Frances Fox Piven led the inquiry into the role of money and class issues in U.S. politics. A major thrust was welfare reform. A conference and book on Work, Welfare and Politics highlighted the year.

Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics

Frances Fox Piven
Frances Fox Piven is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate School and University Center, CUNY. She gave the keynote address at a major conference titled Work, Welfare and Politics in early 2000. Her books include Poor People’s Movements, Regulating the Poor, and Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?: The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate.

Project Grants

The Farmworker Experience
Four UO undergraduates and two graduate students worked in conjunction with Professor Lynn Stephen and staff of the Oregon farmworker union, PCUN, on the history of the farmworker movement in the state of Oregon. These students organized the archives of PCUN, which holds one of the largest collections of documents, newsletter, clippings, photos, videos, and other documentation of the farmworker struggle and the Chicano movement in Oregon.

A second part of the project was a class titled “U.S. Immigration Policy and the Mexican Farmworker Experience.” The class hosted five guest speakers and included supervised field research and study. The project generated much community interest, including press coverage by National Public Radio, the Eugene Register-Guard, Oregon Daily Emerald, and the UO Web page. Stephen presented a paper based on this project at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

Public Radio Internship Project
KLCC radio journalists Nancy Solomon and Alan Siporin mentored four UO student interns to produce radio feature segments on issues of class and politics. In addition, Siporin hosted Frances Fox Piven on his “Critical Mass” show, and the two journalists held "dialogue sessions” with local residents from different economic strata. They produced an hour-long documentary about poverty and welfare in Lane County that was aired on KLCC.

Labor, Welfare, and Politics
Forum sponsored by the Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network.

Economic Justice
Film series sponsored by the Bijou Cinema and Eugene Weekly.

Power, Control, and Resistance
Series of classes taught by UO Political Science Professor Julie Novkov.

Law, Class, and Regulation
Series of classes taught by professors Gordon Lafer and Julie Novkov and sponsored by UO Political Science Department and the UO Labor Education and Research Center.

Regulating the Working Class
Capstone class designed and taught by Sandra Morgen, Professor of Anthropology and director of the UO Center for the Study of Women in Society.