UMass Amherst offers a unique multi-disciplinary program that combines coursework and an internship toward an M.S. degree in Labor Studies. Coursework provides the skills necessary to work in the labor movement - expertise in organizing, collective bargaining, strategic corporate research, and union leadership - and you will have an opportunity to examine the larger theoretical and strategic issues confronting workers and their unions in the new millennium.

A degree from the Labor Center guarantees a wide range of job opportunities within the labor movement and workers' rights organizations. Our graduates have been in high demand among unions and organizations fighting for social justice. 

WELCOME

 Clare Hammonds 

Professor of Practice

Clare Hammonds joined the Labor Center in the Fall of 2013 as a Professor of Practice. She conducts and supports applied research and the labor extension program.

Hammonds has worked as a researcher and labor educator for the Massachusetts Early Childhood Educators Union (MECEU).  She also conducted research for a variety of other labor organizations including the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA).

Hammonds received a Ph.D. in Sociology in 2013 from Brandeis University. She also holds an M.S. in Labor Studies from the Labor Relations and Research Center at UMass Amherst and a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.

Professor Hammonds' research interests include union organizing, low-wage care work, and public sector labor relations. She is the author of several publications including "Counting Care Work: The Empirical and Policy Applications of Care Theory" (2013) in Social Problems with Mignon Duffy and Randy Albelda; "Strategies of Emotion Management: Not Just On, but Off the Job" (2013) in Nursing Inquiry with Wendy Cadge; and "Reconsidering Detached Concern: The Case of Intensive Care Nurses" (2012) in Perspectives on Biology and Medicine with Wendy Cadge.