Graduate Student Symposium - Global Labour Research Centre

The GLRC is pleased to announce its upcoming 9th annual Graduate Student Symposium: Critical Conversations in Work and Labour. This conference is designed to showcase the scholarship of new voices in labour studies across a diverse range of disciplines. It is our hope that the workshop will provide an interdisciplinary venue for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to share their research in a collaborative and supportive environment.

Highlights

John Eleen Lecture: What is Antiracism? And Why it means Anticapitalism, by Arun Kundnani.
On February 20:
- The John Eleen Lecture will be held in Room 519 (Kaneff Tower).
- Breakfast, Lunch, Coffee Breaks will also be held at Room 519.
- Parallel panel sessions will be held in Room 519 (Kaneff Tower) and Room 305 (York Lanes).
- The Social Event will be held at the Break Room (Underground).
- You can find the detailed symposium program (including room number for each panel session) here.
On February 21:
- Parallel panel sessions will be held virtually, via Zoom.
- A Professional workshop will be held virtually, via Zoom. Invited panelists will talk about (i) key aspects of academic life and (ii) career paths beyond academia.
- You can find the detailed symposium program (including Zoom links) here.
After the conference, presenters will be invited to submit their papers to Workplace: a Journal for Academic Labor.

Organizing Committee

Alaa Abdelhamid, PhD student in Sociology, York University
Nicole Jokinen-Hurl, MA student in Sociology, York University
Tinu Koithara Mathew, PhD student in the School of Human Resource Management, York University
Julie Wilson, Undergraduate student in Political Science and Work and Labour Studies, York University

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of York University's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, as well as our co-sponsors, the Graduate Program in Development Studies, Department of Social Science, and the Geography Graduate Program, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change.

Call for Papers : Critical Conversations in Work and Labour

February 20 and 21, 2025

York University, Toronto, Canada

Deadline for submissions: December 8, 2024

The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) at York University invites proposals for presentations at its upcoming Graduate Student Symposium: Critical Conversations in Work and Labour, which will take place on February 20 and 21, 2025.

We’re thrilled to announce that the 2025 Graduate Student Symposium will begin with the annual John Eleen lecture by Arun Kundnani. Arun Kundnani is the author of What is Antiracism? (Verso, 2023), The Muslims are Coming! (Verso, 2014) and The End of Tolerance (Pluto, 2007). Born in London, he moved to New York in 2010 and now lives in Philadelphia. A former editor of the journal Race & Class, he is currently working on a biography of Jamil Al-Amin. The lecture will be on Thursday February 20, 2025 (9:00 am to 10:30 am).

We welcome submissions from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows on current topics in the study of work and labour. We will also accept up to 5 submissions from upper-year undergraduate students from York University’s Work & Labour Studies program. Our goal is to motivate new conversations on methodological and theoretical approaches, with topics including (but not limited to):

Inflation, wages, and class consciousness
Climate action and environmental justice
Artificial intelligence and platform technologies, and the future of work
Self-determination and community organizing
Precarity and the distribution of social risk
Social and spatial divisions of reproductive labour and carework
Queer, feminist, and intersectional approaches to labour studies
Colonialism and decolonization, and work
International divisions of labour, migration, and the social reproduction of inequality
Labour in the so-called “Global South,” decentering western perspectives
Work in informal economies
Law, rights, regulation and governance
Activist knowledge production

The symposium is designed to provide an interdisciplinary venue for students, post-doctoral fellows, and emerging academics to share their ideas and seek feedback in a collaborative and supportive environment. Submissions may include dissertation proposals or chapters, major research papers, or course papers. Participants are also encouraged to present on works in progress. In addition, symposium participants will be invited to submit their papers for consideration for publication to Workplace: a Journal for Academic Labor (Section: GLRC Symposia).

Professional workshop. We are excited to announce the inclusion of a special panel discussion at this year’s symposium, focusing on navigating the multifaceted world of academia. The invited panelists will explore the key aspects of academic life, including strategies for impactful research publication and career advancement. Additionally, we will discuss alternative career paths beyond academia, providing insights into leveraging academic skills in diverse professional settings. Whether you are a graduate student, an early career researcher, a seasoned academic, or someone considering opportunities outside the traditional academic path, this panel aims to offer valuable perspectives and practical advice to help you thrive in your chosen career.

Proposal Submissions

The Symposium accepts proposals internationally.

For Individual Papers submissions, please complete this form (you will need to provide a title, a 250-word abstract of the proposed presentation, and a short biography for individual presentations, including affiliation, current position, and research interests). Please indicate in the online form whether you can present (i) in-person, (ii) virtually, or (iii) either in-person or virtually. Sessions on February 20^th will be in-person and sessions on February 21^st will be virtual.

For Panel proposals, please contact directly glrc.conf@gmail.com, providing a title and 250-word summary for the overall session, along with titles, abstracts, and bios for all session participants. Also indicate whether the panel can take place fully in-person or fully virtually (the hybrid format will not available).

The deadline for submissions is December 8, 2024, by 11:59 pm ET.

Participants will be notified of the status of their proposal by December 20, 2024.

For any inquiries, please email: glrc.conf@gmail.com.

Registration

Registration is free for all attendees and presenters.

Honorarium

Presenters will receive an honorarium of $100 for their participation.

Publication of papers presented at the Symposium

Following the Symposium, participants will be invited will be invited to submit their papers for consideration for publication to Workplace: a Journal for Academic Labor (Section: GLRC Symposia). Workplace is a refereed, open access journal published by the Institute for Critical Education Studies (ICES). Authors will receive a small honorarium following publication.

Acknowledgements

Call for Papers : Critical Conversations in Work and Labour

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