Dr. Lisa Phillips
Professor Phillips is originally from Chicago, Illinois but has lived several places including Indianapolis, West Lafayette, parts of New York and New Jersey, and in Madison, Wisconsin. She and her husband live in Terre Haute where they are raising two wonderful children.
Dr. Phillips earned a Ph.D. in History from Rutgers University in 2002, an MA in History from Purdue (1993), and a BA in Psychology (1991), also from Purdue.
Prof. Phillips' first book manuscript, A Renegade Union: Interracial Organizing and Labor Radicalism was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2013. It's about about labor unions that worked to improve the economic status of African-American, Jewish, and recent immigrants (Italian, Puerto Rican), men and women, in New York City and beyond n the mid-twentieth century.
Her second book, now underway, is a labor history of Disney entitled, The Wonderful World of Service Work: Walt Disney and the Advent of Performance Labor is under contract and expected in 2021. She is very enthused about the project and will talk to you about anything Disney and work related!
Most recently, Prof. Phillips published an article in The Journal of Labor and Society entitled, “‘When CEOs Were Removable: A Short History of Corporate Regulation" (Fall 2017) and other of her work has appeared in Jacobin Magazine and the Labor and Working Class History Association's Labor Online.
Prof. Phillips was elected to the board of the Labor and Working Class History Association (2018-2021), serves on the board of the Eugene V. Debs Association (since 2014), and is active in the Terre Haute Torpedoes swimming community.
Prof Phillips' expertise covers the 20th century United States with emphases on labor, class, race, and gender.
Prof. Phillips' research interests currently focus on Disney, specifically the history of work and wages there and on Disney's influence on the service and hospitality industries since the 1950s.