Faculty & Staff Directory
Joe Berry
Visiting Labor Education Specialist
School of Labor & Employment Relations
Labor Education Program
In Brief
- Ph.D. in Labor Studies, Union School and University, 2002; Dissertation: "Contingent Faculty in Higher Education: An Organizing Strategy and Chicago Area Proposal"
- Master of Arts in History, San Francisco State University, 1979
- Bachelor of Arts in History, University of Iowa, 1971
Experience
Berry has been with the LEP for three years, first in Chicago, and since August 2007 in Urbana-Champaign. He was previously a labor educator at the University of Iowa, Indiana University, City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State University. He has a Ph.D. in Labor Studies from the Union Institute and University (Ohio), M.A. in History from San Francisco State University and a BA in History from the University of Iowa. His Ph.D. dissertation became the book Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education.(Monthly Review Press, 2005)
He has taught in public schools, community colleges and public and private universities and colleges. He has been an activist and organizer since joining the Civil Rights Movement in 1965 in high school. In the labor movement, he has been a staff representative, elected officer, paid and unpaid organizer, steward, consultant and researcher in a variety of unions, especially in education (AFT, NEA, AAUP, SEIU, NWU/UAW). He is presently a member of the NEA, AAUP, and UAW. He is the chair of Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL).
His particular interests are educational and campus unionism, contingent work and alternative organizing strategies, organizing in general, union reform and union democracy, labor history, worker learning and the history of worker education. His most recent publication is Access to Unemployment Benefits for Contingent Faculty: A manual for applicants and a strategy to gain full rights to benefits , with Helena Worthen and Beverly Stewart (Chicago COCAL, 2008, with support from AAUP, AFT, NEA)
Adjunct Labor Specialist Joe Berry's curriculum vita is available online.
See Joe Berry's areas of expertise.
To reach Visiting Labor Education Specialist Berry:
207 LER Building, 504 East Armory Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820
217-333-2388; 217-244-4091 fax
email: joeberry@illinois.edu