History of Labor Studies

In the early 2000s, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) launched a freestanding undergraduate minor in Labor and Workplace Studies and supported a popular General Education Cluster course, Work, Labor and Social Justice. In the 2010s, the undergraduate program developed an internship course that offered students hands-on learning within Los Angeles worker organizations. Following the 8-Year Review, the minor created a lower-division General Education introductory course (currently Labor Studies 10), an upper division introductory course (Labor Studies 101) and expanded the range of elective courses offered by ladder faculty, Labor Center academic administrators and community practitioners hired as Unit 18 faculty. The minor grew from 100 students in 2012 to 192 students in 2017, leading to initial planning for the establishment of an interdepartmental degree program (IDP).

In 2019, the IRLE spearheaded the establishment of the first Labor Studies undergraduate degree program in the UC system. The IDP major grew quickly, enrolling around 100 majors and 100 minors as of spring 2024. Labor Studies majors are overwhelmingly women, first-generation college students, students of color and children of immigrants.

In 2025, UCLA Labor Studies was elevated to a full academic department, marking a major milestone and expanding its mission to educate the next generation of leaders on labor and social justice issues. “Establishing a Department of Labor Studies at one of the top public universities in the country is a momentous achievement not only for UCLA but for the entire interdisciplinary field of labor studies,” said Chris Zepeda-Millán, who served as chair of the labor studies program from 2022 to 2025. “The new department legitimizes labor studies as a rigorous area of research and teaching and will hopefully inspire the growth of other labor studies programs in California and the nation.”

Labor Studies equips students with tools from sociology, economics, political science, ethnic studies and history, along with law, policy and public health, to analyze and challenge systems of inequality in modern society.

The UCLA Department of Labor Studies is grounded in social movement theory, working-class history and experiential learning. Through our unique community internship program and summer research capstone, students directly engage with labor organizations and workers, applying what they learn in real time. Students conduct innovative research and are empowered to recognize their experiences, and those of their friends and families, as legitimate sources of knowledge and scholarship.