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      Dr Nico Pizzolato

      ROLE: Senior Lecturer in Global Labour Studies
      SCHOOL: Business School
      DEPARTMENT: Management Leadership & Organisations
      TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 8411 6772
      EMAIL: N.Pizzolato@mdx.ac.uk
      1. Biography &
        Qualifications
      2. Learning &
        Teaching Interests
      3. Research Outputs &
        Interests
      4. Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects
      5. Engagement &
        Impact

      • Biography &
        Qualifications

        My research interests are located at the intersection between history, social theory and labour and management studies. Most of my work touches on the following themes: labour migration and social movements, unfree and coerced labour in advanced capitalism, social policy in the age of Fordism, workplace democracy, critical pedagogy.

        I am the author of Challenging Global Capitalism: Labor Migration, Radical Struggle, and Urban Change in Detroit and Turin (Palgrave, 2013). I am the co-editor of the book Gramsci: A Pedagogy to Change the World (Springer, 2017). My work as appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals such as American Historical Review, Labor History, International Review of Social History, International Working Class History, Capital&Class and Contemporary European History. My research has also been disseminated in critical online magazines such as Viewpoint and Commonware.

        I also have a strong interest in writing for professional and academic pratice. I run writing workshops as part of my teaching portfolio.

        I have gained my PhD at University College London, and lectured at Queen Mary, University of London, Università di Palermo, and the University of Edinburgh. I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and of the Royal Historical Society. I am a seminar convenor at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.


        Languages Spoken

        Italian; French

      • Learning &
        Teaching Interests

        Most of my teaching is devoted to develop research students. 

        I am the Research Project Lead and a co-Programme Leader for the Doctor in Professional Studies (DProf). This is a doctoral programme aimed at senior professionals who carry out academic research in their organisation or as part of their professional practice. I currently supervise 16 students and I have seen a few through completion.

        I am the co-organiser of the PhD Research Development Training for the Business School. Overviewing a three-year programme aimed at developing researcher's capabilities in the PhD students.

        I am an enthustiast of digital learning methodologies, in particular as applied to adult education in university and in the workplace, and in general the possibilities of learning in a digital, interconnected world.

        I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

      • Research Outputs &
        Interests

        My current research projects are on:

        - coerced and 'unfree' labour practices in the twentieth century United States, in particular in relation to African Americans and immigrant workers

        - Workers' autonomy and self-activity in the workplace

        - Employee-owned organisations and alternative forms of capitalism

        - Pedagogy as a means of political education and change, in particular in relations to thinkers of radical pedagogy like Gramsci and Freire

        - An interdisciplinary history of the factory

        I hold a Gerda Henkel Research grant for my project on unfree labour in twentieth century United States and I am the co-investigator of a British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowship project entitled "Back into the factory: writing theory and practice of the industrial workplace into 21st century history and social theory".

        I am the co-lead of the Research Cluster "Alternative Organisations and Transformative Practices".

        I welcome the opportunity to supervise doctoral candidates researching their area of professional practice. I am also available to supervise Ph.D. candidates researching the labour market, international and internal migration,  employment relations and the role of digital technology and big data.

        More details and a sample of my research are available from the Middlesex repository and from my profile on Academia.edu

        Publication Feed

        Tactics of refusal: idioms of protest and political subjectivities in Italy's "1968 years"

        Pizzolato, Nicola (2018) Tactics of refusal: idioms of protest and political subjectivities in Italy's "1968 years". The American Historical Review, 123 (3). pp. 758-763. ISSN 0002-8762

        Harvests of shame: enduring unfree labour in twentieth century United States (1933-1964)

        Pizzolato, Nicola (2018) Harvests of shame: enduring unfree labour in twentieth century United States (1933-1964). Labor History . ISSN 0023-656X (Published online first)

        The Influence of professional doctorates on practice and the workplace

        Boud, David and Fillery-Travis, Annette and Pizzolato, Nicola and Sutton, Brian (2018) The Influence of professional doctorates on practice and the workplace. Studies in Higher Education, 43 (5). pp. 914-926. ISSN 0307-5079

        Transdisciplinary qualities in practice doctorates

        Costley, Carol and Pizzolato, Nicola (2018) Transdisciplinary qualities in practice doctorates. Studies in Continuing Education, 40 (1). pp. 30-45. ISSN 1470-126X

        A new revolutionary practice: operaisti and the 'refusal of work' in 1970's Italy

        Pizzolato, Nicola (2017) A new revolutionary practice: operaisti and the 'refusal of work' in 1970's Italy. Estudos Historicos (Rio de Janeiro), 30 (61). pp. 449-464. ISSN 0103-2186

        View more publications

      • Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects

        I hold a Gerda Henkel Research Grant (2018-2020) on "Harvests of Shame: Rural poverty and Unfree Labour in Twentieth Century United States (1933-1964)"

        I have recently held a Leverhulme/British Academy small grant, for 2013-2015 for a project on unfree labour called "Unspeakable Brutality: The Struggle Against Peonage in the United States, 1935-1957". I am also the co-investigator of a British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowship (2015-19) on "Back into the factory: writing theory and practice of the industrial workplace into 21st century history and social theory" in collaboration with Dr Gorkem Akgoz, Re:Work Institute, Berlin. I have recently gained a research grant for archival study at the JFK Institute, Berlin.

         

         

      • Engagement &
        Impact

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