Hello Labor Section members,

For those of you not familiar with Wits, it has a very interesting Sociology department with a strong labor focus.

Best,

Chris

 

WITS UNIVERSITY

SOCIOLOGY

LECTURER, SENIOR LECTURER/

The Department of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences enjoys an international reputation for outstanding teaching, research and public engagement, particularly in the fields of economic and industrial sociology, development sociology and health sociology. We are seeking to make THREE tenure-track appointments at the level of Lecturer/Senior Lecturer.  Applicants from all fields of sociology are invited to apply, although preference will be given to those candidates able to teach in the broad areas of industrial, economic and development sociology; health sociology; political economy and political sociology; environmental sociology.

The successful applicants will have a record of  research and publications appropriate to their levels of appointment, a commitment to teaching, learning and public engagement, and experience with culturally and linguistically diverse populations. 

Qualifications: PhD in Sociology or related discipline; and relative to level of appointment, an established research record, including publications in internationally recognised journals; and proven teaching record, preferably including strong post-graduate supervisory experience.

Duties: Undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, research supervision, a willingness to help build the discipline as well as service to the School, the university, the profession and the wider South African community.

Remuneration: The salaries will be at university levels, commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Enquiries only: Professor Roger Southall, + 27 11 717 4451; roger.southall@wits.ac.za

To apply: Submit a covering letter, clearly indicating the post and level(s) applied for, detailed CV with names, addresses and details (including e-mail addresses) of three academic referees, a non-returnable writing sample of a sole authored publication, and certified copies of identity documents and qualifications to Ms Molly Orr, Humanities Human Resources Office, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050.    

Tel: + 27 11 717 1414     Email: Molly.Orr@wits.ac.za

Closing date: 27th July 2012

Applicants who fulfil employment equity requirements are particularly invited to apply.

INDUSTRY STUDIES ASSOCIATION DISSERTATION AWARD

The Industry Studies Association (ISA) is pleased to invite submissions for its ANNUAL DISSERTATION AWARD COMPETITION. The goal of the award is to recognize and reward outstanding doctoral research in the area of industry studies. The award is accompanied by a $500 honorarium for first prize and a $250 honorarium for second prize.

Nominations are due by September 17, 2012, but can be submitted at any time.  For more information about the nomination and selection processes, please see the attached document.  The nomination form is also attached.  After filling out the required fields, save your form by selecting ‘File’ and ‘Save As.’ Nomination forms are also available at the following link: (http://www.industrystudies.org/page/dissertationaward). 

To be eligible for the competition, candidates must have completed a doctoral dissertation in sociology, economics, management, engineering, political science, or in a related or interdisciplinary field between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012. Candidates must have successfully defended their dissertations and received the final approval and all required sign-offs on their dissertation document by June 30, 2012.  Normally the Industry Studies Association expects candidates to be nominated by their dissertation supervisors, although nominations by other members of the candidate's committee will be considered.  The Industry Studies Association welcomes nominations from members; however, candidates and nominators are not required to have any prior relationship with the ISA.  Direct applications are not accepted.

A primary goal of the Dissertation Award is to advance excellence in industry studies research by encouraging new scholars.  Along with the Early Career Development Committee, we hope you consider nominating a promising graduate student for this award and please feel free to post this announcement to other appropriate email distribution lists.

Early Career Development Committee
Mark Anner, Penn State University
Erica Fuchs, Carnegie Mellon University
Rahul Kapoor, University of Pennsylvania
Adam Seth Litwin, Johns Hopkins University
Kristina McElheran, Harvard University
Amit Nigam, New York University
Jeffrey Rothstein, Grand Valley State University
Carmen Weigelt, Tulane University

Job # 1200907

Job # 1200905

Call for Papers: Migration and Forced Labor

The Open Society Institute is calling for position papers for an edited volume on human trafficking titled, Human Trafficking: Reconsidering the Problem, edited by Rhacel Parreñas and Kimberly Kay Hoang. The editors seek manuscripts from scholars and practitioners from all academic disciplines (economics, law, social sciences, gender and sexuality studies, public policy, health, and business). People working with relevant NGO’s, government agencies, and public health organizations are also invited to submit their work. Open Society will publish the volume in 2013.

The current literature on human trafficking focuses overwhelmingly on the issue of sex trafficking often overlooking the problem of “human trafficking” through the lens of migration and “forced labor”. A focus on “forced labor” avoids conflating trafficking with prostitution, and at the same time calls attention to the susceptibility of a wide range of migrant workers, not just sex workers, to human trafficking. The volume thus, seeks papers on trafficked persons that include not only sex workers but also agricultural, construction, factory, and domestic workers to understand the structures and systems that render migrant workers vulnerable to human trafficking.

In an attempt to expand the literature and research on human trafficking, this volume will consider a wide array of jobs that leave migrant workers vulnerable to human trafficking. We seek papers that describe how the conditions, structures, social institutions, and systems of various occupations leave workers vulnerable to forced labor and human trafficking. We will focus on the following themes:

• The vulnerability of migrant workers in the 21st century, including sex workers, agricultural workers, construction workers, and domestic workers among many others.
• The systematic ways that social institutions such as broker industries and guest worker programs impact human trafficking
• Papers that work to provide a more precise definition for the concept of exploitation that systematically accounts for the gradations of indenture among victims of “human trafficking,” by distinguishing between peonage, servitude, and slavery
• Papers that predict long-term consequences of forced labor by examining the reintegration of rescued trafficked victims and the plight of the children and families of migrant workers vulnerable to forced labor

In addressing the themes above, we hope to provide a more systematic understanding of the problem of human trafficking that recognizes the structural problems caused by institutions and systems of migration. Position papers should be written in a style that is accessible to non-academic audiences and no longer than 3500 words (15 double-spaced pages) including all relevant citations.

Please submit papers to: Kimberly Kay Hoang via email at kayhoang@rice.edu no later than October 31, 2012. Acceptance notifications will be made by November 30, 2012. Please Direct all questions and correspondence via postal mail to: Kimberly Kay Hoang | Rice University | 6100 Main St Mech Lab 210 | P.O. Box 1892 MS-38 | Houston, TX 77005.

(Please also see the appended message below this one.)

Dear Labor Section,
I hope you are all having a great summer. As we prepare for ASA in Denver we are already thinking about our goal of reaching 400 members by Sept 30, 2012.

We have had an exciting year. The new website is up and running, the Facebook page is active, and we are busy setting up our graduate student mentoring program for Denver.  We have funding for a first-ever exchange program with our counterpart organization of Chinese sociologists, starting with a small delegation of US sociologists to China in December, and following up with a Chinese delegation to the 2013 meetings in New York, with a mini-conference around global labor issues.

In the meantime, Denver promises to be exciting, with sessions on Labor and Transnational Capital and US Labor and Politics, along with a great lineup of thematic Real Utopias sessions, many of which touch on labor and workplace themes.  Unfortunately, our membership is at 329, short of the 400 we need to go beyond 2 sessions.

In order to reach 400 we need your help. We did extensive outreach to lapsed members in March, and brought back dozens of members.  Now we need YOU to reach out to graduate students and colleagues who could benefit from participating in the labor section. If each of you can contact 5-10 people individually, we will definitely hit the target.  We have pasted a suggested wording below, but of course personalization makes outreach more effective (some faculty members have been known to offer to cover the $5 membership fee for students).  We attaching the list of recently lapsed members (2 tabs, one is people who left the section but stayed in ASA, the other is people who also left ASA; please check these lists first to see if you know anybody!) _and_ the most up-to-date membership roster, if you want to check whether a colleague _not_ on the recently lapsed list is already a member.  (The list is not attached here, you can email the webmaster at pjmorgan@uci.edu for a copy.)

We are trying to reach our goal of 400 well before the September 30 deadline, ideally in time for ASA in August so that we can plan for an expanded 2013 program at our business meeting! Please reach out. Thanks.

The Membership Committee and the Section Council

SUGGESTED WORDING

Dear XXX,
I'm writing to urge you to join the ASA Labor and Labor Movements Section.  It's an exciting time for the Labor section.  Denver will feature Friday sessions on Labor and Transnational Capital and US Labor and Politics, as well as a kaleidoscopic set of roundtables.  As we often do, we are holding a reception offsite featuring local labor activists (last year's reception with the Culinary Workers who have led grassroots organizing efforts among multi-ethnic casino workers was inspiring).  One great feature of the Labor Section is that we maintain close ties with the labor and community movements that are taking up workplace issues.

We also have funding for a first-ever exchange program with our counterpart organization of Chinese sociologists, starting with a small delegation of US sociologists to China in December, and following up with a Chinese delegation to the 2013 meetings in New York, with a mini-conference around global labor issues.  For graduate students, we have a mentoring program that matches up students with senior scholars at the meetings to get research and career advice.

Joining the section is a bargain, still only $10 for faculty and $5 for students (you must be a member of ASA).  Just log in to ASA, and under Join/Renew, click on Join a Section.

I find the Labor and Labor Movements Section a valuable space for discussion of labor and workplace issues.  I hope you will join!

Best,
Chris
------

Hi Labor Section members,

In my earlier email, I forgot to mention that the ASA's Member-Get-a-Member promotion means that you can get $10 reductions in your dues for each full-freight member you sign up _for ASA_ (i.e. not just for the section).  (Plus they will enter you in a drawing for a Kindle Fire.)  Details pasted below.

I have been finding that a number of people have responded that they will join, or rejoin, once the new fiscal year starts on July 1.  So it actually seems like a particularly good time to contact people.
Thanks,
Chris