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Susan J. Schurman

Susan J. Schurman

  • Distinguished Professor, Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER)
sschurma@smlr.rutgers.edu
848-445-5996
Education

Ph.D., University of Michigan

M.A., Michigan State University

B.A., Michigan State University

Curriculum Vitae - CV (PDF)

Expertise
  • Union effectiveness including, strategy, structure and governance as well as constructive labor-management relations
  • Workplace safety and health, especially on the effects of occupational stress on physical and mental health

Susan J. Schurman is Distinguished Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations. She served as Dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and also served as Dean of the University College Community. From 1997-2007 she served as the founding president of the National Labor College.  She received BA and MA degrees from Michigan State University and a Ph.d.  from the University of Michigan where she served as Director of the Labor Studies Center and Research Investigator in the School of Public Health.  She is a past president of the United Association for Labor Education and a past a board member of the Labor and Employment Research Association.  She currently serves as President of the International Federation of Workers Education Associations.  She has served on numerous non-profit boards and government commissions including as a member of the Board of Trustees of Morris Brown College. Her research and teaching focus on leadership, organizational effectiveness, and labor-management relations. She is also an expert on workplace safety and health – especially on the effects of occupational stress on physical and mental health. Schurman serves as an advisor to many national unions and with labor-management groups on strategy.  In 2012 she helped to guide the merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists using an interest-based problem-solving process. More recently she has also  focused on new forms of collective action by informal workers. 

Research Publications

Eaton, E.A., S.J. Schurman and M. Chen (Eds.).  Informal Workers and Collective Action:  a Global Perspective.  Ithaca, N.Y.:  Cornell University ILR Press.   2017.

M. Merrill and S.J. Schurman.  “Toward a General Theory and Global History of Workers’ Education.”  International Journal of Labor and Working Class History.  90 (Fall 2016).

M. Liu, F.S. Bentley, M.H.T. Evans and S.J.Schurman.  “Globalization in the China and the United States:  Convergence and Divergence.  In.  A. Chan (Ed.), Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective.  Ithaca, N.Y..:  Cornell University ILR Press. 2015:  44-66.

Finegold, D., M. Gatta, H. Salzman and S.J. Schurman (Eds).  A US Skills System for the 21st Century:  Innovations in Workforce Education and Development.  Labor and Employment Research Association Research Volume 2010.

Schurman, S.J. and L. Soares.  Connecting the Dots:  Creating a postsecondary education system for the 21st century economy.  In Finegold, D., M. Gatta, H. Salzman and S.J. Schurman (Eds).  A US Skills System for the 21st Century:  Innovations in Workforce Education and Development.  Labor and Employment Research Association Research Volume 2010.

A Review of Trade Union Organizing In The Informal Economy - The purpose of this report is to review the existing literature on efforts throughout the globe by workers who labor outside the formal labor and employment relations policy framework of their country to form or join trade unions as well as unions’ efforts to organize and represent them. View all reports for the five-year research partnership with the Solidarity Center. 

Susan J. Schurman
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Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER)