Degrees
Samir Sonti holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a concentration on 20th century U.S. labor and political economy. He has worked as a political organizer for the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), and as a researcher for UNITE HERE, a union representing hospitality workers in the U.S. and Canada. Prior to arriving at SLU, he served as a special advisor on the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders. Dr. Sonti is expanding his dissertation, entitled The Price of Prosperity: Inflation and the Limits of the New Deal Order, for publication. Since 2019, he has been the Books and Arts Editor of SLU’s New Labor Forum. He will teach in both the Urban Studies and Labor Studies programs.
Recent News
- B.A. University of Pennsylvania, 2009 (Political Science)
- B.S. University of Pennsylvania, 2009 (Economics)
- Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, 2017 (History)
Research
- Effects of financialization on working conditions
- Labor and employment policy
- Historical political economy
Selected Publications
- “The Strange Career of Institutional Keynesianism,” in Romain Huret, Nelson Lichtenstein, and Jean-Christian Vinel eds., Capitalism Contested: The New Deal and its Legacies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020)
- “Conflict and Consensus: The Steel Strike of 1959 and the Anatomy of the New Deal Order,” Critical Historical Studies 4, no. 1 (2017): 39-73 (co-authored with Kristoffer Smemo and Gabriel Winant)
- “Roads Not Taken or Roads Foreclosed?” nonsite 30 (2019)
- “LA Teachers Show the Way Forward,” Jacobin, Feb. 4, 2019
- “The World Paul Volcker Made,” Jacobin, 20, 2018
- “Nobody Should Have to Pay to Go to College,” (co-authored with Ken Warren), The Chronicle of Higher Education, 16, 2015
- “Going Back to Class: Why We Need to Make University Free, and How We Can Do It” nonsite 9 (2013)
Course Taught
- LBR 201: Introduction to Labor Studies
- URB 301: Introduction to U.S. Social and Economic Policy
Areas of Experience
- Social and economic policy
- Financialization
- Inequality
- Twentieth-century United States
- Labor and working-class history
Grants and Awards
- Washington Center for Equitable Growth Grant for Junior Scholars
- Dirksen Congressional Research Grant
- University of California Group in Economic History Research Fellowship
Boards and Organizations
- Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute Working Group on Policy in the Public Good
- Labor and Working-Class History Association
- United Association of Labor Educators
- Professional Staff Congress-CUNY
