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.
Italian; French
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.
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
Pizzolato, Nicola (2020) Amanda Ciafone. Counter-Cola: A Multinational History of the Global Corporation. [Book review]. The American Historical Review , 125 (2). pp. 626-627. ISSN 0002-8762
Pizzolato, Nicola (2020) "Once we owned slaves". Labour and coercion in 20th century American plantations. Contemporanea. Rivista di storia dell’800 e del ‘900 , XXIII (1). pp. 25-51. ISSN 1127-3070
Akgöz, Görkem and Croucher, Richard and Pizzolato, Nicola (2019) Back to the factory: the continuing salience of industrial workplace history. Labor History . ISSN 0023-656X (Published online first)
Pizzolato, Nicola (2018) Harvests of shame: enduring unfree labour in twentieth century United States, 1933-1964. Labor History , 59 (4). pp. 472-490. ISSN 0023-656X
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
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.
