Contemporary Labor Issues Graduate Seminar

Public Policy 229

Units: 4 | Course number: 30231 | Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP)
Instructor: Dr. Anibel Ferus-Comelo
Schedule: Tuesdays 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Location: In-person, Graduate Theological Union 214

This applied research and project-based seminar offers students the opportunity to develop and hone research skills that can shape campaigns to improve the lives of working families. In partnership with the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s stakeholders in the labor movement, we will address priority questions that have emerged in ongoing organizing and advocacy campaigns.

In fall 2024, students will collaborate with community-labor partners who are grappling with various aspects of the industrial policy paradigm ushered in by the Biden-Harris Administration. With huge investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, and climate resilience, we will explore the possibility of ensuring policy outcomes that workers and marginalized communities of color need. Issues such as job quality, equity, workforce development, occupational health and safety, freedom of association, environmental sustainability, and community benefits are prominent in high-road economic development. Students from all graduate programs are welcome to this interdisciplinary research in a highly dynamic area of policy design.

The class will culminate in presentations of findings, analyses, and policy recommendations to key community stakeholders and policymakers. Through a combination of lectures, key readings, and active participation in a “live” research initiative, students will develop an understanding of the current challenges that the labor movement in California faces and contribute to innovative policy advocacy and political action.