We are thrilled to be launching the Murphy Institute Blog.  The Joseph S. Murphy Institute (JSMI), part of the School of Professional Studies at the City University of New York, comes out of a singular collaboration among labor unions, city workers, community organizations and academic institutions and their faculty and staff. JSMI is the place where people who make the city run come to study how to make New York and the rest of the world a better place to live in and to work.

In our classes, degree and certificate programs, public events, and New Labor Forum journal, members of the diverse and vibrant Murphy community directly engage the most pressing issues facing working people in New York City and beyond, including:

• low wage work and widening inequality;
• immigration; gentrification;
• organizing rights and strategies;
• public administration and privatization;
• health care policy and costs, union contracts and city budgets;
• elections and politics;
• employment trends and unemployment rates; and
• local concerns and global developments

The Murphy Institute Blog is a window into this dynamic intellectual and political engagement. Each week our contributors –faculty, staff and, students, along with community allies and supporters – will share their ideas and their work on these and other issues important to working people.  You might read about the history of May Day, or find an invitation to an organizing conference, or consider sides of a debate about union representation of adjunct faculty.  You might listen to a summary of a research project completed by an urban studies M.A. student, watch a video of a job action coordinated by a labor studies certificate alum, or read a short story by a community studies undergraduate.  Videos of our public discussions, panels and meetings will be uploaded and occasionally live streamed; provocative and insightful articles from New Labor Forum will be introduced, linked to, and commented upon.

The Murphy blog is not just a chance to see what we do – it’s an invitation to join our community. You can find out about more about our Murphy dialogue here, and check out our calendar of events here.  And of course, we welcome your input to the blog as well.  If you are interested in submitting a post, you can find out how here, and (for now) comments are being shared on our Facebook page, where many of our posts are cross-listed.