2025 Conference

LAWCHA 2025 Conference
Call for Papers
“Making Work Matter:
Solidarity and Action across Space and Time”

 
 

Graduate Worker Organizing Workshop, June 11-12, 2025

Please register here if you plan to attend the Graduate Worker Organizing Workshop.

LAWCHA Conference, June 12-14, 2025

University of Chicago

#LAWCHA2025 WhatsApp Community

Use WhatsApp to get up to date news on all things #LAWCHA2025 conference and network with other participants.

Click here to join.

 A draft of the program for the conference can be viewed here.

LAWCHA CONFERENCE REGISTRATION INFORMATION

REGISTER HERE for Conference and Dorm Rooms. 

Registration Fees:

  • $200 Contributing ($50 towards LAWCHA scholarships)
  • $150 Regular (Tenured and Tenure Track faculty)
  • $55 Reduced (Graduate students, K-12, Adjunct, Independent Scholars)
  • $100 Vendor Table

 

Ad Book

Interested in purchasing an ad for the LAWCHA program booklet? Please contact Stephanie Fortado at seawell2@illinois.edu

Rates:

$500 – Full Page

$250 – Half Page

$150 – Quarter Page

Further information on ad purchases is available here.

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION DEADLINE: MAY 15

MAY 15 is the deadline date for the completion of the online-registration and payment of the registration fee. Onsite registration will be available but is discouraged.

All presenters and attendees must register in advance and must be an active member of LAWCHA – Click here to JOIN/RENEW.

The conference runs from Thursday, June 12 through Saturday, June 14, 2025. A draft program will be available by April 1, 2025. The registration fee includes full conference access including continental breakfasts at Noyes Hall on Friday and Saturday mornings and two receptions at Noyes Hall with light fare and drinks on Thursday and Friday evenings.

Add Ons:

  • Friday box lunch – $5
  • Saturday box lunch – $5
  • Saturday evening dinner at local union hall with shuttle service – $50
  • Thursday, June 12 (Afternoon time TBA) – Labor History Tour of South Side/Bronzeville with Shermann “Dilla” Thomas– $40
  • Sunday, June 15 (Morning time TBA) – Labor History Tour of Halsted Street/Battle of the Viaduct, Back of the Yards, and Hull House with Illinois Labor History Society – $40

LODGING

Dorms at The University of Chicago

For priority access to dorm rooms, please register by March 14. A limited number of rooms will be available after March 14th but space is not guaranteed.

The dorms are approximately a 10-15 minute walk to Noyes Hall, the primary conference site. LAWCHA has blocked out dorm rooms at UChicago for those looking for a more affordable option. We expect to have approximately 150 single rooms ($94/night) and 150 double rooms ($150/night) available. All dorm rooms have shared hall bathrooms.

These will be on a first come/first serve basis. Feel free to book a double for yourself if no singles are available or find a roommate if you prefer to share the cost.  

Single – $94/night

Double – $150/night

Local Union Hotels:

We have secured discounted room rates at the following hotels. You must use the unique booking link provided for the rate.

 

Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Chicago $249

2233 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (7 miles from conference location)

Chicago, IL 60616

Block code: G-INML

Booking link: https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/group-booking/CHIMC/G-INML

Complimentary guest room internet

Complimentary fitness center access

 

Marriott Marquis McCormick Place

2121 S Prairie Ave, Chicago, IL 60616

https://book.passkey.com/e/51008305

TRANSPORTATION TO/FROM HOTEL:

The address for the conference main building is Ida Noyes Hall on The University of Chicago, 1212 E 59th St, Chicago, IL 60637

How to get from the McCormick Place hotels to the conference:

  • Uber/Lyft/Taxi
    • 15-20 minutes,
    • Average price range: $25-35 one-way depending on time of day
  • Metra Train
  • CTA – Red Line
    • McCormick Place to King Drive & 61st Street
    • 50 minutes
    • $2.50 one-way
    • Total walking .5 miles
 
 

June will be a high season for these hotels so we encourage you to act soon if you want to go this route.

If you have any questions, please email Gabe Winant at Gabriel.winant@gmail.com.

As recent events have shown, workers around the globe are facing many diverse challenges. Whether it’s contingent faculty, non-union employees, migrant workers in the U.S. or across the globe who are trafficked or severely exploited, workers being displaced by technology and AI, or those participating in the new “gig economy” of part-time and insecure labor without benefits, the world of work is changing at a rapid pace.  The 2025 LAWCHA Program Committee welcomes proposals on the broad theme of “Making Work Matter: Solidarity and Action across Space and Time” that connects the challenges of work today with struggles and stories of the past.  We are especially interested in the intersection of histories and present-day examples of how people are working toward practical and on-the-ground organizing, as well as solidarity and activism across categories of difference.

While proposals on any labor related topic may be submitted, the program committee encourages the submission of comparative, global, and transnational panels;  sessions on “front line” or “essential “workers; workers and technology; immigration and migration; gender, sexuality and work; forced labor in different eras; public health, medical care, and care work; marginalized workers including Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities; working-class and labor movements for justice and democracy. We encourage presentations on the United States, across the Americas and beyond, in all time periods; on teaching and public history; race, ethnicity, gender, disability, colonialism, citizenship status, and sexuality; working class communities and social movements. Proposals on other labor and working-class topics are also welcome.

We will consider traditional panels with 3 papers; lightning sessions of 5-6 very short presentations; roundtables of 5-6 people discussing a larger theme; workshops; performance-oriented sessions featuring artistic work, including films; proposals for a poster session; and moderated conversations between activists, artists, archivists, and historians. All sessions (except for posters) must designate a comment/chair or moderator/chair separate from presenters.

We welcome proposals from scholars and activists in all fields and at all stages, and especially urge contingent faculty, community college faculty, and independent scholars to submit panel proposals and papers.

We encourage the submission of complete panels rather than individual papers. Single paper authors are encouraged to seek out others prior to submission. We ask that organizers aim for diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, and/or employment status of presenters when pulling together submissions.

LAWCHA 2025 Program Co-Chairs:

Lilia Fernandez, University of Illinois at Chicago

Emily E. LB. Twarog, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Conference email: LAWCHA2025@gmail.com