Part of the Immigration Seminar Series

HOSTED BY

International Migration StudiesADMISSION PRICE

Free

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FEATURED SPEAKER

Shannon Gleeson is the Edmund Ezra Day Professor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She also holds a co-appointment with the Brooks School of Public Policy and is co-director of the Cornell Migrations Initiative. Gleeson earned her Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from the University of California, Berkeley and was previously on the faculty of the Latin American & Latino Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her recent books include Scaling Migrant Worker Rights: How Advocates Collaborate and Contest State Power (with Xóchitl Bada, University of California Press, 2023) and Precarious Claims: The Promise and Failure of Workplace Protections in the United States (University of California Press, 2016). With Els de Graauw, she has examined the implementation of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and the challenges of coalition building and local governance. Her current book manuscript with coauthors examines immigration, race, and the low-wage workplace.

LOCATION

This is a hybrid event, taking place online and in person in the Sociology Student Lounge (Room 6112) at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Review our Building Entry Policy for in-person events.

ABOUT THIS TALK

This co-authored book (with Kate Griffith, Darlène Dubuisson, and Patricia Campos-Medina) is a David and Goliath story that illuminates how power operates in the low-wage workplace. In it, we draw on 50 interviews with immigrant worker advocates and over 300 Haitian and Central American low-wage workers, across three different immigration statuses. We argue that immigrant worker precarity is driven by three intersecting vectors of state power: under-regulation of class relations, exclusionary immigration policy, and long legacies of legalized racisms. Status at Work bridges labor scholarship on low-wage worker precarity, immigration scholarship on liminal legal status, and race scholarship on the long legacies of transatlantic slavery and white supremacist colonization. We contend that scholars, advocates, and policymakers must center workers’ voices and acknowledge these intersecting power dynamics when assessing or addressing the roots of widespread injustice in the low-wage workplace.

**Co-sponsored by the M.A. program in International Migration Studies and the Ph.D. program in Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, as well as the Labor Studies Department, School of Labor and Urban Studies**

International Fair showcases Cornell's global opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Explore the fair and find out about international majors and minors, language study, study abroad, funding opportunities, global internships, Cornell Global Hubs, and more.

The International Fair is sponsored by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and Office of Global Learning (both part of Global Cornell) in partnership with the Language Resource Center.

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On Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4, 2024, the Institute for African Development, in collaboration with the Polson Institute for Global Development and the Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell University, will host a symposium on Imagining Just Environmental and Climate Futures in Africa. Please see our website for the schedule on Friday and Saturday! The event is fully hybrid, so join us in Mann in person or remotely via zoom.

Keynote talks include:

Edmond Totin, Universite Nationale d'Agriculture (Benin): "Positive failures: rethinking climate resilience planning by understanding the legacy of interventions in food production systems ” (May 3, 9-9:45am EST)Nadège Compaoré, University of Toronto, Mississauga: "African Climate Solidarities: Beyond Boundaries" (May 3, 1-2:30pm EST)Timothy Raeymaekers, University of Bologna: "Rural Work: What Future for Social and Ecological Reproduction" (May 3, 1-2:30pm EST)Siri Eriksen, Norwegian University of Life Sciences: "Between a rock and a hard place: Exploring the lived experience of climate change and social injustice" (May 4, 9-9:45am EST)Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong, University of Denver: "Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change and the Reproduction of Maladaptation in Africa" (May 4, 1-2:30pm EST)Paper discussion sessions:

1. “Environmental governance and transformative policy in Africa,” Chuan Liao & Edmond Totin, discussants (May 3, 10-noon)

Nehemias Horacio, Observatório do Meio Rural, “Vulnerability and Adaptation of smallholder farmers to salinity intrusion in Mozambique: Case of Lower Limpopo Irrigation Scheme”Assefa Berhanu, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, “Gender-Disaggregated Vulnerability and Resilience to Climate Change among Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia”Jerry Owusu Banahee, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, “Private sector involvement in climate change adaptation action in developing countries: evidence from Ghana”Allan Basajjasubi, Natural Justice, “Right of Nature and its Utility in Climate Change Litigation”Alain Elegbe, Texas State University, “Water justice in Benin”2. "Scales and time: extractive economies and agrarian change," Nadège Compaoré and Timothy Raeymaekers, discussants (May 3, 2:45-4:45pm)

Olufemi Olamijulo, Harvard University, “Beyond Extraction: Cobalt, Local Refining, and Environmental Equity in the DRC”Dumisani Moyo, Cornell University, “Plutocratic Narrativization and the Danger of a Black Psycho-oneiric Complex in Malawi’s Crop Agriculture, 1500s to 2022"Sidney Madsen, Cornell University, “Class dynamics of agroecology: Case study from Malawi”Brandon Marc Finn, University of Michigan, “End-of-life informality: assessing the negative externalities of the decarbonization circular economy”3. "Lived experiences of precarity and calls for climate justice," Siri Eriksen and Wendy Wolford, discussants (May 4, 10-noon) - use main zoom room

Sylvia Hagan, University of Ghana, “Voices of the Vulnerable: exploring perceived cliamte change impacts and mental health in poor urban coastal communities in Ghana”Emily Baker, Cornell University, “Imagining justice at the conflict-climate nexus”Michelle Pressend, University of Cape Town, “Racing the land history memory of a wind farm in South Africa on colonised reclaimed land”Anesu Makina, University of Cape Town, “Informality and climate futures in Africa: of justice, global policies, and African urban realities”Tom Tom, University of South Africa, “Futuring Rural Zimbabwe: Artisanal Gold Mining, Tobacco Production and Environmental Sustainability in Resettlements Areas”4. "(Mal)adaptation in socioecological systems and institutions," Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong and Natacha Bruna, discussants (May 4, 10-noon) Breakout zoom link for this session

Seongmin Shin, Cornell University, “Everyday climate adaptations enhance smallholder agriculture and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa”Loveth C. Ode-Omenka, Covenant University, Nigeria, “Impact of Climate Change on Livelihood and Food Security of Female Farmers in Burkina Faso and Nigeria”Adele Woodmansee, Cornell University, “Water resources in the High Atlas: Adaptation and change in local irrigation systems”Benedicta Quarcoo, Luiss University, “The Carbon Tax in Ghana: Barriers and Prospects”Hayford Bokpin, University of Ghana, “Climate Justice and Ghana's Emission Tax Policy: A critical review”Bob Manteaw, University of Ghana, “Climate Justice and Post Carbon Futures: How might a just-transitioned Africa look on the ground?”Organized by the Institute for African Development, Polson Institute for Global Development, and the Einaudi Center for International Studies.