Cassandra Engeman’s research focuses on social movements and workplace policies and explores relationships between social policy and institutions, particularly labor unions. Her dissertation, ʺUnions and Family Values: Workplace Leave Policies in the United States,ʺ uses a mixed method approach to examine the political, social, and economic conditions under which unions influence medical/maternity, family, and sick leave polices at the US state level. She has also published research on social movement unionism and the Los Angeles immigrant rights marches of 2006 (Work, Employment & Society, forthcoming).

Engeman is a Senior Research Fellow at the National Science Foundation Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS) at UCSB where she has co-authored publications on workplace safety and health practices in the nanomaterials industry (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2013; Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 2012). Findings from this research was used in a 2012 science and technology report to the President of the United States. She is currently a lead organizer for the conference, Democratizing Technologies: Assessing the Roles of NGOs for Technological Futures (http://www.cns.ucsb.edu/demtech2014/welcome).