John Russo

John Russo is the Coordinator of the Labor Studies Program in the Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University. He received his doctorate from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he also served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Labor Relations and Research Center. Dr. Russo has written widely of labor and social issues and is recognized as a national expert on labor unions and working-class issues. His current research interests involve two book length projects, Who Will Protect Worker Rights?: Unions and the Use of Codes/CSR, Capital Strategies, Framework Agreements and Strategic Campaigns and a new “open access” book, Reading Work: An On-line Resource on Critical Reading and the Meaning of Work. His most recent publications are a book co-authored with Sherry Linkon, Steeltown, USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown (2002 now in eight printing). Also with Sherry Linkon, an edited book entitled New Working-Class Studies was published in 2005 by Cornell University Press.

For his many activities, Dr. Russo is one of the two professors at YSU to have ever received Distinguished Professorship Awards in each of four areas: research and scholarship, teaching, university and public service. Dr. Russo is also a founder and the co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University. The Center is an interdisciplinary center for research, teaching, and community activity on working-class life, work, culture, and thought. Since its inception, the CWCS has provided a regional and national forum for scholarly activities; supported YSU faculty research; fostered collaborations within the academic institution and between the university and community; developed an annual lecture series; and become a national and international clearinghouse for information on working-class culture and pedagogy. For its work, the Center has been the recent recipient of two major Ford Foundation grants.