Labor Café

Decarbonization & Dignity at Work: Climate, Jobs, Faith, & Moving Forward

Facilitators: Ryan Juskus, Assistant Professor of the Practice, Institute for Social Concerns, and Mallory Dam (MCOB ’28)

Who benefits, and who bears the costs, of the our carbon-centric economy? Is there an inherent tension between economic development/good jobs and a healthy environment/sustainable futures? Join our special guest facilitators Professor Ryan Juskus, whose teaching and research centers on the social, religious, and moral dimensions of environmental and climate challenges, and his student Mallory Dam, who wrote a paper for Juskus’s class called “The Hidden Contract,” which is included in the Zotero group library of non-required reading to get the conversation started.

The Labor Café convenes the Notre Dame community for casual yet critical conversation on contemporary questions about work, workers, and workplaces. What rights and protections should those who work for others have? What’s the proper role for government in the economy? How should we address enduring problems of inequality, poverty, and lack of opportunity? And what does Catholic Social Teaching (CST) have to say about these labor questions? Each month’s focus is determined closer to the meeting date. Participants choose the concrete topics, all people are welcome, and all opinions are entertained.