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Erin Hatton

PhD, Professor, UB Department of Sociology

Erin Hatton, PhD, is Professor in the UB Department of Sociology. Prof. Hatton’s research focuses on work and political economy, while also extending into the fields of social inequality, labor, law and social policy. Her first book, The Temp Economy: From Kelly Girls to Permatemps in Postwar America (Temple University Press, 2011), weaves together gender, race, class and work in a cultural analysis of the temporary help industry and rise of the new economy. Prof. Hatton’s second book, Coerced: Work Under Threat of Punishment (UC Press, 2020), analyzes four very different--and unusual--groups of workers:  incarcerated, workfare, college athlete, and graduate student workers. Drawing on more than 120 in-depth interviews across these four groups, in this book she uncovers a new form of labor coercion and analyzes its consequences for workers in America. https://www.erinhatton.com/