Amytess Girgis is a DPhil candidate in Politics. Her research focuses on the political sociology of labor organization in the United States, particularly in the food service sector and other sectors prone to low rates of trade union membership. She is interested in how precarity exacerbates structural impediments to labor organizing, how those conditions shape the trajectory of worker organization, and how these trends can inform our understanding the labor movement’s future. She utilizes a combination of participant observation of union activity, interviews with worker and staff organizers, and analysis of national trends in labor actions.
Amytess completed her MPhil in Politics at the University of Oxford in 2023. Her thesis explored these themes through the case of Starbucks Workers United, analyzing the experience of Starbucks baristas in the early stages of unionization and bargaining. Amytess’s graduate study is supported by the Rhodes Scholarship.
