Kuruvilla Named Academic Fellow
Sarosh Kuruvilla, the ILR School’s Andrew J. Nathanson Family Professor in Industrial and Labor Relations, has been named a 2022 Academic Fellow by the Labor and Employment Relations Association.
The designation recognizes scholars who have made contributions of unusual distinction to the field and have been in the profession and field for longer than 10 years. The selection committee for the award considered contributions from disciplines including industrial relations, labor law, economics, human resources, business, sociology, political science and organizational behavior.
Rosemary Batt, ILR’s Alice Hanson Cook Professor of Women and Work and co-chair of the association’s awards committee, said, “Sarosh has been at the forefront of scholarship on Asian industrial relations, the offshoring of work to Asia, and more recently, on global supply chains and their impact on workers. He has mentored a new generation of young scholars who are following his lead – exposing how multinational corporations violate labor standards and sharing what can be done to remedy that harm.”
Kuruvilla’s impact extends beyond the academic community; he educates employers and practitioners about problems faced by supply chain workers. As founder and director of the New Conversations Project, based at ILR, Kuruvilla leads independent research and action on a new generation of strategies that the evidence says can produce better outcomes for large numbers of workers. The project works with global buyers, suppliers, unions, civil society, regulators and investors to identify supply chain labor relations and business practices that end abusive labor practices.
“Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains: Problems, Progress, and Prospects,” his 2021 research book, was published by Cornell University Press. In a webinar, he discussed the ineffectiveness of private regulation in global supply chains.
His recent journal articles include Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining: A research Agenda. published in 2021 in the “Journal of Supply Chain Management,” and Field Opacity and Practice Outcomes Decoupling. Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains, published in 2020 in “Industrial and Labor Relations Review.”
Other scholars receiving the academic fellow award this year include Chris Tilly, UCLA; Françoise Carré, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Douglas Kruse, Rutgers University. Along with Kuruvilla, they will be recognized at 3:45 p.m. ET June 3 in conjunction with the organization’s 74th annual meeting, a virtual event.