The Labor and Social Justice minor is ideal for students who want to explore the structural forces that drive inequality and efforts to promote justice in the world of work. An interdisciplinary menu of classes from ILR’s Global Labor and Work Department allows students to focus on their areas of interest in the United States, international settings or a combination of each. 

Eligibility & Requirements

  • The Labor and Social Justice minor is open to all Cornell undergraduate students.
  • Students must complete at least 15 credit hours from courses with an ILRGL prefix.
  • Only 3 of the 15 credits can double count with other major or minor requirements. To avoid double counting, ILR students must use 12 of their general elective credits, rather than those electives needed to complete the ILR major.
  • All classes must be taken for a letter grade.
  • Credit internship, honors’ thesis, directed studies and independent study credits related to Labor and Social Justice are encouraged but cannot count toward the 15 credits required to complete the minor.
  • Students cannot petition for any exceptions to these requirements. 

A Sampling of ILRGL Courses

  • From Luddites to Silicon Valley: The Politics of Tech and Work
  • The US-China Relationship: A Labor Perspective
  • Employment Discrimination & the Law
  • Labor Practices in Global Supply Chains: Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives
  • Technological Change at Work
  • Labor and Democracy in Latin America
  • Advocacy & Debate
  • Migration: Histories, Controversies, and Perspectives
  • The Welfare State and Its Contradictions for Workers
  • Introduction to International and Comparative Labor
  • Labor and Employment in the Middle East and North Africa
  • Constitutional Aspects of Labor Law

Learning Outcomes

  • Critically analyze issues and ideas related to labor and social justice
  • Explain ideas and analyses about inequality through written and oral communication
  • Evaluate and apply theories of social science to labor and social justice goals
  • Analyze issues from a variety of disciplines from historical, cultural, institutional and legal perspectives
  • Access, evaluate, and analyze qualitative and quantitative data
  • Inform decision-making aimed at advancing labor and social justice