Dr. Jenny Carson

Dr. Jenny Carson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, which she joined in 2007. In addition to a PhD from the University of Toronto, she holds an MA in History from the University of Western Ontario and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History, also from Western. Dr. Carson’s doctoral research, supported by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Award and a Fulbright Award (at Columbia University), explored the working and organizational activities of African-American women laundry workers in the first half of the 20th century. She currently is working on a book-length manuscript on the same topic. Dr. Carson teaches courses on American history and global studies in the Department of History and in Arts and Contemporary Studies. Her article “‘Taking on Corporate Bullies’: Cintas, Laundry Workers, and Organizing in the 1930s and Twenty-First Century,”published in Labor Studies Journal (2010) was chosen by the journal as the best article of 2010. Other recent publications include: “On Wit, Irony, and Living with Imperfection: How Britain said No to Abstinence,” American Journal of Public Health (2008); and a forthcoming article in Labor: Studies in Working Class Histories of the Americas entitled “‘The Democratic Initiative’: The Promises and Limitations of Industrial Unionism for New York City’s Laundry Workers, 1930-1950.” Dr. Carson currently is part of the five-year Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) project “Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario,” which is investigating the potential of collective responses in minimizing the economic and social costs associated with precarious employment. In 2010, Dr. Carson won the Dean’s Teaching Award, which recognizes continuing teaching excellence and achievement in instruction. She also is a member of the graduate faculty.