The work of historians and social scientists, as well as academically based students of business and the law, is having a significant impact on American social policy and political discourse. You’ll find our research deployed by reporters, editorialists, and opinion piece writers in the daily press, on the web’s proliferating set of news and opinion sites, in weekly and monthly magazines, and in countless blogs. But academics themselves often find it difficult to enter this conversation, to make their own work accessible to the lay public. How do you craft a 700 word opinion piece? Who are the editors and journalistic gatekeepers to whom it should be sent? How does the submission and editorial process compare between The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Nation, or The American Prospect?
The Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara is hosting a one day Op-Ed writing workshop on Saturday, March 10, 2012. It is funded and co-sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers, who will be bringing to the event a few of the currently employed Wal-Mart workers who have joined OUR Walmart, an organization supported by the union. They will be learning how to write Op-Ed articles themselves.
The workshop is particularly interested in soliciting participation by those interested in the constellation of issues and debates that have attended the rise of big box stores in recent years: the nature of work in the retail and service sectors of the economy, governmental efforts to regulate the building of new stores and distribution centers, the politics and economics of global supply chains, and the fate of trade unionism and other forms of worker self-organization.
The instructor for the event is Harold Meyerson, the noted columnist for the Washington Post and editor at The American Prospect. His opinion pieces and articles have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. In 2009 the Atlantic Monthly named him one of the 50 most influential columnists in the country.
For those attending the workshop all travel and lodging expenses will be paid. To apply send a one page statement of your research and writing interests and a short c.v. to Nelson Lichtenstein, Director of the UCSB Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy. His e-mail is nelson@history.ucsb.edu.
The application deadline is February 10. All those selected will be required to submit a draft 700 word opinion piece by March 1. Mr. Meyerson will review these before the meeting and then offer detailed editorial advice at the March 10 all-day workshop
This is the fourth Op-Ed workshop sponsored by the Center for the Study for Work, Labor, and Democracy. All have been lively and constructive. Previous instructors have included Ruth Rosen, the historian and former San Francisco Chronicle columnist; Peter Dreier, of Occidental College and a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post; and Rick Perlstein, award-winning author of Nixonland and a writer for the Village Voice, The New York Times and other publications
