Jasmine Kerrissey

Jasmine Kerrissey received a Ph.D. in Sociology in 2012 from the University of California, Irvine. She also holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. Kerrissey joined UMass in 2012 as a faculty member in the Sociology Department and the Labor Center, and began to serve as Director of the Labor Center in 2022. She teaches courses on U.S. Labor History, Comparative Labor Movements, Food and Labor, and the Sociology of Work.

Kerrissey’s research focuses on labor movements, work, and inequality. She is co-author, along with Judy Stepan-Norris, of Union Boom and Busts: The Ongoing Struggle over the US Labor Movement (Oxford University Press, 2023). Union Booms and Busts uses archival data from 1900 to 2015 to analyze why workers in some industries have been successful in forming unions, while other workers have not. 

Kerrissey is also interested in how labor movements affect a range of social, economic, and political outcomes.  This work uses quantitative analyzes to understand how workers' organizations have mattered— and what their decline means.  She has published her work in journals such as American Sociological Review, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, and Social Forces. Prior to her graduate work, Kerrissey worked as an organizer with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which included Justice for Janitors campaigns and healthcare organizing.