Susan Moir, ScD
LRC Director
Wheatley, 4th floor, Room 144/11
617-287-7377
Susan.Moir@umb.edu
Susan Moir, ScD, has directed the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston since 2004. She came to UMB from UMass Lowell where she was worked for twelve years as the founding Director of the Construction Occupational Health Program (COHP). The COHP partnered with the building trades unions to conduct health and safety research on Boston’s Big Dig. As Director of the COHP, Dr. Moir conducted participatory research and developed popular education programs with construction workers. These participatory action research (PAR) projects are described in her 2004 doctoral dissertation, “Worker Participation in Occupational Health and Safety Change in the Construction Workplace.” Before joining the project at UML, Moir was a leader in the Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union, United Steelworkers Local 8751, for fifteen years. She was a steward, a member of the negotiating committee and the founder of the internationally renowned Boston School Bus Drivers Ergonomics Committee.
Since coming to UMB’s Labor Resource Center, Dr. Moir has focused on expanding and strengthening the undergraduate Labor Studies program and better integrating the three Labor Resource Center’s initiatives of Education, Training and Research. She has designed and taught courses in Union Administration and Strategic Analysis for the Labor Movement. She has co-authored research reports on issues related to low-wage work and the impacts of unionization on indicators of work quality including wages, benefits, career opportunities, and job security. Her research interests include the impact of good jobs on sustaining healthy communities and strategies for opening up high paid “non-traditional” jobs to women workers.
In her working life, Dr. Moir has been a member of many unions ranging from the Teamsters to the Service Workers. She is currently a member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. She is a lifelong resident of the Boston area and lives in Jamaica Plain with her partner and their two children.
Susan Moir welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects: labor unions, women in labor, leadership development, popular education, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in the workplace. Her recent publications include:
Recent publications and presentations:
- Kim, M, Moir, S, Argyres, A. (2009) "Gaming in Massachusetts: Can Casinos bring ‘Good Jobs' to the Commonwealth?" Future of Work Project, University of Massachusetts.
- Moir, S., & Azaroff, L. (2008). The Boston-Area HASWIC Research Circle: An Innovative Participatory Method for Coloring in the Picture of a Special Work Environment. In C. Levenstein (Ed.), At the Point of Production: The Social Analysis of Occupational and Environmental Health: Baywood.
- Argyres, A and Moir, S. (2008) "Building Trades Apprentice Training in Massachusetts: An Analysis of Union and Non-Union Programs, 1997-2007" Future of Work Project, University of Massachusetts.
- Moir, S., & Skidmore, E. (2007). Designing a Pre-Apprenticeship Model for Women Entering and Succeeding in the Construction Trades: Center for Women and Work, University of Massachusetts Lowell.
- Moir, S. and E. Skidmore (2006). “Designing a Pre-Apprenticeship Model for Women Entering and Succeeding in the Construction Trades,” Center for Women and Work, University of Massachusetts Lowell.
- Moir, S., & Azaroff, L. S. (2007). The Boston-Area Research Circle on Health and Safety for Women in Construction: An Innovative Participatory Method for Coloring in the Picture of a Special Work Environment. New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental & Occupational Health Policy, 17(1-2), 123-136.
- Moir, S. (2005). "Ideological influences on participatory research in occupational health and safety: A review of the literature." New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental & Occupational Health Policy 15(1): 15 – 28.
