Labor Studies: A.A., A.S., B.A., B.S.

Program Details

Labor studies comprises an examination of work, workers, and worker organizations, both historically and in contemporary contexts. It provides the opportunity for workers/students to critically examine the forces and relations of power that shape their lives, and to collectively assess ideas, policies, and worker-centered strategies for social change and justice.   

A liberal arts/social science-based mode of inquiry, Labor Studies draws upon the methodologies and subject matter of a wide range of academic disciplines in order to bring into focus the social, cultural and political presence of workers and the organizations that represent them.  The goal is to engage in an educational process that enables workers to situate themselves in relation to broader processes of political-economic and cultural change and encourage informed and active citizenship.   In a Labor Studies classroom, students’ experience, as workers, is a point of departure for ongoing academic inquiry into the historical and contemporary role of work, workers, and the institutions they create in the making of a democratic society.   Labor Studies courses also provide understanding of relevant methodological approaches. 

Below are the Labor Studies program’s foundational outcomes and examples of the courses that meet them.

FOUNDATION 1: EXAMINE LABOR HISTORY, AND THE ROLE OF WORKERS AND WORKER-BASED INSTITUTIONS IN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE.

LABR 2010US History: Workers' Perspectives4
LABR 3042Labor, Education, and Social Progress4
LABR 3072United States Labor History4
LABR 3090Labor & the Sociological Imagination4
LABR 3120The Political Economy of New York City: Workers' Perspectives4
LABR 3155Global History: Workers Beyond the West4

FOUNDATION 2: EXPLORE RELATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS OF POLITICAL ECONOMIC POWER IN THE WORKPLACE, INCLUDING THOSE RELATED TO ENDURING CLASS, GENDER, AND RACIAL INEQUALITIES.

LABR 1010Class Race & Gender for Workers4
LABR 1040Economics for Workers4
LABR 3005Collective Bargaining4
LABR 3025Diversity in the Workplace: Union Perspectives4
LABR 3060Labor Law4
LABR 3130Women, the Economy & the Trades4

FOUNDATION 3: ANALYZE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL EXPRESSION THROUGH THE ARTS, THE LABOR MOVEMENT, AND WORKER POWER. 

LABR 1050Literature & Society for Workers4
LABR 3135Working-class Themes in Literature4
LABR 3150Labor on Film4
LABR 3160Public Art as Social Practice: Labor & Cultural Organizing4

A variety of degree designs can correspond to the above foundational outcomes. While no individual degree program need include all of the following, Labor Studies students consider such topics as:

  • The breadth of labor studies — the interdisciplinary characteristics of Labor Studies; methodologies that labor studies specialists draw from the social sciences and humanities; subject matter from other disciplines relevant to labor studies.
  • Labor history — the impact of workers and labor movements on historical development; how history has shaped labor's role in society; how organized workers and those outside trade unions have come to recognize distinct interests and traditions; how workers formulated strategies for defending and extending their interests in light of employer interests and government policy.
  • Institutional dynamics — what labor organizations do and how they function; how workers utilize political institutions to achieve their goals; how family, community and educational structures define labor; how racial, gender and ethic identities influence work, the workplace and the labor movement.
  • Social and cultural factors — how class, racial, ethnic and gender divisions function within society; how social identities are formed and social inequalities maintained or modified; how people experience and affect social structures and institutions.
  • How the economy affects labor — how market economies create the framework for labor movements; how worker and employer interests manifest themselves in the workplace; how wages are determined; how local, regional and international economic development affect labor.
  • Labor-management relations — how workers organize unions; how workers bargain for and enforce contracts; how labor addresses such issues as wages, hours, health and safety, and social benefits; how management responds to worker strategies; how legislation mirrors and influences labor relations; how government's role in labor-management relations changes.
  • Workers outside the United States — the degree to which the histories, interests and institutions of workers in other countries are similar to those of their counterparts in the U.S.; regional or global trends that affect workers in different parts of the world.
  • Images of workers — how images of work, workers and their organizations are depicted in literature, the arts and the media; how workers create images of themselves.
  • Theories of the labor movement — philosophies that analyze, influence and reflect labor’s growth; how the labor movement shifts divergent perspectives regarding short-term and long-term objectives.

NOTE: The Labor Studies area of study is offered only in New York City and through online study.

Learning Outcomes

  • Students will be able to examine labor history, the role of workers and worker-based institutions in effecting social and political change.
  • Students will be able to explore relations and institutions of political economic power in the workplace, including those related to enduring class, gender, and racial inequalities.
  • Students will be able to analyze the relationship between cultural expression through the arts, the labor movement, and worker power.