Public Conferences and Other Events

film screenings

Public Conferences

Between 2017 and 2022, ILHS co-sponsored an annual public conference with the UI Labor Center to highlight connections between the past and present. These conferences drew dozens of participants to listen to and interact with historians, archivists, and labor activists from around the state, region, and nation.

2022: Speaking of Work: The Making of An Iowa Working Class

Featured Speakers:

John McKerley, Oral Historian, University of Iowa Labor Center

Shel Stromquist, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa Dept. of History

2020: Epidemic Disease and the Future of Work: From Public Health Crises to Movements for Worker Justice

Featured Speakers:

Jessica E. Martinez, Co-Executive Director, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

Nate Holdren, Assistant Professor of Law and Politics, Drake University

2019: Workers’ Dream for an America That “Yet Must Be”: Struggles for Freedom and Dignity, Past and Present

Featured Speakers:

Pablo Alvarado, Co-Executive Director, National Day Laborers Organizing Network

Organizers from the Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), Minneapolis, Minn.

2018: Building Workers’ Power in a Globalized World: Shifting Legal Landscapes, Past and Present

Featured Speakers:

Shelton Stromquist, Professor of History, Emeritus, University of Iowa

Marybe McMillan, President, North Carolina AFL-CIO

2017: Labor and Civil Rights in Iowa’s Past, Present, and Future

Featured Speakers:

William P. Jones, Professor of History, University of Minnesota

Jamal Watkins, National Outreach Director AFL-CIO