Dr Elizabeth Humphrys is a political economist of labour and work, and the Head of Discipline of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. She researches the impact of economic crisis and climate change on workers, and control within the labour process. Elizabeth takes a multidisciplinary approach, also drawing on sociology and history, to seek ways to make work safer and more equitable.

Elizabeth’s current and recent projects have investigated: climate change and work health and safety; impacts of neoliberalism on labour; industrial and social contexts of hi vis clothing in Australia; experiences of disabled professional workers; and the 1970 West Gate Bridge disaster. Her book, How Labour Built Neoliberalism, was described in the Sydney Review of Books as a ‘tremendously important’ contribution to understanding economic change in Australia’s recent past.

Elizabeth is an Editor of the journal Social Movement Studies and has designed and taught curriculum on the future of work, global political economy, digital literacies, and Australian history.