Andrew Wolf Q&A

What is your research about?

My research interests center on how the labor movement and governments are responding to gig work. My research is based on two years of ethnographic and survey work with two immigrant Workers’ Centers in New York City and by working as an app-based food delivery worker myself. I attempt to center the role of immigrant issues in understanding this work. My research helped inform the New York City Council on legislation to provide minimum employment standards for app-delivery workers.

How did you become interested in your field?

I came from a union family and was always interested in labor issues. In college (Cornell ILR '10) I got really involved in the United Students Against Sweatshops. I became excited about innovative attempts to build systems that support the most marginalized workers. I began studying gig work because I was fascinated by how Silicon Valley firms were entering industries—like taxi driving and food delivery—which were previously marginalized and often informal immigrant industries. I wanted to understand how workers and their communities understood and responded to this intrusion.

What impact do you hope your research will have?

I hope to produce policy informed research. I don't want my research to exist in a vacuum. I want to provide policy makers and relevant stockholders the data to quantify the impacts of tech innovation on immigrant industries enabling them to make informed policy choices about how to regulate this new work.

What attracted you to the ILR School?

There is no better place to study the world of work. Nowhere else supports such a broad array of research, with diverse methodological approaches, and the wealth of colleagues and students to work with.

What are you most excited for about your time at ILR?

I am really excited to teach and engage with students in research.

If you could share one piece of advice with your students, what would it be?

For undergraduates, I would tell them to take courses as broadly as possible to widen their experiences and explore strange interests. For graduate students, especially PhD students, I would tell them to get a copy of, and immediately read, Paul Silvia's "How to Write a Lot."

Besides your work, what's something that you're passionate about?

I love being outdoors so I can't wait to take advantage of all of Ithaca's hiking, kayaking, and cross-country skiing.

What’s something people are surprised to learn about you?

That I'm color blind.