Nantina Vgontzas

Nantina Vgontzas is Assistant Professor of Labor Studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. They study the prospects for labor internationalism in a warming world. Presently, their research is focused on the rapidly expanding logistics sector. Not only is this sector a key node in the global commodity circulation, but as ecommerce firms increasingly orient their delivery operations around major metropolitan markets, logistics is positioned to reshape social and political alliances in global cities. Combining engaged ethnography with political economy, Dr. Vgontzas examines how the efforts of warehouse workers to improve their working conditions intersect with community efforts to mitigate the environmental harms of warehouse expansion. Their work has been published in New Global Studies, Labor Studies Journal, Boston Review, The Nation, and other outlets. At CPCP, they will be working on their book project about transnational efforts to democratize and decarbonize Amazon. Challenging the commonly perceived inevitability of Amazon’s growth, their project shows how various intersections between organizing and policy efforts against Amazon point to a counterhegemonic vision of abolishing carbon and capital on the global shopfloor.