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Mission Statement

The Higgins Labor Studies Program (HLSP) at the University of Notre Dame is dedicated to initiating and promoting research and teaching curricula that are relevant to the questions, needs and interests of people who work for a living.  An understanding of the working conditions, attitudes, and goals of workers as well as the economic and social forces that shape the workplace inform the research.  The Higgins Program supports unions as a legitimate means for working people to express, defend, and engage their interests in the national and global community.  Above all, the Center supports high-quality, professionally-scrutinized, and accountable, objective research.  

About the Center

The Higgins Labor Studies Program (HLSP) was formally inaugurated as the Higgins Labor Research Center in 1994 and was named for Monsignor George G. Higgins (1916-2002), former director of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference and longtime advisor to the U.S. Catholic Bishops on labor and civil rights, poverty, and religious tolerance.  In 2001, Monsignor Higgins was awarded the University of Notre Dame's prestigious Laetare Medal for exemplary Catholic public service. With Higgins' blessing, the Center was established to promote, support, and disseminate research on labor issues and to coordinate educational efforts on labor rights.  Now called the Higgins Labor Studies Program, and officially part of the Center for Social Concerns, the Higgins Program remains committed to promoting research, education, and outreach on questions that relate to economic justice and the rights of workers.  

While originating with faculty in Notre Dame's Department of Economics in 1984, HLSP membership now includes faculty both at Notre Dame and elsewhere, as well as graduate and undergraduate students.  At Notre Dame, members can be found in the economics, English, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, theology, and film/television/theatre departments of the College of Arts & Letters, as well as in the College of Law, the Kroc Institute, the Kellogg Institute, and the Institute for Latino Studies. Off-campus faculty are at the University of Cambridge in England, Drew University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Indiana University, New School for Social Research, SUNY-Binghamton, and West Virginia University.

HLSP members, although approaching labor issues from diverse backgrounds and interests, accept the common belief that "the economy exists for people, not people for the economy" (USCCB, 1986), that we are one human family, and that human dignity and economic justice are inseparable.

 

Catholic Social Teaching Resources

On the tenth anniversary of their 1986 Economic Justice For All Pastoral, the U.S. Catholic Bishops issued a followup document, "A Decade after Economic Justice for All: Continuing Principles, Changing Context, New Challenges," urging Catholic educational institutions to redouble their efforts to share Catholic Social Teaching, to help their students develop concern for the poor and for justice, and to contribute to the common good by their research and educational activities.  For more information on CST and labor, check the following websites:

USCCB Labor Day statements:

2008:  An American Catholic Tradition

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/labor_day_2008.pdf

2007:  A Time to Remember; A Time to Recommit

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/Labor%20Day%202007.pdf

2006:  A Labor Day Reflection on Immigration and Work

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/LaborDay2006.pdf

2005:  Work, Pope John Paul II, and Catholic Teaching

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/2005final.pdf

2004:  Global Trade that Works for All

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/ld04.htm

2002:  Monsignor George G. Higgins:  Faithful Priest and Voice for Workers

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/lbrfinal.htm

Bill Purcell and Todd Whitmore, both members of the Higgins Program, co-direct the Program in Catholic Social Tradition at the University of Notre Dame – www.nd.edu/~cstprog/insidepage.htm

The Office for Social Justice St. Paul and Minneapolis lists all major Church documents (encyclicals and statements) regarding CST - http://www.osjspm.org/social_teaching_documents.aspx

The Social Agenda website is a publication of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and provides a collection of Magisterial Texts - http://www.thesocialagenda.org/

 

 

Higgins Labor Studies Program
510 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556
574-631-6934
hlsp@nd.edu