Professor Upchurch has previously taught at the University of the West of England and the University of North London. Prior to becoming an academic he worked for the Department of the Environment and then for a public sector trade union in the UK as a researcher and journalist. He has served on the National Executive Committee of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association, and on the editorial boards of Capital & Class and Work, Employment and Society. He has held research grants from the Leverhulme Trust (on trade union strategies), the ESRC (partnership in the UK workplace), and the British Academy (transformation of work and industrial relations in Serbia). He has recently convened an ESRC Seminar Series on 'Beyond Global Labour Regulation'. He is also convenor of the Global Work and Employment Project (GWEp) at Middlesex.