Congratulations to geography Ph.D. Candidate Yuying Xie, recipient of the Frank Jenkins Jr. Fellowship in Labor Studies from the UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies! This new award honors the legacy of Frank Jenkins Jr., a lifelong civil rights and union rights activist and one of the first African Americans to hold a leadership role within Seattle’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 19.
An international student, Xie is originally from China and is a current graduate student studying Geography. While at the UW, Xie is pursuing a comparative research project between the US and China’s service sector workers, labor regimes, and union culture. Furthermore, they have been active within the local labor movement and are currently organizing against a Trump executive order which targets Chinese students and scholars. After graduation, Xie plans to continue a career in academia covering topics such as labor history, contemporary labor issues, and broader social justice issues. Furthermore, Xie hopes to use resources within academia, labor organizations, and progressive policy institutions to best serve working-class people.
Each year the Harry Bridges Center awards thousands of dollars in scholarships and grants to support inspiring scholars and activists pursuing the study and practice of labor. This year [the Bridges Center] will award $70,000 in scholarships and fellowships to University of Washington graduate and undergraduate students.