Nov. 14 Fall Conversation 2022 Recap: How Does Cambridge Unionize?

Beth Folsom, Bobby Travers, and Jonathan Tagoe during the Fall Conversation “How Does Cambridge Unionize?”

The final program in our year of asking “Who Are Cambridge Workers?” will focus on labor organizing in Cambridge, both past and present. How do Cantabrigians see themselves as workers? How is their identity linked to their work? Do they see themselves as part of a local workers’ community, or do they identify with their profession across geographical boundaries? How has the pandemic and the shift (for some) to remote work affected this sense of community and identity? We will be joined by representatives from the MIT Graduate Students’ Union, the Cambridge Teachers’ Union, and the 1369 Coffeehouse Workers’ Union to hear about their current organizing efforts and the future of unionization in Cambridge and beyond.

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Fall Conversation: How Has Food Mended Cambridge?

Over the course of 2021, History Cambridge has been exploring the ways in which the city has repaired its social, economic, and political fabric in the wake of historical crisis points—as well as the ways in which the need for mending remains. As a means of both physical and emotional nourishment, food has played a…

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Who Is Essential Cambridge? Part 4: COVID-19

In our last installment, we examined the role of nurses as essential workers in Cambridge and beyond, exploring the ways in which gendered notions of caregiving and self-sacrifice both elevated nurses in the public opinion and limited their ability to advocate for better pay and working conditions. In this, our final installment, we look at…

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Who Is Essential Cambridge? Part 3: Nurses

In our last installment, we examined the role of Cambridge teachers as essential workers during the twentieth century. As it involved nurturing young children, teaching was viewed by many as a natural outgrowth of women’s caregiving responsibilities within the family, and education, especially at the elementary level, was considered a profession to which women devoted…

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Who Is Essential Cambridge? Part 2: Teachers

In the first part of our series, “Who Is Essential Cambridge?,” we examined the role of Cambridge women in the industrial sector during and between the World Wars. Women played an important role in industrial production in the years before the outbreak of World War I—a role that continued and intensified over the coming decades.…

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Recap of 11/13/2019 Fall Conversation

On November 13, 2019, Cambridge Historical Society hosted Fall Conversation 2019: How Can We Make Change Here? at University Lutheran Church. Speakers Cheyenne Wyzzard-Jones and Dr. Charlotte Ryan joined moderator Mary McNeil to discuss activism and how they use education as a tool to engage others. This event concluded the Society’s 2019 programs centered on…

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