WI Faculty Awarded Einhorn Center Fellowship to Publish Research on Domestic Workers

Zoë West, senior researcher for worker rights and equity at Cornell ILR’s The Worker Institute (WI), has been selected as one of the Engaged Faculty Fellows for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Through the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement, the Engaged Faculty Fellowship is a program that brings together a network of scholars dedicated to advancing community-engaged learning at Cornell.

“This is a valuable opportunity to learn in community with my peers,” said West. “My research approach has always been grounded in a commitment to the people and groups most impacted by the subject of study—and I’m excited to deepen that practice, learn with the other fellows and think creatively about what it looks like to expand the reach and impact of engaged research.”

West plans to use the fellowship to publish a journal article exploring the role of popular and peer education in lifting workplace and industry standards for domestic workers.

“The article will draw on our 18-month evaluation of the We Rise Nanny Training, a peer education program in New York that integrates workers’ rights education with professional development, using popular education pedagogy,” said West. 

West’s latest projects include research into the home care industry in New York—including the consumer-directed caregiver program and private equity’s impact on home care workers—as well as generative AI’s effects on fashion workers, and the experiences of refugee workers from Myanmar in upstate New York.

“At the Worker Institute, engaged research plays a central role in our work,” said West. “This fellowship will be a chance to connect our work with similarly committed scholars across the university. I believe that we owe it to our community partners and the broader public to share this research more widely and across a range of venues, and the support of this fellowship offers a chance to focus on expanding that reach.”