Inside the Velvet Sweatshop: Paradigms and Paradoxes of High-Tech Labor, Margaret O’Mara (Labor Workshare Series, 5/29/2019)
Posted: 5/28/2019 (Local Events)
Margaret O’Mara, Professor, UW History
ABSTRACT: From the working conditions at Amazon warehouses to the white-collar pushback of the #GoogleWalkout, conditions of high-tech labor have seized headlines and triggered broader discussion about the inequities and insecurities of the modern workplace. Margaret O’Mara discusses the longer history behind Big Tech’s company culture and employment practices, and why current worker activism has the potential to alter the trajectory of where tech goes next.
Margaret O’Mara is the Howard & Frances Keller Professor of History at the University of Washington. She writes and teaches about the history of U.S. politics, the growth of the high-tech economy, and the connections between the two. She is the author of Cities of Knowledge (Princeton, 2005), Pivotal Tuesdays (Penn Press, 2015), and The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (Penguin Press, 2019). O’Mara is a Distinguished Lecturer of the Organization of American Historians and a past fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education. She received her MA/PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and her BA from Northwestern University. Prior to her academic career, she worked in the Clinton White House and served as a contributing researcher at the Brookings Institution. She lives in the Seattle area with her husband Jeff and their two daughters.
FORMAT: The presenter’s paper will be circulated to registered attendees a week in advance of the workshare. Participants are expected to read the paper before the meeting and be prepared for a discussion. Please feel free to bring your lunch. Coffee and cookies will be served.
RSVP: To register for the workshare and receive the paper, please e-mail hbcls@uw.edu .
Date: 05/29/2019
Time: 12:00-1:30PM
Location: Smith Hall, Room 306