Tag Archives: faculty

SLU Announces Two New Faculty Members

Dean Gregory Mantsios is pleased to announce the appointment of two new members of the SLU faculty: Joel Suarez, Assistant Professor of Labor Studies, and Samir Sonti, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies.

Joel Suarez is coming to SLU from the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a Visiting Scholar in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department. At UT, he also serves as a Qualitative Research Associate at the Dell Medical School, studying the health care experiences of formerly homeless and historically marginalized populations. Dr. Suarez holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Princeton University, an M.A in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. He has received a number of grants and awards, including the Davis Prize from Princeton University, and the Reed Fink Award in Southern Labor History from Georgia State University. Joel is the associate editor of the academic blog “Tropics of Meta,” and currently has a book in progress based on his dissertation, entitled Laboring for Liberty: Work and the Problem of Freedom in Modern America.

Samir Sonti holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Sonti earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a concentration on 20th century U.S. labor and political economy. He has worked as a political organizer for the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), and as a researcher for UNITE HERE, a union representing hospitality workers in the U.S. and Canada. He is currently expanding his dissertation, entitled The Price of Prosperity: Inflation and the Limits of U.S. Liberalism, 1932-1980, for publication. Since 2019, Samir has been the Books and Arts Editor of SLU’s New Labor Forum. He will teach in both the Urban Studies and Labor Studies programs.

“We are very fortunate to have recruited scholars of the calibre of Joel and Samir to our School,” said Dean Mantsios. “Their academic achievements and their personal passion for the labor and social justice movements will help SLU grow and appeal to an expanding student population.”
Professors Suarez and Sonti will join SLU for the Fall 2020 semester.

The Murphy Institute Welcomes New Staff

As the Murphy Institute prepares for the fall 2018 semester—our first as the CUNY School for Labor an Urban Studies—we are very pleased to announce four new appointments that will add luster to our already exceptional faculty and staff. Basil Smikle and James Steele have been appointed to our full-time faculty as Distinguished Lecturers in Politics and Public Policy. Stephen Greenfeld will assume the post of Academic Program Manager for Urban Studies. Warren Winter will be our new Information Technology Director, helping us advance our technical capacities as we make the transition from Institute to full-fledged CUNY School. Welcome all! Continue reading The Murphy Institute Welcomes New Staff

New Labor Forum Highlights: Feb. 5th, 2018

The New Labor Forum has a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

The neoliberal trend that has corporatized higher education and made of it a brave new world of contingent faculty labor has also given rise to an ethos of student consumerism that acts, on occasion, to persecute that precarious workforce. In the winter 2018 issue of New Labor Forum, Joshua Sperber takes a close look at the “Rate My Professor” website which functions in just this way, as a kind of online disciplinarian, intimidating and humiliating  an academic precariat whose intellectual labors are subject to the whims of the marketplace.

Unsurprisingly, these conditions have continued to spark nationwide campaigns among contingent faculty to raise wages, secure benefits, increase job security, and defend academic freedom. In an article for New Labor Forum and in a talk delivered at the Murphy Institute, Malini Cadambi Daniel assesses the prospects of this organizing to reconfigure campuses as neither ivory towers nor sweatshops.

We also draw your attention to the work of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at CUNY’s Hunter College. From April 15 – 17, 2018, the National Center will host a conference entitled Facing New Realities in Higher Education and the Professions, featuring David Weil and other prominent scholars.

Table of Contents

1. Making the Grade: Rating Professors- Joshua Sperber/ New Labor Forum
2. Contingent Faculty of the World Unite! Organizing to Resist the Corporatization of Higher Education-Malini Cadambi Daniel/ New Labor Forum
3. Lessons in Adjunct Organizing- Video of talk by Malini Cadambi Daniel/ The Murphy Institute
4. 45th Annual National Conference: Facing New Realities in Higher Education and the Professions, April 15-17, 2018-The National Center/ Hunter College, CUNY

Photo by Timothy Krause via flickr (CC-BY)

New Video: Education at Murphy

“I think Murphy is a special place…in that it’s not just working at a school. It’s not just working at an institute. It’s a political and intellectual project engaged in [a] struggle to make NYC a better place.”

– Murphy Prof. Kafui Attoh

We’re proud of the educational experience our students get at Murphy. Watch Murphy professors describe the learning that happens here.