Since childhood, I have been deeply committed to social justice, a passion that has driven both my activism and academic career. As a sociologist, I have sought to understand the structural forces shaping our world and how to change them strategically. Now, I am seeking to transition from an academic career to direct social justice advocacy, bringing my experience in research, organizing, and policy analysis to this work.
I am active in a number of social justice groups:
• Faculty Forward: I am Co-Chair of the Loyola University Chicago chapter of this SEIU-affiliated union representing non-tenure track faculty. We have improved the job security, pay, benefits, and academic freedom of our members through negotiating two collective bargaining agreements. We are currently negotiating our third CBA with ambitious goals that will build on the gains of our first two contracts, as laid our in our vision statement.
• Students for International Labor Solidarity (SILS): I worked to start a chapter at Loyola, helping to organize a workshop for students and accompanying them on their first action. I continue to support SILS both on campus and nationally as we organize to push college administrations across the US to enforce labor rights in their apparel supply chains, including co-leading a Chicago-wide teach-in on campus organizing and the global economy.
• Catholic Ethical Purchasing Alliance (CEPA): I am working to start a chapter at Loyola to create avenues for campus groups to buy official Loyola apparel that is produced under conditions that are ecologically sustainable and respect workers’ rights.
• Star City Labs: With other Sociology faculty, I am helping to form this initiative to research the challenges facing migrants in Chicago and provide research opportunities to faculty and students from underprivileged backgrounds.
In many of the activist groups that I was involved with when I was younger, we lacked strategic insight and direction. This has driven much of my sociological research, writing, and teaching, where my goal has been to equip those of us working for progressive social change to be more effective. My book Strategizing Against Sweatshops: The Global Economy, Student Activism, and Worker Empowerment unpacks how student activists were able to use their position on US college campuses to exercise leverage over major apparel firms and help workers in sweatshop factories around the world unionize and improve their working conditions.
