistance of a skilled writer/researcher to get additional funding. If you are determined to get a grant, there are many opportunities out there, including Federal grants, State Grants, private foundations, city funds, and school awards. Remember, most grant applications are unsuccessful, but the experience gained in planning out an application (discussing your approach, doing a literature review, designing a budget, and collaborating with others) is an incredibly useful one which you can use in many other contexts, including in job interviews. Getting service experience The “service” component of academic work is not particularly valued in considering job applicants in many institutions, but certain programs have a stronger emphasis on this issue than others. If you want to get service experience, aim to get on Student, Departmental or University committees. And in some institutions, you can use community involvement as not only a commitment to social justice but also as evidence of your commitment to service. All the while, these experiences will give you opportunities to develop your effective meeting skills – or at least your patience! I do want to stress, however, that I’ve never seen an academic job advertised which prioritized service. Don’t let that take up too much of your time. A little is good; a lot is too much! FINDING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES This was the issue which was raised at the last Conference a lot, which actually inspired me to write this article. As you enter the end of your graduate student career and start thinking about transitioning to other roles, you will undoubtedly start to think about employment opportunities. Like the other facets of graduate life, there is a skill to finding employment opportunities. We all know about the listing of positions in The Chronicle of Higher Education, but these are only a small proportion of all academic positions. Try the ASA job bank too… and if you are not a member because of financial issues, ask someone who is if you can take a look at what is advertised. There are many research and teaching positions, including casual positions, which are not advertised in the Chronicle. Sometimes, you find out about these jobs through your informal networks (cultural capital always matters!) and sometimes you find out about them through other websites. Some of the websites you might like to check are: https://www.higheredjobs.com https://academicjobsonline.org http://www.academic360.com/ https://careers.insidehighered.com/ http://www.universityjobs.com/ If you are prepared to travel, there are many international sites which advertise jobs: http://academicpositions.eu http://www.jobs.ac.uk/ These are two that I found within 10 seconds of a Google search – look for positions in specific countries if you want! Abandon academic snobbery Hopefully, if your heart is with the labor movement and working people, you have a passion for equality. This basic labor movement value system can guide you in your academic career. There seems to be a tendency among some scholars and students to valorize/glorify/idealize Ivory League schools, at the expense of other Universities, Colleges and other institutes of higher education. If you ever want to see this kind of intellectual snobbery at work, go to one of the really large professional conferences and do some people-watching. Watch the ways some people interact after they read the institutional affiliation on another person’s nametag! That says a lot. Undoubtedly, the big, well-known Universities have funds and resources, institutional support, intellectual engagement, and great students to work with – that’s why so many people want to work there. BUT, in terms of making a difference in the lives of working people and their families, you can often have more opportunities to make community connections, get involved with local labor movement organizations, and have a real impact on local campaigns in many other institutions, particularly those which are located in less affluent communities. Managing scholarly excellence and community activism is a lifetime challenge; your values drive it, not the particular institutional location you find yourself in. Don’t be dissuaded from an academic career in a poor community simply because the campus might not have the status of other schools. Again, listen to your heart, and remember the reasons why you got into the field. You’ll find that most communities, and most labor organizations, are receptive to labor scholar/activists that honor the labor principles of equality, opportunity, decency, making a difference in people’s lives, and the battle for better jobs, wages, and conditions. That might be your niche, and that is no less valuable than a fancy title at a fancy university. Finding your niche in professional organizations Just as it is important to find the right fit between your skills/goals and the place where you are employed, it is also important to find a supportive, collegial place where you can meet people with similar interests, engaging in similar work to you. There are so many professional organizations where you might find an intellectual home. Of course, we want you to feel welcome and a special part of SSSP, and the Labor Division in particular. But check out as many organizations as you can, as you are establishing your academic profile. As a grad student, spend a bit of time every month thinking about your networks, your organizational affiliations/connections, and always be open to exploring new connections/opportunities. Look at the websites of as many professional organizations as you can, join their Listservs or social media groups, and contact the organizations, asking to speak to someone who is involved in your area of interest. Here is a brief list of some of the groups which I found after searching the internet for about one minute: * American Sociological Association * American Studies Association * Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology * Association for Humanist Sociology * Eastern Sociological Society * International Sociological Association * International Visual Sociology Association * Mid-South Sociological Association * Midwest Sociological Society * North Central Sociological Association * Pacific Sociological Association * Rural Sociological Society * The International Rural Sociology Association * The Society for Applied Sociology * The Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences * The Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction * Sociologists for Women in Society * Southern Sociological Society * Southwestern Social Science Association There are plenty more, but if you find one whose work you value, and where you feel included and valued, then it might be worth exploring how you can get involved. Listservs, Facebook and Twitter One of the ways you can engage with people from many different institutions is through Facebook groups, Listservs and Twitter. There are so many Facebook groups discussing sociological perspectives – our own group is on https://www.facebook.com/groups/sssplaborstudies/ The national SSSP Facebook group can be found at https://www.facebook.com/SSSP1org There are many other Sociology groups as well. I personally find the “Teaching with a Sociological Lens” Facebook group useful https://www.facebook.com/groups/teachingsoc/ It is a very active group and helps you in terms of making connections with other scholars, providing practical suggestions for classroom issues, and also providing teaching resources. People in that group are very generous in terms of sharing course materials, syllabi, and so on. Listservs can take on a life of their own, however, and you need to be aware that your contributions to Listservs also helps establish your professional reputation. A hasty email that’s ill-considered can damage your reputation! Sending an Application for an Academic Position The basics: in your application you should include: a cover letter, resume, (at least) a dissertation abstract, writing sample, sample syllabus, teaching evaluations, and teaching syllabus. Your referees usually send letters of reference separately, and confidentially. Tailor your application to the specific job you are applying – explain what about that school, or that location, means that your work is perfectly suited to its needs. If any grad student would like more information about the application letter in the next edition of the Newsletter, please email me at markdsherry@yahoo.com and I will gladly do so! Expanding your job search skills: thinking outside academia Most of the jobs available to people with graduate degrees don’t exist inside academia, but outside it. And unfortunately, there is some snobbery which seems to exist that such positions do not provide the same opportunities to display critical thinking or research skills as in Universities or colleges. A graduate degree shows that you have significant research, organization, communication, and project management skills. All of these skills are highly valued by employers such as: - Federal Government - State Governments - Municipal Governments - Unions - Advocacy groups - The private sector - Nonprofits - International agencies - Funders who provide grant or contract work. Consider all of these in your job search strategies! And if a position is not available, often having an internship can lead to the organization creating a position just for you. That may be worth exploring. Again, if you would like more information about careers which are outside the realm of academia, let me know! Email me at markdsherry@yahoo.com and I will write an article on that in the next Newsletter. Interviews Think of interviews both as auditions (you never know exactly what they are looking for, and you might just not be a good fit, even if you’re terrific) and also as practice opportunities. You get a lot more skilled at answering questions with more interview experience, and you come to know what to expect from the process. Take it all in, regardless of the final outcome. Remember, you are interviewing them, just as much as they are interviewing you. They have to impress you too, so that you want to work there. And you are searching for a good match too! So think of it as yet another opportunity to presenting yourself and your work with confidence and enthusiasm. I think there are a few strategies which are particularly useful in preparing for interviews: 1. Have a few 2-3 minute “scripts” rehearsed so that you can describe your research interests succinctly to complete strangers. Emphasize different aspects of your work in each script – one for those interested in your particular sub-discipline, and one for particular individuals in the Department who you have researched on the College or University webpage prior to your campus visit. 2. People will undoubtedly wine and dine you. Be really careful in this process. I like to eat at the hotel (away from the stress of interviewers) and then simply snack on any food offered when I am taken out to dine. It makes it easier for me to concentrate on the substantive discussion (because we all know that you are still being interviewed while you eat). And if you are eating less, then your chances of spilling things on your clothes are reduced! 3. Have some thoughts about how your work can intersect with people in this Department and gently introduce them to the conversations. This could be as simple as saying “Well I saw you wrote an article on (…) and I thought that was fascinating because I’ve also been studying (…) and I think there are a lot of similarities in our work. I’d really like to discuss that with you more, sometime”. Your interview presentation This is the time when you have the greatest amount of attention, so you really need to present yourself and your research interests in the most favorable light possible. Once again, read as widely as you can about the entire interview process. I’d recommend the website www.gradschool.about.com In your presentation, don’t summarize your entire thesis – just give people a taste of your work, and the kinds of things you do. Try to tailor your talk to an audience that might have some general interest in the topic, but not nearly as much knowledge about it as you have. Also, include some information about your plans for future work in the presentation as well. And make sure you leave time for questions after your presentation because the faculty will want to see how you respond to them as an intellectual cadre as well. Being Offered Positions So, you’ve come so far, so good. And you get an offer. After dancing for a while, you start to think – what do I ask for? Well, there are a couple of things to remember: you can get far more than a salary – this is the time when you are in your strongest bargaining position you will ever be in. Don’t be too keen to say, “Yes, I accept” straight away. Ask about secretarial and grad student support, if that hasn’t been discussed already. Ask about computers, travel, start-up funds, and so on. Ask about disability accommodations, if you need them (including mental health accommodations). Get as much as you think you can. Don’t be afraid of “asking too much” – it’s a game, and they know that. People will tell you if something is impossible; no one will tell you if you aren’t asking for enough. And ask trusteed peers, colleagues or your grad supervisors what they recommend, in case you’ve forgotten anything. Conclusion Carefully choosing a topic, selecting an advisor, negotiating relationships and exploring publishing opportunities can help you make your grad school experiences a success. The grad school process offers many opportunities for personal and professional growth and your journey can be much smoother if you have a clear idea of what is involved in managing the supervisor relationship, how to obtain teaching and grant writing experience, and make the most of networking opportunities through listservs and conferences. As well, it is really important that you are aware of the variety of employment opportunities available to you upon graduation, inside and outside academia. If you choose to develop new courses or programs, then the skills you’ve developed in grad school in “managing upwards” will be incredibly useful again. SSSP Labor Division Facebook page Please join the Division’s Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/sssplaborstudies/ Are there any jobs out there? By Mark Sherry One of the things which I hear often, and which breaks my heart (because it sends a message of demoralization to grad students) is that “there are no jobs out there.” There are two reasons why these messages of demoralization cause so much pain to me: first, I don’t think they are accurate, so they are misleading early career scholars who are very vulnerable; and second, I think (from a labor standpoint) messages of demoralization often lead to a more compliant workforce, which self-disciplines in a manner consistent with neoliberal governmentality. I wanted to add this article to the Newsletter to counter these claims. Recently, I saw an article on the ASA website that talked about trends in Sociological Employment, but it used data from 2013. You can find it here: http://www.asanet.org/documents/research/pdfs/2013_ASA_Job_Bank_Analysis.pdf I’ve written this article partly as a response to that – we are now two years further on from the Global Financial Crisis and the recession, and employment patterns are not the same as they were then. This is not particularly my area of research, so I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on it. What I did was just look at the academic jobs in the US advertised in the ASA Job Bank from October to November 2015. I cut out the ones at the Full Professor/Chair/Dean level, because I am really writing this article for grad students, as a continuation of the previous article. I only spent four days researching and writing this article, from start to finish. I could have found many more jobs if I wanted to – I didn’t even look at jobs outside academia. As I said in the previous article, there are MANY more jobs out there which are not advertised on the ASA Job Bank – in particular all those advertised in the Chronicle, but also those advertised by other organizations, and on list-servs, Facebook groups, emails, and many more informal channels. And there are many adjunct, temporary, or limited time appointments which are not even advertised. But I made this list – simply by copying and pasting job numbers, job titles, and making a brief summary of the area of specialization, just by going through the ASA Job Bank. The only reason I chose that was because it was a source which was fairly easy for me to access, and it is well-known in the profession. Here is the list of positions I compiled. Again, you will notice some of the patterns I discussed in the previous article – there are a lot of jobs focused on teaching methods courses, many jobs that are framed in terms of inequality (broadly speaking), others that have area of specialization open, and many others where a labor scholar could potentially have engaged in work that also fits that sub-discipline. As well, there would be many jobs in joint departments – such as a Department of Social Work and Sociology, or a Department of Anthropology and Sociology, which would not have been advertised in this Job Bank. Jobs advertised on the ASA Job Bank October-November 2015 Job 11399: AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow Job 11629: Research Fellow - The American Association of University Women (AAUW) Focus on gender equity in education and the workplace (specifically mentioned STEM focus). Job 11625: Assistant Professor, Appalachian State University, Specialization focusing on the intersections of health and social inequalities. Job 11592: Assistant Professor, Arizona State University Desired areas of foci include any of the following: economic justice, poverty, income inequality, or examination of ways that structural inequality affects socio-legal justice for vulnerable populations. Quantitative focus. Job 11609: Assistant Professor, Binghamton University Research interests in the areas of social justice and human rights as it pertains to communities that are marginalized or disenfranchised within the context of the US and/or internationally. Job 11585: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Birmingham-Southern College Candidates who are able to support and assist in the development of an undergraduate public health program. Other substantive areas are open but might include social stratification/mobility, gender/sexuality, racial/ethnic inequality, or globalization/global issues. Job 11431: Assistant Professor Tenure Track, Boise State University Areas of specialization are open. Job 11594: Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University The Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University encompasses traditional topics of interest to demographers, such as migration and family processes, as well as a much broader range of issues, including environmental change, social determinants of health, gender, family structure, residential segregation, and the consequences of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Job 11578: Assistant Professor – Sociology, California Polytech State University Specialization in organizations and global political economy. Job 11631: Asst. Prof Sociology, California State Univ-Sacramento Specialization in Research Methods/Statistics, other areas open. Job 11590: Assistant/Associate Professor, Central Connecticut State University Teaching and research focus in Gerontology Job 11597: Lecturer - Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Clemson University We seek applicants with experience teaching introductory level sociology courses, including Introduction to Sociology and Social Problems. Additional expertise in the areas of marriage and family, education, social inequality, urban sociology, social psychology, theory, substance abuse, and/or criminology is especially welcome, although all areas of specialization will be considered. Job 11505: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Coastal Carolina University In addition to teaching general sociology courses, the successful candidate must have teaching and research experience in social inequality (specifically Race, Class, and Gender) and in Social Justice… training and experience to teach at least two (2) of the following existing courses: Poverty, Environmental Sociology, Community Development, Social Policy, and Social Movements. Job 11426: Postdoctoral Fellows, Colby College Areas of specialization open. Job 11425: Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Colby College. Areas of specialization open. Job 11272: Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genetics, Columbia University. Candidates should have a doctorate (e.g., PhD, JD, MD) in the social and behavioral sciences, genetics or other basic sciences, epidemiology, nursing, medicine, law, or one of the humanities, and substantial empirical research skills. Job 11542: Postdoctoral Scholar, Columbia University. Interdisciplinary positions in Society and Neuroscience Job 11644: Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University. Preference given to fellows with research interests in areas broadly related to the CPC’s four main foci: families & children; health behaviors & disparities; poverty & inequality; and immigration & diversity. Job 11608: CFR 2016–2017 Fellowship Programs, Council on Foreign Relations Demonstrated commitment to a career in foreign policy and interest in U.S.-Japan relations. Job 11575: Assistant Professor, East Carolina University … research agenda to include research in the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. This could be accomplished through a number of sociological specialty areas including, but not limited to, environmental sociology, community and rural development, poverty and inequality, food and food security, race and ethnic inequality, aging, or health disparities as examples. Job 11508: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Tenure-track, Elon University Focus on (1) race and ethnicity and (2) crime/social justice. Additional expertise in one or more of the following areas - community studies, economic sociology, globalization/industrialization, and political sociology - are welcomed. Job 11589: Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Emory University Culture, with a substantive focus on Chinese culture and society. Job 11643: Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice (Tenure track), Ferris State University Masters in Criminal Justice, Criminology, Sociology, Political Science, Public Administration or related field. A Ph.D. or Ed.D. is required in order to obtain tenure. Job 11293: Multiple open rank professor positions, Florida State University Areas of specialization are open. Job 11628: Part-Time Visiting Lecturer - Sociology/Criminology, Framingham State College This position involves teaching one section of CRIM 201: White-Collar Crime. Job 11579: Assistant Professor, Georgia State University Demonstrate a commitment to examining pressing global challenges with a transnational dimension, with particular emphasis on one or more of the following areas: the challenges of cities, including urbanization, urban politics and development or urban violence; human migration, trafficking and human rights; and global health and security. Job 11616: Assistant Professor, Hartwick College …expertise in Criminology and quantitative research methods with preference given to those with sub-specialties such as Criminal Justice and/or other related fields of expertise. Job 11568: Lecturer in Social Innovation, Harvard University The position is open to both scholars and practitioners with a deep understanding of the practice and leading intellectual debates related to social innovation through philanthropy, impact investment, social enterprise, and the nonprofit sector. Job 11636: Sociologist, High Point University We are especially interested in candidates with a desire to teach a required research methods course covering both quantitative and qualitative methods which is offered every other year. Although candidates’ primary areas of specialization are open, those who can teach in two or more of the following areas may be given preference: Mass Media & Society; Race & Ethnicity; Education and Society, Sociology of Family, or Social Psychology. Job 11599: Assistant Professor, Hunter Coll of the City Univ of NY We seek a sociologist for a tenure track position at the Assistant Professor level with demonstrated expertise in one or more of the following areas: race and ethnicity, urban sociology, health and medical sociology, and/or comparative cross-cultural and historical sociology. Job 11408: Assistant Professor Sociology, Idaho State Univ.-Pocatello. Research interests should include either criminology and deviance, gender and sexuality, health and illness, or families. Job 11570: Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology. We seek a methodologically engaged scholar in any social science discipline (except history and psychology) to help us develop a degree and build capacity in the broad area of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and to contribute to an established program in Social and Economic Development Policy (SEDP). We seek a scholar with an established record of research employing both quantitative and qualitative methods. Job 11564: Assistant Professor, Ithaca College. We seek a faculty member to contribute to the interdisciplinary Counseling Minor… Successful candidates will be expected to teach Mental Health in Historical and Social Contexts and Counseling Theory & Dynamics, as well as other courses that integrate sociological and psychological perspectives on mental health and counseling. Job 11484: 21st Century Cities Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Johns Hopkins University …primary interest in conducting research and analysis related to issues of urban policy. To be eligible, applicants must be focused on an important issue area in urban policy… Job 11184: Sociology Assistant Professor Tenure Track, Kalamazoo College A focus on international political ecology and the ability to teach quantitative and/or qualitative research methods is required. Job 11424: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Loyola University of Chicago …expertise in qualitative methods… substantive interests are in areas of department needs and/or strengths, such as gender, religion, immigration, or urban society. Job 11614: Assistant/Associate Professor of Sociology/Criminal Justice, Tenure Track, Malone University Ph.D. in sociology, criminal justice, or a related field and an active research/scholarship agenda… A specialty in the field of criminal justice/criminology/restorative justice (broadly defined) is essential. Job 11595: Assistant/Associate Professor of Sociology, Manchester University No specialization indicated in advertisement. It simply stated “Responsibilities include teaching Introduction to Sociology, Sociological Theory, Self and Society (Social Psychology), Sociology of Religion, and Sexuality and Gender, and additional courses in the candidate’s area of specialization.” Job 11538: Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Manhattan College. Areas of specialization should include one or more of the following: critical criminology; sociology of law; transnational crime; gender and crime; race and crime; deviance; youth in conflict with the law; sexual crimes; critical police studies; and white collar crime. Job 11516: Assistant Professor of Sociology, McKendree University We seek candidates with expertise in the study of race and ethnicity. We particularly encourage applicants with interests such as: Latino Studies, intersectionality, immigration, social justice and/or public sociology. Job 11576: Tenure Track Position for a Sociologist, Middlebury College. Priority will be given to scholars who work in a substantive policy area that includes poverty, family, community or immigration. Job 11465: Assistant Professor of Instruction, Northwestern University. The successful candidate will be a key participant in the cross-disciplinary training in quantitative methodology and statistics for social scientists at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Job 11577: Postdoctoral Fellowships in Global, Comparative, or International Affairs, Northwestern University. …Applications are welcome from scholars whose research addresses global, international, or transnational social processes, problems, governance, or conflicts, from any of a range of social science or interdisciplinary perspectives. Job 11353: Assistant Professor, Occidental College. We invite candidates that support the commitment of the department to social, economic, and environmental justice in their teaching, research, and service. While the area of specialization is open, we are particularly interested in candidates whose work focuses on the intersection of the urban environment and political economy in the context of the development of a greener and more sustainable economy. Conclusion This was a four-day search of one Job Bank, limited to academic jobs, and limited to the US (because their search engine requires you to enter one limitation). It didn’t include jobs advertised in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and it didn’t look at jobs advertised in other websites, or advertised in other organizations. Next time someone tells you there are “no jobs” in the field, take a deep breath, thank them for their advice, and research jobs for yourself. There are far more jobs out there than many people suggest. Grad students: you constitute 40% of the SSSP membership. If there is anything in particular that you would like me to discuss in the next Newsletter, email me: markdsherry@yahoo.com Please consider submitting a paper for the 2016 meetings -- the Labor Division is sponsoring or co-sponsoring a number of interesting sessions. Also, encourage graduate students to submit their work to the paper competition. All of the information for both submissions can be found on the SSSP web site.  The SSSP website is http://www.sssp1.org/ LABOR NEWS Chicago teachers strike looms as a possibility By Mark Sherry The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) suggested to its members that they start saving 25% of their income in order to prepare for a possible protracted strike. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) just cut $200 million dollars from its budget. CPS is openly discussing layoff which would occur in February. Potentially, that would involve 5000 layoffs in the second semester, massively disrupting student education. Because negotiations are ongoing, the strike might not occur. But before a strike take place, the union would have to go through processes such as going to fact-finders to try to resolve the issues. Two months ago, the CTU issued a report called “Special Education Services in Crisis at CPS,” which critiqued the terrible cut-backs in special education staffing. Under the term “right-sizing,” over 700 jobs and $40 million were slashed from the CPS special education budget. “The CTU finds these cuts to be not only untenable, but also unsupported by any data grounded in student needs,” the report stated. In 2012, there was a seven day strike by teachers in Chicago, over issues such as benefits, job security, evaluations, and training. That dispute raised issues around educational justice, national education reform, standardized testing, and charter schools (which are usually non-unionized and typically employ less experienced teachers). Another interesting dynamic which is occurring in Chicago is that the union is conducting a “practice strike vote” – a poll of the members, essentially. This “practice vote” is undoubtedly a response to the state laws that require a 75% vote for a union to create picket lines. Tip for grad students: This would be a great topic to write about! The conflicts between the teachers’ unions and the City of Chicago have been a major issue for a long time now. Interviewing teachers, union officials, education activists and City representatives would be a great topic if you are interested in education. Lots of great race/class/gender dynamics to explore, as well as issues of neoliberalism. And if you are looking at the Special Education cuts, lots of disability angles to discuss too! The issue of “practice strike votes” is also a fascinating one for labor scholars. So are the rights of public sector employees – and most of the major industrial battles in the US in recent years have been over these rights. Report on gender pay gap in Colorado By Mark Sherry A report by the Institute for Women’s’ Policy Research which was released on October 27 indicated that women in Colorado “earn $10,000 per year less than their male counterparts, are 30 percent more likely to live in poverty, and are 65 percent less likely than men to own businesses.” You can find the report at http://statusofwomendata.org/app/uploads/2015/10/R467.pdf Some of its main findings are: * “Hispanic and Native American women in Colorado earn about half of their white male counterparts’ earnings, at 53.8 and 55.7 cents on the dollar, respectively.” * “At almost every educational level, women in Colorado earn less than men with lower educational qualifications.” * “If progress toward closing the gender wage gap continues at the current rate since 1960, women in Colorado will not achieve equal pay with men until the year 2057.” These alarming statistics are reported even though “the number of women in managerial or professional occupations increased by 6.2 percentage points between 2001 and 2013, from 36.4 percent to 42.6 percent.” Unions and the Middle Class By Anna Neller University of Toledo Anna.neller@rockets.utoledo.edu Over the past two decades, the American work industry has been consistently defined by two trends: the number of workers who are members of labor unions and the slow decline in the middle class. A recent article by Freeman, Han, Midland, and Duke, highlights the strong connection between the decrease in labor union members and the diminishing middle class. Here are some of the conclusions from their article, which is entitled How Does Declining Unionism Affect the American Middle Class and Intergenerational Mobility? http://www.nber.org/papers/w21638 1) Union workers are disproportionately in the middle-income group or above, and some reach middle-income status due to the union wage premium; 2) The offspring of union parents have higher incomes than the offspring of otherwise comparable non-union parents, especially when the parents are low-skilled; 3) Offspring from communities with higher union density have higher average incomes relative to their parents compared to offspring from communities with lower union density. The authors state that “These findings show a strong, though not necessarily causal, link between unions, the middle class, and intergenerational mobility.” Editor’s note: while the above article adds new information about the positive intergenerational effects of union membership, and about the positive effects on communities of high rates of union membership, it also reinforces the idea – long recognized in labor studies – that unionization results in much higher wages – union membership pays. Labor and Employment Relations Association 68th Annual Meeting, May 26-29, 2016, Millennium Hotel, Minneapolis, MN?   Employment Relations in the Age of Uber and the Gig Economy: Assessing our Past, Present, and Future.  We cordially invite submissions of symposia, workshops, and individual papers for the 2016 Annual Meetings of LERA, to be held May 26-May 29 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The goal of LERA’s annual meetings is to bring together people from a wide spectrum of viewpoints, and we encourage proposals from labor, management, attorneys, neutrals, and researchers – to discuss important and timely issues in the world of work and employment relations.     Proposals relevant to this year’s theme are particularly encouraged – including outsourcing; unregulated, contingent, and low-wage work; inequality, and union/management responses.   For academic submissions, we welcome a wide range of disciplines – including sociology, political science, economics, labor and employment law, industrial relations, history, urban planning, geography, public policy and human resource studies – and the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including workers, investors, managers, unions, and communities.   Academic symposia should include representatives from backgrounds in non-university contexts.  Representatives from government agencies and non-profits are encouraged to submit workshop proposals that address practical skills and mastery of tasks relating to regulatory oversight and enforcement.     The LERA 68th Annual Meeting will be held in conjunction with the 2016 Industry Studies Association Conference, May 24-26, both to take place at the Millennium Hotel in Minneapolis. Our two meetings will overlap on Thursday, May 26, and will feature joint sessions and joint special events.   To access more information and online submission forms, please visit: http://www.leraweb.org/2016-call-for-proposals Those wishing to submit single papers rather than sessions are encouraged to submit those as well, and details can be found online at the page listed above. Contact LERAoffice@illinois.edu if you have any questions.  Submission Deadlines November 15: Symposia & Workshop Proposals December 15: Full Individual Papers 2016 SSSP CONFERENCE, AUGUST 19-21, 2016 SEATTLE, WA David A. Smith, SSSP President University of California, Irvine In the mid-twentieth century, the SSSP was established to apply sociological theory, methods and research in the study of social problems. Its proponents were leading voices for applying the sociological imagination to relevant issues in our society, challenging our discipline, as Alfred McClung Lee did, to broaden the answer to the question, “Sociology for whom?” The point was to develop a diversity of approaches, often boldly cutting across disciplinary boundaries and frequently empowering previously marginalized voices, which would integrate a variety of techniques of data collection and analysis and conceptual innovation in the service of understanding and potentially “solving” real-life social issues, and perhaps discomfiting some power-holders and disturbing the status quo along the way. This vision still inspires us today. Sociology in the US was a thriving enterprise at the time. And the SSSP founders were forward looking, challenging sociology and social science to “do better” by pushing it to fully embrace social justice. But, from our vantage point in a new millennium, the sociology of that era (including that of our SSSP progenitors) seems surprisingly insular: The vast majority of the research in books and journals and the teaching in classrooms focused on the United States or, occasionally, other “advanced” societies. Indeed, the idea of “society” itself was primarily identified with the nation – and the implicit assumption was that even large-scale social change was largely explained by the unfolding process of “modernization” that was inherently national in character. There were some prophets even then: C. Wright Mills’ famous exposition of the “sociological imagination” (in his 1959 book) highlighted the central role of comparative and historical perspectives in our discipline, but his was a veritable “voice in the wilderness.” The critical turn in the 1960s and 1970s (whose leaders often strongly identified with the SSSP) not only brought a new focus to issues of race, class and gender, but also reinvigorated comparative and historical analysis. This led to a major “paradigm shift” in macro-structural research and cross-national studies, initially toward global political economy/world-system analysis, and later toward other forms of global sociology, including the world society/neo-institutional approach, and a blossoming interest in migration and various transnationalisms, etc. Today, there is a broad consensus that we live in a world dominated by “globalization” (though, of course, there is much less agreement on precisely what that means). A robust field of current research directly focuses on understanding global political economy, world cultural influences, and the ubiquity and importance of international networks. A special issue of our journal devoted to “Globalization and Social Problems” in 2001 and the subsequent founding and rapid growth of the SSSP Global Division marked the rising interest in global/international issues within our society. This work is diverse and includes studies on changing international divisions of labor; the transnational nature of race, class and gender hierarchies; population dynamics and migratory flows across the entire earth; the unequal spread of science, technology and innovation; and the worldwide dynamic of today’s ecological crisis, among others. Clearly, the 2016 SSSP conference should be a platform to discuss these obviously “global” social problems – they are among the world’s most pressing. Indeed, arriving at some sort of “solution” to vexing issues like world climate change, intensifying global inequality, and the threat of war in an era of weapons of mass destruction are imperative for the survival of humanity on this planet. But I hope this theme is not limited to a few explicitly global/comparative sessions or papers, or the work of some of us who specialize in this sort of research. My view, perhaps in the tradition of SSSP, is a much more “radical” one than that! While I know that many of my colleagues, in their narrow silos of specialization probably don’t spend much time considering this, in fact, I would argue that ALL of the social problems we study today, in fact, are impacted by various global forces. Virtually every subfield and nearly all research – including that which seems to have much more narrow geographic or institutional foci – can be enriched by “bringing the global in,” and locating the specific sociological facts in term of their places in a matrix of various worldwide vectors of global influence, flows, and structures. Inequalities of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation/identity, aging, health, labor, and class in this country (and around the world) are increasingly and inexorably connected to worldwide currents; institutions like schools, the family, the criminal justice system, workplaces and neighborhoods are also rapidly “globalizing.” If we “leave this out,” our work will be not only scientifically “incomplete,” but also less likely to be relevant for formulating strategies for social change. I challenge all of you to bring a “global imagination” to your analysis to complement our sociological one: To remain relevant in our 21st century world – and honor the best traditions of SSSP – this is an imperative, not an option! It is very appropriate that this particular conference will occur in Seattle. Not only was this the flash-point of massive demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in 2001 (bringing together, in the famous parlance, “turtles and teamsters” as well as an international cast of feminists and people of color: all in a protest against global capitalism). The city is also a key node geographically positioned on the Pacific Rim and, increasingly is at the center of dynamic networks of world trade, commerce, communication, migration, and technological change. It is a place where there is much inequality and many social problems, but also a vibrant social activist community. What a marvelous venue to discuss globalizing social problems! Consider yourself invited! Editor’s note: see the call for papers for the 2016 SSSP Conference here: http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/655/fuseaction/ssspsession2.publicView POSITION AVAILABLE From Susan Moir, Labor Resource Center, UMass Boston I am very pleased to let you know that the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston is seeking a new Director. This is a faculty position at a senior level (either associate professor of full professor) with tenure. We anticipate that the new Director will begin September 1, 2016. It will be her/his job to expand the Center and, in particular, to expand the undergraduate major in Labor Studies. The job description is posted at: http://umb.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=65198 Please help us find the best person for this job by passing the posting on to your friends, colleagues and comrades. Thanks very much for your help. Susan Moir New article by members - Robert Perrucci and Carolyn Cummings Perrucci Congratulations on the following article! Robert Perrucci and Carolyn Cummings Perrucci, “The Triple Revolution, 1965-2015: Revisiting Institutional Social Problems.” International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, Volume 52, Number 2, October 2015. Will you stand with Walmart Families this Black Friday? (Reproduced from an email sent by Our Walmart) For families struggling with food insecurity and hunger, the holiday season can be the hardest time of the year. Unfortunately, many Walmart workers and their families live this reality every day. That’s why we’re taking action and asking our supporters to join us. During some of the most transformative movements in our country’s history, civil rights and social justice advocates have participated in fasts to demonstrate their commitment to a cause and to shine a light on injustice. This Thanksgiving, OUR Walmart members are fasting to call attention to the hunger crisis facing hundreds of thousands of Walmart associates and their families. Every day, the Waltons force workers to fast because they can't afford to eat. We shouldn’t have to pool our money together to buy something to eat for lunch. We’re sick and tired of watching our families, coworkers, and communities suffer. This Thanksgiving season, we’re fasting to take a stand against hunger, and we're calling on our friends and allies to join us. We know that together, we have the power to make real change. We won wage increases for half a million U.S. associates, putting $2.7 billion directly into the pockets of Walmart's lowest paid associates. Now other retailers are raising wages in response, which will generate another $4 billion for the families and communities of the country’s lowest paid retail workers. This Black Friday, we need our supporters—we need YOU—to join us by committing to join our fast or come to an action. Join us in sending the message that no one who works for the richest family in the world should have to go hungry. Thank you for all that you do. Tyfani Faulkner Sacramento, California OUR Walmart Organization United For Respect at Walmart, a D.C. Non-Profit Association popularly known as “Our Walmart,” has the purpose of helping Walmart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Walmart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Walmart publicly commit to adhere to labor rights and standards. OUR Walmart has no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with OUR Walmart as the representative of its employees.