Ethnographies of Work (EOW) Professional Development Seminar 

• Program Overview
  1. Summer 2021, FIU and MDC faculty will participate in an asynchronous workshop to learn about the pioneering Ethnographies of Work curriculum developed at CUNY-Guttman. 
  2. Fall 2022, FIU and MDC faculty will participate in two,90-minute workshops, online, that will focus on the application of EOW principles to the development of an assignment, module, or badge. CUNY faculty will offer one-on-one and group support throughout the semester, along with review of assignments. 
  3. Spring 2022, FIU and MDC faculty will be expected to pilot their projects in the classroom.
  4. Spring 2022, the EOW program will conclude with a faculty seminar in which participating faculty will present their work to a wider audience of MDC and FIU faculty. This event is anticipated to be in-person at FIU.  
• Faculty Stipends

  Faculty participation is required for all three components of the EOW Professional Development seminar starting August 2021 and ending in Spring 2022.

  Faculty will receive a stipend in each of the three semesters.

• Applications

  Currently closed.

• EOW Seminar Objectives
  • Introduce the Ethnographies of Work curriculum and share best practices and ideas from faculty at Guttman Community College  
  • Engage FIU and MDC faculty and staff in conversations/activities to address the question: What Should Students Know about the World of Work and Why? and How Can We Adapt EOW Frameworks into our Colleges? 

  
  Consider questions such as: 

  • How does intersectionality around class and gender justice relate to labor market access, workforce engagement, and impacts on students and families?  
  • How have underrepresented and low-income students historically been shut out of labor market access points to economic mobility? 
  • Why work is important in human lives?  
  • What barriers stand in graduates’ way and how they be dismantled? 
  • What social networks are and how do they help connect to good jobs?  
  • What makes a good job?
  • Develop an assignment, module, or badge to pilot in the course and through career services. 
  • Share the EOW experience at a faculty seminar with non-participating MDC and FIU faculty and staff.  
• Workshop resources
  • EOW Session 1
  • Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
  • Fieldwork template
  • Session 1 Evaluation
  • FIU Agenda

EOW co-directors and seminar facilitators

• Dr. Mary Gatta, Associate Professor of Sociology

  Dr. Mary Gatta has a long history of research and training on education and workforce development focused on gender equity. She joined the faculty as an Associate Professor of Sociology at City University of New York-Guttman in August 2015. Prior to her appointment at CUNY, Mary served as a Senior Scholar at Wider Opportunities for Women in Washington DC, and as Director of Gender and Workforce Policy at the Center for Women and Work, and Assistant Professor of Labor Studies at Rutgers University.  

  Mary is a leader in research related to workforce development programs and nontraditional job training for women. Her book Waiting on Retirement: Aging and Economic Insecurity in Low Wage Work, on the experiences of older low-wage workers as they march toward a semblance of retirement, will be available in October 2018 from Stanford University Press.  

  Mary has developed and delivered nontraditional professional development for faculty, workforce professionals, labor union staff and students in New Jersey and nationally. While at Wider Opportunities for Women she collaborated with Jobs for the Future on several US DOL demonstration programs and grants that were focused on improving the participation and experience of women in nontraditional educational programs and careers (including the building trades, green jobs, manufacturing, and auto maintenance).  

  Recently Mary explored the experiences of women as they navigate One-Stop Career Centers, which led to Mary’s book, All I Want Is a Job! Unemployed Women Navigating the Public Workforce System. She is also the author of Not Just Getting By: The New Era of Flexible Workforce Development and Juggling Food and Feelings: Emotional Balance in the Workplace and is the editor of A US Skills System for the 21st Century: Innovations in Workforce Education and Development.  

• Dr. Nisha Ziehmke, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

  Dr. Niesha Ziehmke earned her master’s in education from the New School for Social Research and taught Spanish in a NYC public high school for six years. She then completed her Ph.D. in linguistics at the CUNY Graduate Center, with a focus on methods for teaching academic English to students who speak non-academic varieties of English.  

  Niesha’s key responsibilities in the Office of Academic Affairs are strategic planning, assessment, program oversight, career in the curriculum, career development and support, and grant writing. She is also Co-Director for the Center on Ethnographies of Work which champions career education grounded in the curriculum and focused on exploring the meaning of work in human lives and helping students develop a critical lens on the systems at play in the labor market and workplace. She is also the Principal Investigator on Guttman’s NSF Grant focused on researching the combined impact of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and transfer preparation on STEM success.