The ILR Undergraduate Research Fellows Program provides ILR undergraduates with the opportunity to work with a professor during academic year 2025-2026. This program was developed in response to numerous requests we have received from undergraduates for research opportunities and in the hope that it will facilitate one-on-one student/faculty interactions. Students participating in this program will receive an hourly pay of $17.00 per hour for up to 10 hours a week. Awards will be made on a one semester basis with renewal possible for the second semester.  Students may not earn credit for the research project during the semester or year they are being paid as a research assistant.

Prison Discipline and Labor Unions in New York State

Professors Devin Wiggs and Gali Racabi are seeking two undergraduate research assistants for a project examining the labor dimensions of prison discipline in New York State. In 2021, New York State passed the HALT Act, restricting correctional officers from using solitary confinement on prisoners. In 2025, members of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the state’s leading labor union for correctional officers, engaged in one of the largest and longest wildcat strikes in decades, over 8,000 workers across 22 days, demanding above all for the abolition of the HALT Act. In response, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Service suspended the HALT Act in memorandums of understanding with the labor union. Who has the authority over prison discipline? Professors Racabi and Wiggs seek to contribute to labor law scholarship, the sociology of labor, and the sociology of law. RAs will support the project by collecting and coding legal and policy documents—including court decisions, legislative materials, and collective bargaining agreements—and drafting short research memos on key legal and policy questions. Ideal candidates will have completed Sociology and Law requirements, demonstrate strong research and

writing skills, and show interest in labor and criminal justice systems.  – with Professor Gali Racabi and Professor Devin Wiggs