University Library News

Join us in Georgia State University’s Department of History for Julia Gunn’s upcoming talk based on research for her in-progress dissertation, “‘A Good Place to Make Money’: Civil Rights, Labor, and the Politics of Economic Development in Charlotte, North Carolina.” Gunn is an awardee of the 2014 Reed Fink Award in Southern Labor History which is sponsored by the Southern Labor Archives. Gunn is a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania with research interests in the Sunbelt; Civil Rights and Black Power; labor and working class history; and the history of capitalism. She has published and presented extensively on these topics.

Gunn’s research “sits at the intersection of two important bodies of scholarship. In recent years, civil rights scholarship has focused increased attention on the movement’s emphasis on economic justice. At the same time, labor and business historians have become interested in the role of business interest groups in undermining organized labor. My dissertation attempts to bridge these two often-divergent bodies of scholarship by looking at public employee unionism, the politics of racial moderation, and the development of pro-business governance in the urban South. Through the lens of public employee unions and the campaigns waged against them, this project traces the evolution of racially moderate, anti-union politics that have fundamentally reshaped the American political landscape.”

 Date: Friday, March 27, 2015

Location: 25 Park Place, Room 2150 (Department of History)

Time: 2:00 PM

Professors Merl E. Reed and Gary Fink helped establish and develop the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University Library. The Reed Fink Award in Southern Labor History honors both men and their many contributions to education, labor studies, and the Southern Labor Archives. The deadline for the 2015 Reed Fink Award is May 15, 2015.