March 12, 2007

UCSB Scholars to Discuss Pensions, Social Security, and the Politics of Retirement

How secure is your retirement? With company pensions covering fewer and fewer workers and experts claiming Social Security is in crisis, individuals and families are being asked to assume greater risk and a bigger share of retirement costs. In a talk entitled "Back to the Gold Watch? The New Politics of Retirement," UC Santa Barbara historians Nelson Lichtenstein and Alice O'Connor will examine the historical origins and shifting politics that shape these issues.

Sponsored by the UCSB History Associates and the UCSB Affiliates, their lecture will take place Wednesday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Fellowship Hall at First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. Constance Ave. Admission is $8 for UCSB History Associates, UCSB Affiliates, and Chancellor's Council members, and $10 for all others. Advance registration is recommended by calling the UCSB Office of Community Relations at 893-4388.

Lichtenstein, professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at UCSB, is author of "State of the Union: A Century of American Labor" (Princeton University Press, 2002) and "Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit" (HarperCollins, 1995). Currently, he is writing a history of Wal-Mart.

O'Connor is associate professor of history and author of the forthcoming "Social Science for What?: Philanthropy and the Social Question in a World Turned Right Side Up" (Russell Sage Foundation) and the article "Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth Century U.S. History," which appeared in the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare in 2003.

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The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.