Faculty and Research

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We are home to world-class faculty who study work at every level. We create relevant research from across disciplines, including (but not limited to) sociology, history, law, HR studies, and anthropology. Our research influences public policy, informs business strategy and organizational design, and improves professional practices. We're innovative researchers, creating and using new approaches to help the world understand work.

Latest Research

Read all latest-research stories

New Report from Cornell's Labor Leading on Climate Provides Roadmap to Exceed NYC Climate Goals, Create Over 1 Million Jobs

A new report released today by Cornell's Labor Leading on Climate in collaboration with the Climate Jobs NY coalition outlines a comprehensive climate jobs action plan for NYC to fight the climate crisis, make NYC safer and address racial and economic inequity by investing in a pro-worker renewable energy transition.
NYC Skyline
New Report from Cornell's Labor Leading on Climate Provides Roadmap to Exceed NYC Climate Goals, Create Over 1 Million Jobs

Impact of Incentives on Ethics Examined

The presence of incentives directly influences the odds that an individual will act unethically, according to research led by Associate Professor Tae Youn Park.
A carrot hanging from a string
Impact of Incentives on Ethics Examined

Calco, Falwell Partner with Public History Fellows

Through a new program sponsored by the Cornell Public History Initiative in partnership with the Cornell University Library, Steven Calco and Marcie Falwell of the Kheel Center worked with undergraduate fellows.
Steven Calco in the Kheel Center
Calco, Falwell Partner with Public History Fellows

2022 Migrations Awards Include Grant for Worker Institute Faculty on Central American Workers with Temporary Protective Status

The 2022 Migrations Awards include a Justice Futures Team Research Grant awarded to Patricia Campos-Medina and more for their project, “Displaced and Uprooted: Stories of Belonging, Central American TPS Workers' Defiant Struggle for their Right to Stay Home in the U.S.”
Patricia Campos Medina with TPS Worker
2022 Migrations Awards Include Grant for Worker Institute Faculty on Central American Workers with Temporary Protective Status

Global Severance Pay Program Outlined

When apparel factories shut down due to COVID-19, many workers lost their incomes. ILR’s New Conversations Project proposes a model to protect workers.
garment workers in a factory
Global Severance Pay Program Outlined

(Don’t) Take a Break

New research from the ILR School shows that students who take a break after high school are are less likely to enroll in college.
Student sitting in a classroom in Ives Hall.
(Don’t) Take a Break
Our Faculty

We host more full-time faculty involved in teaching and research that spans the broad range of work and employment disciplines than any other educational institution like us.

Find an ILR faculty member
ILR Faculty collage
Find an ILR faculty member

Catherwood Library

The Martin P. Catherwood Library offers expert research support through reference services, instruction, online guides, and access to premier collections. The collection consists of 250,000 volumes and 1500 serial subscriptions along with essential academic and practitioner databases and special format materials such as media and microforms. While many of these resources are academic in origin, we also collect directly from unions, corporations, governments, and non-profit organizations. Additionally, we are an International Labour Organization (ILO) Partner Library.

Find online resources, see office hours, and get directions to our physical collections.

Visit the Library
Studying in the window bay at the Catherwood Library
Visit the Library
The Kheel Center

Our library hosts the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives. The Kheel Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible special collections pertaining to the history of the workplace and labor relations.

Over the years, many individuals and organizations generously donated their valuable materials to the Kheel Center. For some organizations, the center is the official repository. 

About the Kheel Center
archive photo of a person sorting materials at work
About the Kheel Center

Undergraduate Research

Students involved in ILR's many research opportunities develop close relationships with faculty, become authors or coauthors of published articles, and present at conferences and meetings.

 

Find out more about undergraduate research at ILR.

 

Find out more about graduate fellowships and financial aid.

Centers and Institutes

Each of ILR's centers and institutes focuses on a particular workplace-related theme and provides an umbrella of support for broad research programs involving our faculty.

Centers and Institutes
Centers and Institutes

Research Resources

ILR Press books

ILR Press

ILR Press publishes books about workplace issues, labor, management, and social policy. Written from a variety of perspectives, these books appeal to a diverse readership that includes scholars and students throughout the social sciences; practitioners, and, increasingly, the general public. Widely regarded as the most distinguished publisher in the field, ILR Press was founded more than fifty years ago as the publishing division of the ILR School. It is an imprint of Cornell University Press.

Find out more

 

Digital Commons global usage map

Digital Commons

DigitalCollections@ILR offers electronic access to unique material that encompasses every aspect of the workplace. As a service of our Catherwood Library. we offer research and scholarly output including journal articles, working papers, and reports have been selected for inclusion in DC@ILR by the individual departments, centers, institutes, and programs within the ILR School, and deposited by authors or the staff at the Catherwood Library.

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ILR Review cover

ILR Review

The ILR Review is a peer-reviewed journal on work and employment issues. The Review is published by SAGE Publications. It is dedicated to international and interdisciplinary research that advances new theory, presents novel empirical work, and informs organizational and public policy.

Find out more