Events Calendar

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/

Faculty from the University of Texas and the University of Cape Town are beginning a collaboration on the drivers of the past, present, and future of work in South Africa. In this panel, leading South African economists set the stage for this project to generate much-needed responses to the many economic, legal, and political crises exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Haroon Bhorat Professor of Economics & Director of the Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town

Busi Sibeko Researcher, Institute for Economic Justice

Neva Makgetla Senior Economist at Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies

Imraan Valodia Economist & Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Moderated by Dennis Davis Professor of Commercial Law, University of Cape Town

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

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/91970881925

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/07/60814/

Participants reflect and share their work on transforming the caring crisis that has been shaping up over the decades, and heightened by COVID-19.

Ashleigh Hamilton Community Organizer, Communities of Color United for Racial Justice (CCU)

Vrinda Marwah PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of Texas at Austin

Deborah Parra-Medina Professor of Mexican American and Latino Studies & Director of the Latino Research Institute, University of Austin at Texas

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

Lilla Pivnick PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of Texas at Austin

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

Gabriela Torres Community Organizer, Communities of Color United for Racial Justice (CCU)

Yolanda White Executive Board Member of Texas State Employees Union (TSEU)

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

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/95661245637

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/08/60810/

The movement of peoples across the globe for work, livelihoods, trade, and cultural exchange has been a constant in human history. This panel explores comparative forms of labor migration across several geographies—South Asia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Panelists will think critically through the cultural designation of low-waged migrant laborers as the “heroes” of the contemporary global South and their role in the global economy as vital sources of both remittances for their families and labor for the global economy.

Hae Yeon Choo Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto, Mississauga

James Gabrillo Assistant Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, University of Texas at Austin

Mishal Khan Postdoctoral Fellow, Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas at Austin

Rui Jie Peng PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of Texas at Austin

Andrea Wright Assistant Professor of Anthropology, College of William and Mary

Relevant Research Clusters: Artistic Labor and the Humanities, Care Work, Essential Work, Work across the Global South

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96680750873

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/09/60811/

The predominance of informal forms of work and means of making a living across the global South requires a critical intervention into current debates around the future of work. This moderated conversation foregrounds the complexities and challenges for people laboring in the informal sector in the South Asian and Latin American contexts.

Rina Agarwala

Associate Professor of Sociology & Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Sociology, John Hopkins University

&

Luis Eslava Reader in International Law, University of Kent

Moderated by Kamran Asdar Ali Professor of Anthropology, Middle East Studies, and Asian Studies, 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/96830085436

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/10/60812/

Focusing on the non-economic and public benefits of the arts and humanities on campuses and in the community, we raise questions about the future of this work.

Part I

Charlie Lockwood Executive Director, Texas Folklife

Rachel Magee President of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Local 205

Raasin McIntosh CEO and Creative Director of Raasin in the Sun

J Muzacz Local Artist in Austin

Carmen Rangel Visual Artist, Co-Founder of The Mosaic Workshop

Part II

Robin Moore Professor of Ethnomusicology, Butler School of Music, University of Texas at Austin

Sidonie Smith Professor Emeritus of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan

Moderated by Anne Lewis Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Radio-Television-Film, University of Texas at Austin

Relevant Research Clusters: Artistic Labor and the Humanities, Care Work, Essential Work

Join via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/99025107230

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2021/06/11/60829/