Katherine Nastovski
Assistant Professor
Coordinator, Work & Labour Studies (WKLS)
Office: 763 Ross Building South
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext: 33612
Email: nastov@yorku.ca
Primary website: Academia Profile
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Katherine Nastovski is an Assistant Professor in Work and Labour Studies in the Department of Social Science at York University.
Her research advances an anti-racist marxist feminist lens within the emerging field of global labour studies. Specifically, Katherine's research focuses on struggles for workers justice, labour transnationalism and the relevance of colonialism, imperialism and racism for thinking about workers' organizing.
Katherine's research in the field of Global Labour Studies bridges the fields of the Sociology of Work, Transnational Sociology and Labour Geography to examine possibilities for transnational labour solidarity and coordination.
Rooted in her years as a union activist and international labour solidarity organizer, Katherine’s community-engaged research agenda aims to build the field of Global Labour Studies in Canada in ways that support the efforts of labour organizers and activists.
Katherine is currently is completing a book manuscript entitled Transnational Horizons: Workers in Canada Enter the Global Sphere (under contract with the University of Toronto Press).
https://yorku.academia.edu/KatherineNastovski
Research Interests
- SSHRC Connection Grant - 2017
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
- SSHRC Connection Grant - 2017
I am currently completing a manuscript entitled Transnational Horizons: Workers in Canada Enter the Global Sphere (under contract with the University of Toronto Press). This book will be the first full-length study of the efforts of workers and workers’ organizations in Canada to act transnationally.
Description:The book has three central objectives:
1. To advance research in the emerging field of Global Labour Studies by developing a theoretical framework to understand the way principal actors within the labour movement have seen workers in the Global South as both opportunities and threats to the future and security of Canadian workers. Specifically, the book presents a dialectical framework to understand how ideas of race, gender and citizenship shape transnational resistance strategies, and how racialized and gendered class formation in Canada continues to influence ideas of workers’ justice and responses to imperialism, colonialism and the regulation of migrant workers.
2. To establish the groundwork for future scholarship on labour transnationalism in Canada by providing original empirical research on the conflicting forces at work in the making of transnational strategies.
3. To support the efforts of practitioners to imagine new strategic directions for transnational solidarity. This book does this by both identifying ongoing structural and ideological challenges for building labour transnationalism and lessons from major counterforces to the dominant institutional practices
- Month: Apr Year: 2019
-
Summary:
In October 2017, I served as one of the principal organizers of a community-engaged, union-supported conference entitled “Confronting Global Capital: Strengthening Labour Internationalism and Transnationalism Today,” for which I was awarded a SSHRC Connection Grant of $24, 973.
Description:The conference included over 200 participants in events that included a public forum, a full day of joint union and academic panels on labour transnationalism, another full day of workshops and plenaries and an art exhibit at the Workers' Arts and Heritage Centre on International Labour Solidarity. The conference created a forum to take stock of the state of international labour solidarity in Canada today by bringing together trade unionists, as well as activists and academics involved in workers’ justice more generally to evaluate past practices and to debate and discuss strategies to strengthen this work.
- Month: Jul Year: 2015
End Date:
- Month: Feb Year: 2018
Collaborator Institution: McMaster University
Under contract with the University of Toronto Press, Transnational Horizons works to advance research on Global Labour Studies by developing a theoretical framework to understand how workers' movements have approached transnational solidarity and coordination.
The book has three central objectives:
1. To advance research in the emerging field of Global Labour Studies by developing a theoretical framework to understand the way principal actors within the labour movement have seen workers in the Global South as both opportunities and threats to the future and security of Canadian workers. Specifically, the book presents a dialectical framework to understand how ideas of race, gender and citizenship shape transnational resistance strategies, and how racialized and gendered class formation in Canada continues to influence ideas of workers’ justice and responses to imperialism, colonialism and the regulation of migrant workers.
2. To establish the groundwork for future scholarship on labour transnationalism in Canada by providing original empirical research on the conflicting forces at work in the making of transnational strategies.
3. To support the efforts of practitioners to imagine new strategic directions for transnational solidarity. This book does this by both identifying ongoing structural and ideological challenges for building labour transnationalism and lessons from major counterforces to the dominant institutional practices
Nastovski, Katherine. 2016. “Worker-to-Worker: A Transformative Model of Solidarity: Lessons from Grassroots International Labor Solidarity in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s.” In Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization, edited by Kim Scipes. Chicago: Haymarket Press.
This chapter outlines the central lessons from grassroots international labour solidarity organizing in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2015. “Problematizing International Labour Solidarity as Development Aid.” In Last Call for Solidarity: Opportunities and Limits of Transnational Solidarity of Trade Unions and Social Movements, edited by Shuwen Bian, Sarah Bormann, Martina Hartung, Jenny Jungehülsing, and Florian Schubert. Hamburg: VSA Verlag. (Publication is currently only available in German).
http://www.vsa-verlag.de/nc/buecher/detail/artikel/last-call-for-solidarity/
This article examines the current crisis of labour transnationalism in Canada arising from the demise of the Canadian International Development Agency under the Harper Conservatives in 2013.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2017. Review: Working Through the Past: Labor and Authoritarian Legacies in Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Teri L. Caraway, Maria Lorena Cook, and Stephen Crowley. Labour/Le Travail 80 (Fall): 365-367.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2013. Review: In the Interest of Democracy: The Rise and Fall of the Early Cold War Alliance Between the American Federation of Labor and the Central Intelligence Agency, by Quenby Olmsted Hughes. Labour/Le Travail 71(Spring): 278-80.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2011. Review: The AFL-CIO’s Secret War Against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage? By Kim Scipes. Labour/Le Travail 67(Spring): 246-248.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2021. “Transnational Labour Solidarity as Political Practice: Beyond the Unfulfilled Dreams of Transnational Labour Coordination.” Global Labour Journal 12(2):113-130.
This article explores the dominant dichotomies used to assess transnational labour solidarity and its role within broader struggles for workers' justice. Drawing upon the case of transnational political solidarities built by workers inside Canadian unions in the 1980s and 1990s, I argue that assessing transnational practices with a longer view to class formation and the goals of workers’ emancipation can expand conceptions of what constitutes successful transnational practice. I argue that a reassessment of the role of labour transnationalism is particularly timely in the current context of right-wing populism.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2014. Workers Confront Apartheid: Comparing Canadian Labour Solidarity Campaigns Against South African and Israeli Apartheid. Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society, Special Issue on Building International Labor Solidarity 17(2): 211-237.
This article compares union solidarity campaigns against apartheid and the relevance of race and colonialism for transnational labour solidarity.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2012. Between Nationalism and Solidarity: Assessing the KKE’s Post Civil War Positioning of the Macedonian Question. Balkanistica 25(2): 75-105.
This article explores the tensions between nationalism, working-class consciousness, and solidarity in the context of the Greek Civil War.
Approach to Teaching
Drawn from my research agenda in Global Labour Studies and my experience as a labour and social justice activist and educator, my approach to teaching aims to build student confidence and skills through experiential and active learning exercises. I offer a global lens to labour issues that connects issues of exploitation and oppression with an explicit view to advancing social change. In the classroom, this means that I structure learning in a way that continuously brings together theory, history, and cases or models of resistance in a global perspective.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/SOSC4240 6.0 | A | Labour Studies Placement | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/SOSC3380 6.0 | A | Law, Labour and the State | LECT |
Katherine Nastovski is an Assistant Professor in Work and Labour Studies in the Department of Social Science at York University.
Her research advances an anti-racist marxist feminist lens within the emerging field of global labour studies. Specifically, Katherine's research focuses on struggles for workers justice, labour transnationalism and the relevance of colonialism, imperialism and racism for thinking about workers' organizing.
Katherine's research in the field of Global Labour Studies bridges the fields of the Sociology of Work, Transnational Sociology and Labour Geography to examine possibilities for transnational labour solidarity and coordination.
Rooted in her years as a union activist and international labour solidarity organizer, Katherine’s community-engaged research agenda aims to build the field of Global Labour Studies in Canada in ways that support the efforts of labour organizers and activists.
Katherine is currently is completing a book manuscript entitled Transnational Horizons: Workers in Canada Enter the Global Sphere (under contract with the University of Toronto Press).
https://yorku.academia.edu/KatherineNastovski
Research Interests
Awards
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
I am currently completing a manuscript entitled Transnational Horizons: Workers in Canada Enter the Global Sphere (under contract with the University of Toronto Press). This book will be the first full-length study of the efforts of workers and workers’ organizations in Canada to act transnationally.
Description:The book has three central objectives:
1. To advance research in the emerging field of Global Labour Studies by developing a theoretical framework to understand the way principal actors within the labour movement have seen workers in the Global South as both opportunities and threats to the future and security of Canadian workers. Specifically, the book presents a dialectical framework to understand how ideas of race, gender and citizenship shape transnational resistance strategies, and how racialized and gendered class formation in Canada continues to influence ideas of workers’ justice and responses to imperialism, colonialism and the regulation of migrant workers.
2. To establish the groundwork for future scholarship on labour transnationalism in Canada by providing original empirical research on the conflicting forces at work in the making of transnational strategies.
3. To support the efforts of practitioners to imagine new strategic directions for transnational solidarity. This book does this by both identifying ongoing structural and ideological challenges for building labour transnationalism and lessons from major counterforces to the dominant institutional practices
Start Date:- Month: Apr Year: 2019
-
Summary:
In October 2017, I served as one of the principal organizers of a community-engaged, union-supported conference entitled “Confronting Global Capital: Strengthening Labour Internationalism and Transnationalism Today,” for which I was awarded a SSHRC Connection Grant of $24, 973.
Description:The conference included over 200 participants in events that included a public forum, a full day of joint union and academic panels on labour transnationalism, another full day of workshops and plenaries and an art exhibit at the Workers' Arts and Heritage Centre on International Labour Solidarity. The conference created a forum to take stock of the state of international labour solidarity in Canada today by bringing together trade unionists, as well as activists and academics involved in workers’ justice more generally to evaluate past practices and to debate and discuss strategies to strengthen this work.
Project Type: FundedStart Date:
- Month: Jul Year: 2015
End Date:
- Month: Feb Year: 2018
Collaborator Institution: McMaster University
All Publications
Nastovski, Katherine. 2016. “Worker-to-Worker: A Transformative Model of Solidarity: Lessons from Grassroots International Labor Solidarity in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s.” In Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization, edited by Kim Scipes. Chicago: Haymarket Press.
This chapter outlines the central lessons from grassroots international labour solidarity organizing in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2015. “Problematizing International Labour Solidarity as Development Aid.” In Last Call for Solidarity: Opportunities and Limits of Transnational Solidarity of Trade Unions and Social Movements, edited by Shuwen Bian, Sarah Bormann, Martina Hartung, Jenny Jungehülsing, and Florian Schubert. Hamburg: VSA Verlag. (Publication is currently only available in German).
http://www.vsa-verlag.de/nc/buecher/detail/artikel/last-call-for-solidarity/
This article examines the current crisis of labour transnationalism in Canada arising from the demise of the Canadian International Development Agency under the Harper Conservatives in 2013.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2017. Review: Working Through the Past: Labor and Authoritarian Legacies in Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Teri L. Caraway, Maria Lorena Cook, and Stephen Crowley. Labour/Le Travail 80 (Fall): 365-367.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2013. Review: In the Interest of Democracy: The Rise and Fall of the Early Cold War Alliance Between the American Federation of Labor and the Central Intelligence Agency, by Quenby Olmsted Hughes. Labour/Le Travail 71(Spring): 278-80.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2011. Review: The AFL-CIO’s Secret War Against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage? By Kim Scipes. Labour/Le Travail 67(Spring): 246-248.
Under contract with the University of Toronto Press, Transnational Horizons works to advance research on Global Labour Studies by developing a theoretical framework to understand how workers' movements have approached transnational solidarity and coordination.
The book has three central objectives:
1. To advance research in the emerging field of Global Labour Studies by developing a theoretical framework to understand the way principal actors within the labour movement have seen workers in the Global South as both opportunities and threats to the future and security of Canadian workers. Specifically, the book presents a dialectical framework to understand how ideas of race, gender and citizenship shape transnational resistance strategies, and how racialized and gendered class formation in Canada continues to influence ideas of workers’ justice and responses to imperialism, colonialism and the regulation of migrant workers.
2. To establish the groundwork for future scholarship on labour transnationalism in Canada by providing original empirical research on the conflicting forces at work in the making of transnational strategies.
3. To support the efforts of practitioners to imagine new strategic directions for transnational solidarity. This book does this by both identifying ongoing structural and ideological challenges for building labour transnationalism and lessons from major counterforces to the dominant institutional practices
Nastovski, Katherine. 2021. “Transnational Labour Solidarity as Political Practice: Beyond the Unfulfilled Dreams of Transnational Labour Coordination.” Global Labour Journal 12(2):113-130.
This article explores the dominant dichotomies used to assess transnational labour solidarity and its role within broader struggles for workers' justice. Drawing upon the case of transnational political solidarities built by workers inside Canadian unions in the 1980s and 1990s, I argue that assessing transnational practices with a longer view to class formation and the goals of workers’ emancipation can expand conceptions of what constitutes successful transnational practice. I argue that a reassessment of the role of labour transnationalism is particularly timely in the current context of right-wing populism.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2014. Workers Confront Apartheid: Comparing Canadian Labour Solidarity Campaigns Against South African and Israeli Apartheid. Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society, Special Issue on Building International Labor Solidarity 17(2): 211-237.
This article compares union solidarity campaigns against apartheid and the relevance of race and colonialism for transnational labour solidarity.
Nastovski, Katherine. 2012. Between Nationalism and Solidarity: Assessing the KKE’s Post Civil War Positioning of the Macedonian Question. Balkanistica 25(2): 75-105.
This article explores the tensions between nationalism, working-class consciousness, and solidarity in the context of the Greek Civil War.
Approach to Teaching
Drawn from my research agenda in Global Labour Studies and my experience as a labour and social justice activist and educator, my approach to teaching aims to build student confidence and skills through experiential and active learning exercises. I offer a global lens to labour issues that connects issues of exploitation and oppression with an explicit view to advancing social change. In the classroom, this means that I structure learning in a way that continuously brings together theory, history, and cases or models of resistance in a global perspective.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/SOSC4240 6.0 | A | Labour Studies Placement | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/SOSC3380 6.0 | A | Law, Labour and the State | LECT |
