Gabriella Alberti

I joined Leeds' Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change (CERIC) and the Work and Employment Relations Division in May 2012 after completion of an ESRC Post doctoral Fellowship at Queen Mary University of London. The Fellowship aimed at disseminating the findings of my doctoral research on ‘Transient Working Lives: Migrant Women’s Everyday Politics in London’s Hospitality Industry’, which I completed at Cardiff School of Social Sciences in 2011.

My approach to the study of employment, labour migration and diversity is highly interdisciplinary drawing from Industrial Relations, sociology, geography and organisation studies. My research interests revolve around the questions of transnational labour mobility, precarious work and their implications for changing employment relations, trade unions’ renewal and community unionism. In Cardiff I actively contributed to the activities of the ‘Centre for Global Labour Research’ between the Social Sciences and Business departments. Through sustained engagement with the Centre for Ethics and Politics and the Centre for Equality and Diversity at Queen Mary School of Business and Management, I developed an unconventional perspective to management studies, with particular attention on racial and gender equality at work, training and improved conditions for marginalised and contingent workers.

One of the key motivations of my academic work is to sustain a productive cross-pollination between research, policies and practices on the ground, in order to promote effective changes and organisational renewal in employment relations. Since 2010 I participated in a cross-country research project on ‘Labour Unions and the Integration of Immigrant Workers’ funded by Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Carnegie Corporation and the Public Welfare Foundation, collaborating with scholars including Jane Holgate, Lowell Turner, Lee Adler and Janice Fine as well as with members of major labour unions across the Atlantic.

At CERIC I am currently developing a research grant with Professor Robert MacKenzie, Dr Chris Forde and Zinovijus Ciupijus on the role of social partners and IR actors in facilitating labour market transitions for migrant agency workers in transnational perspective. I am also member of the European-based network on Immigration, Immigrants and Trade Unions in Europe (IITUE) and contribute to the newly established ‘Worker Institute at Cornell University’ promoting collaborations and innovative thinking between academics, trade unionists and community organisers.