Judith Stepan-Norris

Picture of Judith Stepan-Norris
Professor, Sociology
School of Social Sciences
Vice Provost for Academic Planning
PH.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Phone: (949) 824-6043
Fax: (949) 824-2513
Email: jstepann@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
535 Aldrich Hall
Mail Code: 1000
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Labor Unions, Sociology of Work, Political Sociology, American Society, Research Methods, Historical-Comparative Methods, Class Formation
Academic Distinctions
Max Weber Award for Distinguished Book, 2004 (Co-authored with Maurice Zeitlin; Organizations, Occupations and Work Section of the ASA); Distinguished Assistant Professor Award for Research, 1997; Inaugral Labor Studies Award for Distinguished Publication, 1997 (Co-authored with Maurice Zeitlin; Labor Studies Division, SSSP); Award for Distinguished Scholarship 1992 and 1996(Both co-authored with Maurice Zeitlin; Political Sociology Section of the ASA).
Research Abstract
Professor Stepan-Norris's research interests center on the interrelationships between union leadership, union democracy and workers' consciousness. Her early work focused on American unions affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from the 1930s through the mid-1950s, when union political activities were at a peak. Other research focuses on how workers' participation in highly democratic, militant and radical union local politics impacted their political actions in their neighborhoods. This project also assesses the impact of church members and church locations on the political voting patterns of Detroit neighborhoods. With Leslie Bunnage, she is investigating the revitalization of the U.S. labor movement by focusing on the AFL-CIO's Union Summer program, and its role in union victories as well as its consequences for recruiting labor activists. With Ben Lind, she has investigated the resources that mobilized the Los Angeles renters movement. Most recently, she and Caleb Southworth are working on a large NSF funded pilot project that attempts to collect information on all U.S. unions over the last century.
Publications
2011 Benjamin Lind and Judith Stepan-Norris. “The Relationality of Movements: Movement and Countermovement Resources, Infrastructure, and Leadership in the Los Angeles Tenants' Rights Mobilization, 1976-1979.” American Journal of Sociology vol. 116 (5)
(March).
2010 Judith Stepan-Norris and Caleb Southworth. “Rival Unionism and Membership Growth in the United States, 1900 to 2005: A Special Case of Interorganizational Competition.” American Sociological Review 75 (2): 227-51.
2009 Caleb Southworth and Judith Stepan-Norris. “American Trade Unions and Data Limitations: A New Agenda for Labor Studies.” Annual Review of Sociology Vol 35.
2008 Rick Grannis, David Smith and Judith Stepan-Norris. "Working Connections: Shopfloor Networks and Union Leadership." Sociological Perspectives, forthcoming.
2007 Stepan-Norris, Judith and Caleb Southworth. “Churches as Organizational Resources: A Case Study in the Geography of Religion and Political Voting in Post-War Detroit.” Social Science History 31:3.
2003 Caleb Southworth and Judith Stepan-Norris. "The Geography of Class in an Industrial American City: Connections between Workplace and Neighborhood Politics." Social Problems, Vol.50, No.3, pages 319-347.
2003 Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin. Left Out: Reds and America's Industrial Unions. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
1998 Judith Stepan-Norris. "Strangers to Their Own Class?" Sociological Inquiry,68:329-353.
1997 Judith Stepan-Norris. "The Making of Union Democracy." Social Forces, 76:475-510.
1997 Judith Stepan-Norris. "The Integration of Workplace and Community Relations at the Ford Rouge Plant, 1930s - 940s."(Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 11:3-44).
1996 Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin. Talking Union. Urbana and Chicago:University of Illinois Press.
1996 Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin. "Insurgency, Radicalism, and Democracy in America's Unions." Social Forces, 75:1-32.
1995 Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin. "Union Democracy, Radical Leadership, and the Hegemony of Capital." American Sociological Review, 60:829-50.
1992 Howard Kimeldorf and Judith Stepan-Norris. "Historical Studies of Labor Movements in the United States." Annual Review of Sociology, 18:495-517.
1991 Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin. "'Red' Unions and 'Bourgeois' Contracts? The Effects of Political Leadership on the 'Political Regime of Production.'" American Journal of Sociology 96:1151-1200.
1989 Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin. "'Who Gets the Bird?' - Or, How the Communists Won 'Power and Trust' in America's Unions: the Relative Autonomy of Intraclass Political Struggles." American Sociological Review 54:503-523.
Grants
2007-2008 Co-PI, National Science Foundation grant. “Organizational Strategy and Environment: A Pilot Study to Collect Disaggregate Data on American Labor Unions 1905-2005.“ $160,000 (with Caleb Southworth).
2009-2010 Co-PI National Science Foundation grant, “Organizational Strategy and Environment: A Pilot Study to Collect Disaggregate Data on American Labor Unions 1900-2005.” $89,750 (with Caleb Southworth).
Professional Societies
American Socilogical Association
Pacific Sociological Association
Society for the Study of Social Problems
Other Experience
Chair
Department of Sociology 1998—2002
Associate Director
Center for the Study of Democracy 2005—2008
Co-Editor
Contemporary Sociology 2006—2008
Chair Elect, UCI Academic Senate
2008—2009
Chair, UCI Academic Senate
2009—2010
Research Centers
Center for the Study of Democracy
Last updated
08/31/2018