About Us

Welcome to 1932

Who We Are

  • We are historians, labor educators, and working-class activists who seek to promote public and scholarly awareness of labor and working-class history through research, writing, and organizing.
  • We are open to the widest possible variety of approaches to the subject of labor and working-class history.
  • We have a demographically, regionally, and internationally diverse membership and leadership. Our Members
  • We have developed mutually supportive relationships with existing regional, state, and local labor studies and labor history societies in the United States and other countries. We have developed equally important relationships with unions and community organizations.
  • We promote labor and working-class history within the history and social studies curricula in public schools as well as at community colleges, colleges, universities, and unions.

What We Do

  • All memberships include an annual subscription to LAWCHA’s official journal: Labor: Studies in Working-Class History.
  • LAWCHA’s blog, LaborOnline, is a font of information about labor and working-class topics past and present. [link]
  • Contributors to Teaching Labor’s Story unpack interesting primary documents so that teachers can incorporate labor history into their curricula. 
  • We hold an annual Dissertation Prospectus Workshop, which meets online.
  • Through our graduate student conference travel grants; the Alice Kessler-Harris Dissertation Prospectus Prize; the best article in Labor award; the Labor/LAWCHA grant for contingent and community college faculty and independent scholars; the Herbert Gutman Prize for Outstanding Dissertation; the Phillip Taft Labor History Book Award, granted by Cornell University in cooperation with LAWCHA; the David Montgomery Prize awarded in conjunction with the OAH for the best book in labor history; and our occasional Distinguished Service Awards, we foster and encourage labor and working-class history at every level of the profession and recognize excellence within our field. Only members are eligible for the graduate student and Gutman prizes. Grants and Prizes.
  • We hold We hold a biennial conference in odd years and regular meetings at the Organization of American Historians (OAH) conference in even years. We also sponsor sessions at the OAH, the American Historical Association conference, the Southern Historical Association’s conference, Business History, and other conferences around the country.
  • We hold online events, including monthly new book talks, panels on timely topics, and the dissertation prospectus workshop.
  • We co-sponsor Labor Spring, a coordinated nationwide flurry of campus meetings to promote understanding of current labor issues.
  • All members receive the LAWCHA Newsletter once a year, featuring timely articles, updates on the organization’s activities, and a listing of labor history publications. Newsletters
  • Independently and through partnerships with unions and other organizations, LAWCHA encourages engaged scholarship and helps scholars find popular and political outlets for their work. Civic Engagement
  • Members connect with each other and find useful resources at our website, www.lawcha.org.