Helena Worthen
Associate Clinical Professor, Institute of Labor & Industrial Relations
Labor Education Program
In Brief
- Ph.D. in Literacy and Policy, Organization and Management, University of California Berkeley, 1997
- Awarded Outstanding Dissertation prize for "Signs and Wonders: The Negotiation of Literacy in Community College Classrooms"
- Master of Arts in Education, University of California Berkeley, 1993
- Master of Landscape Architecture, University of California Berkeley, 1975
- Master of Arts in English, Stanford University, 1974, Stegner Fellow, 1966-67
- Bachelor of Arts in English, Harvard University, 1965
On being a labor educator
The world of the labor movement operates according to its own laws of nature, all springing from the core idea that when people go to work we exchange our intelligence, skill, experience and strength for fair compensation. We don't sell our dignity, our self-respect, our health or our life expectancy. Legal procedures, legislation, collective bargaining, union strategy, labor history, labor culture and the experience of the non-union workforce are all studied, interpreted and measured against this ideal of fairness.
A corollary of this core idea is that this exchange, this "fair deal," is both collective and historically embattled. Labor education, therefore, teaches a humane philosophy as well as the nuts and bolts of collective activity. It also teaches how to function strategically in an embattled environment.
Like many labor educators, this is my third career. First, I worked as an English teacher, after having successfully published a couple of novels. Then because as a worker I needed my union, I got involved and active; I eventually got staff jobs with the California Federation of Teachers and then UNITE on the East Coast. Working as a labor educator for the University of Illinois gives me the opportunity to draw from all three careers and bring the best of my experience to the many men and women of Illinois with whom I have the privilege of working in our programs.
Research Interests
- Campaigns (contract, organizing)
- Work experience of women and minorities; the politics of discrimination
- Workforce development systems
- Teacher unionism
- Ethnography of the workplace
- Vygotskian perspectives on adult learning
View Professor Worthen's curriculum vita online.
See Professor Worthen's areas of expertise.
To reach Professor Worthen:
227 ILIR Building, 504 E. Armory Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820
217-244-4095; 217-244-9290 fax
email: hworthen@uiuc.edu