University Of Massachusetts Amherst Doctoral Candidate Named As Center For Engaged Scholarship Fellow

Venus Green, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology, has been selected as a 2023-24 Dissertation Fellow through the social scientist organization, Center for Engaged Scholarship.

Green’s dissertation research examines how Black and Afro-descendent domestic workers have been central to the most progressive elements of the labor movement in the United States. This research investigates how Black and African descendent domestic workers and domestic workers organizations infuse radical care work into community building efforts to mobilize support at the grassroots and federal levels for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and other struggles for workers’ protections and dignity. It seeks to understand how Black women’s intersectional organizing around care work within the mainstream labor movement re-envisions critical paths toward Black emancipation.

The project addresses key concerns within the sociology of care work, political sociology, labor history, sociology of race and ethnicity, Du Boisian sociology, sociology of migration, citizenship, sociology of gender and sociology of work and occupations. Green’s findings have informed local organizations and political education programs for domestic workers, and can potentially inform legislation and grassroots organizational toolkits to ensure the national passage of the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights.

The Center for Engaged Scholarship builds a new generation of engaged scholars, creates stronger networks across institutions and disciplines and contributes to struggles for justice by mobilizing the ideas and energies of engaged scholars. This highly competitive fellowship is awarded annually to seven students across disciplines who receive $30,000 to support the writing of their doctoral dissertations.