The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) is a vibrant, pan-university community of scholars, organizers, activists, and others committed to confronting the challenges of work today across the globe. The Centre has a plethora of people actively engaged in public policy discussions and wider agendas for social change. Though we approach things with varying perspectives, across a wide range of disciplines, we endeavour to make good on York University’s mission: Tentanda Via: The way must be tried. It is not an easy task, particularly in this moment, but we believe it is a worthy and necessary collective pursuit. To this end, the GLRC serves as an incubator for those committed to shaping work and social life in positive community-rooted ways.
As you might expect, our members engage in a range of research activities, from faculty presentations to supporting conferences, workshops and other research dissemination events. The GLRC seeks to bolster public dialogue on real-world impacts of research, including through our publication series. We also organize graduate student initiatives like our annual, in-person Graduate Student Symposium. More recently, we have begun to offer undergraduate student training in the form of a worker organizing workshop, which we hope to both continue and broaden its reach.
We have pushed to extend our work in other ways. Most notably, our members are actively involved in workers’ education workshops and courses, including our Workers’ Justice course focused on engaging workers in nearby communities surrounding York’s Keele campus. Here, we complicate distinctions between teaching and research, and challenge conventional – and, dare I say, tired – understandings of knowledge production as something only possible in university settings. The renewal of workers’ education is a pivotal task in these urgent times.
In all these ways and more, the collectivist project that is the GLRC welcomes your interest and involvement.
Come join us!
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I’m delighted to take on the role of Director, and to join the dedicated and vibrant community of scholars, practitioners and students at the GLRC. I’m fortunate to inherit the solid foundation provided by past directors Mark Thomas and Stephanie Ross, and interim director Kelly Pike.
This is an important moment for the GLRC community. We are experiencing a time of turbulence in the diverse world of work. Multiple forces – such as the climate emergency, forced mobility and immobility, and automation – converge to threaten livelihoods of individuals and groups all across the globe. At the same time, growing inequality, fractured social relations, and historical and ongoing structural violence provoke great rifts between us, often setting up fierce competition and conflict rather than cooperation and creativity. Rapidly shifting global landscapes provide both opportunities and challenges for real-world research, practical education, and engaged leadership on pressing issues related to work, labour and livelihoods.
My vision for the GLRC is to enhance, expand and mobilize our diverse and inclusive community of scholars and practitioners to advance engaged, relevant, and political research to critically examine and address these urgent issues. The GLRC is well-positioned for encouraging and supporting trans-disciplinary collaboration, imagination, and action, as it has become a hub for pan-university research excellence and collaboration amongst York’s nationally and internationally renowned faculty who study work and labour issues. The GLRC also facilitates graduate and undergraduate student training and community-building, promotes community engagement for social justice-oriented research through links to a substantial community of practitioners and the broader public, and acts as a vehicle for internationalization, pursuing research and learning connections through collaborative international research partnerships.
I look forward to working with faculty, students and community partners to cultivate and showcase imaginative and collaborative research and dialogue.
The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) is a vibrant, pan-university community of scholars, organizers, activists, and others committed to confronting the challenges of work today across the globe. The Centre has a plethora of people actively engaged in public policy discussions and wider agendas for social change. Though we approach things with varying perspectives, across a wide range of disciplines, we endeavour to make good on York University’s mission: Tentanda Via: The way must be tried. It is not an easy task, particularly in this moment, but we believe it is a worthy and necessary collective pursuit. To this end, the GLRC serves as an incubator for those committed to shaping work and social life in positive community-rooted ways.
As you might expect, our members engage in a range of research activities, from faculty presentations to supporting conferences, workshops and other research dissemination events. The GLRC seeks to bolster public dialogue on real-world impacts of research, including through our publication series. We also organize graduate student initiatives like our annual, in-person Graduate Student Symposium. More recently, we have begun to offer undergraduate student training in the form of a worker organizing workshop, which we hope to both continue and broaden its reach.
We have pushed to extend our work in other ways. Most notably, our members are actively involved in workers’ education workshops and courses, including our Workers’ Justice course focused on engaging workers in nearby communities surrounding York’s Keele campus. Here, we complicate distinctions between teaching and research, and challenge conventional – and, dare I say, tired – understandings of knowledge production as something only possible in university settings. The renewal of workers’ education is a pivotal task in these urgent times.
In all these ways and more, the collectivist project that is the GLRC welcomes your interest and involvement.
Come join us!