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Susan Chandler

Associate Professor
S Chandler Outside
Contact Information

School of Social Work / 0090

Ansari Business Building, Room 523

Phone: (775) 682-8718

E-Mail: chandler@unr.edu

1664 N. Virginia Street M/S 0090

University of Nevada, Reno

Reno, Nevada 89557-0090

 

Casino Women presentations and book signings, 2011:

August 22, 2011. 

Meet the Authors Reception, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV.  Hosted by Cornell University Press and Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare.

 

August 22, 2011, 6:00pm. 

American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Section of Labor.  Culinary Union reception.

 

August 25, 2011, 5:00 pm EDT.  

“Women-Stirred,” WGDR, Plainfield, VT

 

September 4, 2011, 12:30 PDT. 

Laura Rinaldi Show.  KKUP, Santa Cruz.

 

September 23, 2011, 5:30p.m. PDT.

Grand Sierra Hotel & Casino, Reno, NV.

 

September 26, 2011. 

“Big Tobacco Rides the Strip: The Story of Teresa Price and Dealers’ Struggle for Clean Air.”  Americans for Non-Smokers Rights Annual Institute: Clearing the Air: An Institute for Policy Advocacy VII.  Stanford University Camp, Fallen Leaf Lake, CA.

 

September 27, 2011, 7:00 pm, EDT. 

The Rick Smith Show.  WHYL, Carlisle, PA.


 

 
 

 

 

 

Profile

BA, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, 1965
MSW, California State University, Sacramento, 1987
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1993

 

Professor Chandler teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in social welfare policy, structural oppression, women’s narratives, and community organizing.

Her research interests include casino women in the context of economic globalization, the condition of low wage workers particularly in Nevada, social welfare history including especially its race, gender, and class dimensions, and social workers’ relationship to issues of war and peace.

Her new book, Casino Women: Courage in Unexpected Places, written with Jill B. Jones, was published in 2011 by Cornell University Press.

 

NEW Book:
Go to Amazon.com

Casino Women is a pioneering look at the female face of corporate gaming. Based on extended interviews with maids, cocktail waitresses, cooks, laundry workers, dealers, pit bosses, and vice presidents, the book describes in compelling detail a world whose enormous profitability is dependent on the labor of women assigned stereotypically female occupations—making beds and serving food on the one hand and providing sexual allure on the other. But behind the neon lies another world, peopled by thousands of remarkable women who assert their humanity in the face of gaming empires' relentless quest for profits.


The casino women profiled here generally fall into two groups. Geoconda Arguello Kline, typical of the first, arrived in the United States in the 1980s fleeing the war in Nicaragua. Finding work as a Las Vegas hotel maid, she overcame her initial fear of organizing and joined with others to build the preeminent grassroots union in the nation—the 60,000-member Culinary Union—becoming in time its president. In Las Vegas, "the hottest union city in America," the collective actions of union activists have won economic and political power for tens of thousands of working Nevadans and their families. The story of these women's transformation and their success in creating a union able to face off against global gaming giants form the centerpiece of this book.

Another group of women, dealers and middle managers among them, did not act. Fearful of losing their jobs, they remained silent, declining to speak out when others were abused, and in the case of middle managers, taking on the corporations' goals as their own. Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones appraise the cost of their silence and examine the factors that pushed some women into activism and led others to accept the status quo.

 

Casino Women will appeal to all readers interested in women, gambling, and working-class life, and in how ordinary people stand up to corporate actors who appear to hold all the cards.  It’s a ten-year labor of love—we hope you will check it out!

Reviews:

"Casino Women illuminates the often overlooked contributions of women both to the gaming industry and to the labor movement. Relying on the voices of women who have built the union and the industry in Nevada, Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones have crafted an important account of work on the struggle for democracy in postindustrial America."—John W. Wilhelm, President, UNITE HERE

 

"Casino Women is an absorbing journey into the heart of Nevada's gaming empire and a triumphant tale of how women on the front lines of service work took on some of the world's largest corporations and won. Anyone who cares about the indignities and injustices faced by working people today and wants to know how we can change the casino capitalist world in which we all live should read this inspiring book."—Dorothy Sue Cobble, author of The Sex of Class and The Other Women's Movement

 

"Casino Women is profound and revealing. Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones offer fresh and vivid insights into the daily lives of women in the casino industry, giving readers a multilayered sense of their motivations, thought processes, feelings, frailties, and addictions.

Article: Chandler: "A need to make a world a better place"

Amazon: "Casino Women - Courage in Unexpected Places"

 

See More:

Extended Profile


Academic Employment History
1999 - present   Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Nevada, Reno (MSW Program Coordinator, 2004-5)

1993 - 1999  Assistant Professor, Schoo of Social Work, University of Nevada, Reno; (MSW Program Coordinator, 1997-1999)

1992 - 1993  Full-time Lecturer, School of Social Work, California State University, Sacramento


Casino Women presentations and book signings, 2011:
August 5, 2011.  Smoke-Free Casinos Group, national telephone meeting.  “Big Tobacco Rides the Strip.”
Susan Chandler. July 8, 2011.  “Casino Women: Stories of Resistance and Transformation.” Working Class Worlds: Local and Global Perspectives.  A Conference Honoring Shelton Stromquist.  University of Iowa.  Iowa City, Iowa. July 8-9, 2011.

Susan Chandler. May 24, 2011.  “Transformative Feminisms: Lessons from Casino women.” Unsettling Feminisms Conference, University of Illinois at Chicago.  Chicago, IL.  May 22-24, 2011.

 

Recent Publications
Chandler, S. & J. Jones.  (2011). Casino Women: Resistance and Transformation.  Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (ILR).   

Chandler, S. (2009). Working Hard, Living Poor: Social Work and the Struggle for Livable Wages. Journal of Poverty 17: 1-2, pp. 170-183.

Chandler, S. (Spring 2008). Editorial. Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, 23:2, 109-111.

Jones, J. & Chandler, S. (2007).  Surveillance and Regulation in a Globalized Work Site: Casinos and the Control of Women’s Bodies.  Affilia: Journal of Women in Social Work 22 (2): 150-162.

Chandler, Susan Kerr.  (2007).  Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy, by Louise W. Knight. Social Service Review 81 (1):175-78.

Chandler, S. & Jones, J. (2006) “Now I Can’t Wait for Tomorrow”: Immigrant Latina Leaders in Unionized Nevada Casinos. Borderlines: Journal of the Latino Research Center at the University of Nevada, Reno, 1(1): 70-88.

Chandler, S. (2006).  Jeannette Rankin: Peace Activist.  Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 21(2), 220-227.  Special Issue: Women, War and Peacekeeping.

Chandler, S. (2006).  Johnny Mad Dog.  By Emmanuel Dongala.  New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.  Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, 21 (2), 244-245.  Special Issue: Women, War and Peacekeeping.  Book Review. 

Chandler, S. (2006). Monitoring Sweatshops: Workers, Consumers, and the Global Apparel Industry.  By Jill Esbenshade.  Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004.  Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work  21(1), 110-11.  Book Review.

Chandler, S. (2005).  Addie Hunton and the Construction of an African-American Female Peace Perspective.  Affilia: Journal of Women in Social Work , 20 (3), 270-283.

Chandler, S. (2004). “Curiously Uninvolved”: Social Work and Protest against the Vietnam War.  Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 31, 3-20.

Chandler, S. (2004).  E. Franklin Frazier.  Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America.  New York: Sage Publications.

Chandler, S. & Jones, J. (2003). “You have to do it for the people coming”: Union Organizing and the Transformation of Women Workers.  Affilia: Journal of Women in Social Work, 18:3, 254-271.

Chandler, S. & Jones, J. (2003). Because a Better World is Possible: Women Casino Workers, Union Activism, and the Creation of a Just Workplace.  Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 30:4 (December 2003), pp. 57-78.

Chandler, S. (2003).  Book Review.  Bryan, Bair, & DeAngury.  The Selected Papers of Jane Addams, Vol I.  Social Service Review, 77:4, pp. 637-39.

Chandler, S. (2002).  Working Hard, Living Poor.  Part II: The Nevada Economy – Who Benefits?  Las Vegas, NV: Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

Chandler, S. (2001).  Working Hard, Living Poor.  Part I: A Living Wage Study for Nevada. 
Las Vegas, NV: Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

Chandler, S. (2001). E. Franklin Frazier and social work: Unity and conflict.  In Iris B. Carlton-LaNey (ed.). African American leadership: An empowerment tradition in social welfare history. Washington, D.C.: NASW Press, 189-202.

Jones, J. & Chandler, S. (2001). Connecting personal biography and social history: Women casino workers and the global economy, Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare (Dec).

Chandler, S. (2001).  Book Review.  Neil Belton. The good listener: Helen Bamber, a life against cruelty.  In Affilia: Journal of Women in Social Work.  Summer, 250-52.

Chandler, S. (1999).  Race and poverty in the formation of social work’s professional identity, 1910-1930. In G. Lowe & P. N. Reid (edits.).  Poverty and the professionalization of poverty.  New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

 

Other presentations:

Jill Jones and Susan Chandler, “Surveillance and Regulations in Casinos: Control of Women’s Bodies in Hospitality and Tourism Work,” York University Centre for Research on Work and Society International Conference: Serving the New Economy: Critical Perspectives on Hospitality and Tourism Work. Toronto, Ontario, October 13-14, 2006

Chandler, S.   Addie Hunton and the Construction of an African-American Peace Perspective.  Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting.  New York City, Feb 25 – Mar 1, 2005. 

Chandler, S.  Social Work Advocacy on Behalf of the Working Poor. Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting.  New York City, Feb 25 – Mar 1, 2005. 

Jones, J. & Chandler, S.  Surveillance and Regulation in a Globalized Work Site: Casinos and the Control of Women’s Bodies.  14th International Symposium of the Inter-University Consortium for International Social Development.  Recife, Brazil, July 24 – 29, 2005.  Presented by Jill Jones.

Jones, J. & Chandler, S. (2005).  Union Organizing and the Transformation of Immigrant Women Workers.  Labouring Feminism and Feminist Working Class History in North America and Beyond. University of Toronto (Sept 29 – Oct 2, 2005). 
Chandler, S. (2005).  Addie Hunton and the construction of an African-American female piece perspective.  Annual Program Meeting, Council on Social Work Education, New York City (February 26-March 1, 2005).

Chandler, S. (2005). Social work advocacy on behalf of the working poor.  Annual Program Meeting, Council on Social Work Education, New York City (February 26-March 1, 2005).
Chandler, S. (2004).  Nevada Women/Economic Justice.  National Organization of Women Annual Convention.  Invited Presentation.  Las Vegas, NV, July 16, 2004.
Chandler, S. (2004). “Curiously Uninvolved”: Social Work and Protest against the Vietnam War.  Annual Program Meeting, Council on Social Work Education, Anaheim, CA, February 2004. 
Chandler, S. & Smalley, A. (2003). Working Hard/Living Poor: Social Work Research and Living Wage Initiatives.” Baccalaureate Program Directors Annual Meeting , Oct 29 – Nov 2, 2003, Reno, NV.
Chandler, S. & Smalley, A. (2003). Social Work and Legislative Advocacy in a BSW Program. Baccalaureate Program Directors Annual Meeting , Oct 29 – Nov 2, 2003, Reno, NV.
Chandler, S. & Jones, J. (2003). Because a Better World is Possible: Women Casino Workers, Union Activism, and the Creation of a More Just Workplace, Labor Studies Association Annual Meeting, Berkeley, CA.  May 8-10, 2003.
Chandler, S. & Jones, J. (2003). Union Organizing and the Transformation of Immigrant Women Workers. Oral History Association 36th Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, October 2002.
Jones, J. & Chandler, S. (2002). Surveillance and Regulation: Control of Women’s Bodies in the Workplace – Casino Workers as a Case Example.  Women’s Worlds Congress, July 2002, Kampala, Uganda.  (accepted, but did not present)
Chandler, S. & Smalley, A. (2002). Living Wage Research by Academic Activists Assists State Initiative.  48th Annual Program Meeting, Council on Social Work Education, February 2002, Nashville, TN.            
Jones, J. & Chandler, S. (2000). The Impact of Globalization on Families and Communities: Women Casino Workers Stories.  Oral History Association Annual Meeting, Durham, NC, October 11-15, 2000.
Chandler, S. & Jones, J. (2000). Women Casino Workers and Labor Activism.  Twenty-second Annual North American Labor History Conference, Detroit, MI, October 19-21, 2000.
Chandler, S. & Jones, J. (1999). Connecting Personal Narrative and Global Economic Forces: Women Casino Workers’ Stories, Women’s Worlds 99, 7th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Tromso, Norway, June 1999.

 

Other Interests:
Nevada hot springs, swimming, my family, my five grandchildren, the AIDS Life/Cycle, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger!
   

University of Nevada, Reno

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