Become a Member
TULE is a research network by and for early-career researchers who study the role of labour and the trade union movement in addressing the ecological crisis.
TULE meets monthly on Zoom and is in the process of planning and developing multiple projects, including podcasts, academic research, conferences, workshops, and more!
If you are interested in getting involved with TULE, sign up to receive updates. We will contact you with further details about how to get involved with the organization.
TULE Members
Member Bios
Nicole Kleinheisterkamp González
PhD Candidate, Syracuse University
Her research focuses on workers and unions in the green transition, particularly in industries undergoing restructuring due to decarbonization efforts. She is currently writing her dissertation on workers and unions in the German automobile and coal industries. While her work has primarily focused on “sunset” industries, she plans to expand her research to include lithium mining in the future.
Benjamin Velasco
Assistant Professor & Doctoral Student, University of the Philippines
Benjamin Velasco is an Assistant Professor at the School of Labor and Industrial Relations of the University of the Philippines. He is finishing his dissertation on improving the conditions of garment workers through worker-driven social responsibility. His other research interests include just transition for informal transport and single-use plastic workers.
Brendan Davidson
PhD Candidate, Colorado State University
Brendan is a doctoral candidate at Colorado State University where he studies the politics of energy and labor. His work focuses on the political economy of work in transition, with a particular focus on workers affiliated with the expanding renewable energy sector.
Christian Pépin
Postdoctoral Fellow, Université du Québec en Outaouais
Christian Pépin is a comparative political economist specialized in state economic policies, finance and class politics. His research focuses on the roles of industrial policies and public financial institutions under “green” capitalism, their impacts on the future of work, and their democratic and emancipatory alternatives.
Vinnie Collins
PhD Candidate, York University
My PhD thesis research focuses centrally on the role of labour unions organizing amidst the climate crisis. My research is a comparative analysis across three key sites of labour engagement in the climate crisis, Scotland, New York and Ontario. Vinnie was recently awarded the CRIMT Institutional Experimentation for Better Work Project Partnership: Studentship Fund award.
Isaac Thornley
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto Scarborough
Isaac is interested in the ideological dimensions of the energy transition. His postdoctoral research examines Canada’s EV battery supply chain, drawing on political ecology and critical theory. This builds off his doctoral work on Canadian pipeline politics (specifically, the Trans Mountain Expansion project), where he undertook a psychoanalytic ideology critique of social license.
Ewan Kerr
Postdoctoral Researcher, Glasgow Caledonian University
Ewan Kerr is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University, where he received his PhD in 2021. His research interests lie within the discipline of political sociology, with a focus upon trade union and labour movement studies, climate politics, and state-society relations during crisis periods. His most recent co-authored research has been published in Critical Sociology, The Political Quarterly, and Economic and Industrial Democracy.
Jonathan Michaud
PhD Student, Université de Montréal
A doctoral candidate and lecturer in industrial relations at the Université de Montréal, Jonathan Michaud works on a partnership agreement with the United Steelworkers on three cases of just transition in local unions, at plant level, in different regions of Quebec under the supervision of Professor Mélanie Laroche.
Evelyn Dionne (she/her)
PhD Candidate at Université Laval
Evelyn Dionne’s research examines the role of labour unions in the just transition to a low-carbon economy. Her work explores the emerging skills development needs and inter-union tensions, underscoring how climate change exacerbates workforce vulnerabilities and resilience requirements.
Franziska Paul
Lecturer in Political Economy, University of Glasgow
My research explores questions of ownership and transformation (social, economic, environmental) across a wide range of sectors. I have a specific interest in de-privatisation and democratisation, and ways that labour has mobilised around these issues. I am also involved with the Public Futures database (https://publicfutures.org), and an Associate of the Public Banking Project (McMaster University).
Damian McIlroy
PhD Graduate, Queen’s University Belfast
Damian’s research is aimed at furthering our understanding of the human agency that inspires anti-capitalist approaches to just transition. His project has a specific focus on the colonial/hegemonic nature of capitalism and its integral relationship with climate breakdown and ecological catastrophe. As a solution, he examines the potential of organised labour and social movement agency to bring about a just transition against and beyond the social relations of capitalism.
Lucas Cifuentes Croquevielle
PhD Student, The University of Manchester
I’m a labor sociologist currently completing my thesis on the labor regime in Chilean lithium mining within the context of the energy transition. My research focuses on labor processes, industrial relations, and occupational health and safety. I also work with unions on training initiatives and labor studies.
Get in Touch!
Have questions or ideas? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out and let’s discuss labour environmentalism and the role of trade unions.