Events Calendar

The Rapoport Center and the Harvard Institute for Global Law and Policy have gathered a team of international and interdisciplinary scholars over the past year for a book project rethinking the future of work through methods of racial capitalism, world-systems, and critiques of distribution. This panel highlights case studies from the book about precarity in sites ranging from the Austin construction and Vermont dairy industries in the U.S. to Jordanian apparel factories and Colombian palm plantations.

Helena Alviar García Professor, Sciences Po Law School & Jorge Gonzalez Professor, Universidad de los Andes Law School, Colombia

Jennifer Bair Professor of Sociology & Department Chair, University of Virginia

Karen Engle Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law & Founder and Co-Director, Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas at Austin School of Law & Samuel Tabory PhD Student, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University

Jennifer Gordon Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

Vanja Hamzić Reader in Law, History and Anthropology and an Associate Director of Research, SOAS University of London

Neville Hoad Associate Professor of English & Co-Director, Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas at Austin

Kerry Rittich Professor of Law, Women and Gender Studies, and Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto

Moderated by David Kennedy Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law & Director of the Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard University

Relevant Research Clusters: AI and Technology, Care Work, Essential Work, Work Across the Global South

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/98600632307

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/05/27/60805/

Albena Azmanova’s latest book, Capitalism on Edge, provocatively insists: “Capitalism is not on its deathbed, utopia is not in our future, and revolution is not in the cards. And yet, the time is ripe for radical progressive change.” In conversation with Jamie Galbraith, Azmanova discusses these claims and more – from the rise of global precarity to the future of capitalism.

Albena Azmanova Reader (Associate Professor), Brussels School of International Studies, University of Kent

&

James Galbraith Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government and Business Relations & Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin

Relevant Research Clusters: AI and Technology, Care Work, Essential Work, Work Across the Global South

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/95760614356

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/05/28/60825/

Leading advocates for workers in a variety of formal and informal sectors – from care work and construction to digital platforms and the arts – compare the challenges they see to the future of work and organizing in their respective fields and global contexts.

Richard Dobson Co-Founder and Project Leader, Asiye eTafuleni

Katie Joaquin Deputy Director, Jobs to Move America

Lenny Sanchez Co-Founder, Independent Drivers Guild of Illinois (IDG)

Lise Soskolne Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.)

Emily Timm Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Workers Defense Project

Moderated by Nicole Burrowes Assistant Professor of History, Rutgers University

Relevant Research Clusters: AI and Technology, Artistic Labor and the Humanities, Essential Work, Work Across the Global South

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96584980049

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/01/60806/

In the guise of entrepreneurialism and individual freedom the gig-economy was once hailed as the solution to the ills of the degrading work relationships that formed the backbone of the capitalist economy. Legal scholar and activist Veena Dubal considers how organized workers have helped dispel this myth by speaking out about the darker side of the gig-economy. In conversation with legal labor historian William Forbath, Dubal will discuss these issues and more – from the future of the gig-economy to the potential for legal change in the aftermath of California’s Prop 22.

Veena Dubal Professor of Law and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair, University of California, Hastings

&

William E. Forbath Lloyd M. Bentsen Chair in Law & Associate Dean for Research, University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Relevant Research Clusters: AI and Technology, Essential Work

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96278435068

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/01/60826/

Please join us for this first public watch party of the “Electric Dreams” episode, Autofac, which we will discuss with celebrated cyberpunk writer and UT graduate Bruce Sterling on June 2 at 6:30 pm.

You can also watch the episode on June 2 at 5:30pm or on your own with Amazon Prime!

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/97864457088

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/01/60830/

Sarita Gupta, nationally recognized leader on labor and economic justice, will present a keynote lecture, followed by a conversation with representatives of each of our five research clusters.

Sarita Gupta Director, Future of Work(ers), Ford Foundation

Relevant Research Clusters: AI and Technology, Artistic Labor and the Humanities, Care Work, Essential Work, Work Across the Global South

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/94566578855

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/02/60827/

Please join us for this second public watch party of the “Electric Dreams” episode, Autofac, immediately preceding our 6:30 pm discussion with celebrated cyberpunk writer and UT graduate Bruce Sterling.

You can also watch the episode on your own with Amazon Prime!

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/97331719108

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/02/60813/

This panel takes the Future of Work conversation beyond the bromides of today by meditating on yesterday’s visions of our future, as encapsulated by Philip K. Dick’s classic science fiction story “Autofac” and its recent adaptation for Amazon’s “Electric Dreams” video anthology. Participants include Dr. Simone Browne, Associate Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, Director of the Good Systems Critical Surveillance Inquiry (CSI) Research Focus Area, and author of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness; Nitin Verma, an advanced graduate student in the School of Information whose research concerns political and scientific misinformation and the ethical issues raised by machine learning technology; and the celebrated cyberpunk writer and UT graduate Bruce Sterling.

If you’d like to watch the “Electric Dreams” episode, Autofac, you can join us at one of our two screening parties on June 1 at 6:00pm or June 2 at 5:30pm, or watch on your own with Amazon Prime!

Bruce Sterling Science Fiction Writer

In conversation with

Samuel Baker Associate Professor of English, University of Texas at Austin

Simone Browne Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Neville Hoad Associate Professor of English & Co-Director, Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas at Austin

Nitin Verma PhD Student in the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin

Relevant Research Clusters: AI and Technology, Artistic Labor and the Humanities

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/97331719108

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/02/60807/

A pivotal dimension of COVID-19 has been the classification of certain work(ers) as essential. In dialogue with Sara Stevano, lead author of “Essential for What? A Global Social Reproduction View on the Re-organisation of Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” respondents will discuss their own research on essential work.

Sara Stevano Lecturer, Department of Economics, SOAS

In discussion with:

Mechele Dickerson Arthur L. Moller Chair in Bankruptcy Law and Practice & University Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Karen Engle Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law and Founder and Co-Director, Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Sam Tabory PhD Student, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University

Sharmila Rudrappa Professor of Sociology & Director of the South Asia Institute, University of Texas at Austin

Relevant Research Clusters: Care Work, Essential Work, Work Across the Global South

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/95596121534

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/03/60808/

Building from their work on public health, care work, and racial capitalism, the panelists discuss the lengthy and ongoing crisis in caring labor that has only been exacerbated by the current pandemic.

Carrie Freshour Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Washington

Libby McClure Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Occupational Safety and Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & Data Health Analyst, DataWorks NC.

Snehal Patel Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin

Sharmila Rudrappa Professor of Sociology & Director of the South Asia Institute, University of Texas at Austin

Relevant Research Clusters: Care Work, Essential Work, Work Across the Global South

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96706403727

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/04/60828/