Inaugural Lecture by the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies
The Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies David Witwer will give his Inaugural Lecture on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 at 17:00.
Please register on the link below
https://www.lyyti.in/Fulbright_Lecture_16112022
The topic of Professor Witwer's lecture will be "Searching for Jimmy Hoffa: A Comparative Perspective on the Problem of American Union Corruption".
Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance in 1975 made him the most prominent victim of organized crime in the U.S. and confirmed his role as a notorious example of the problem of union corruption.
To most Americans, Hoffa and the union he led, the Teamsters, symbolize the menace of labor racketeering and the historic role which the Mafia played in segments of the U.S. labor movement. American popular culture, in the form of movies and television shows, from On the Waterfront to the more recent Netflix film, The Irishman, has reinforced that connection. It is a connection that most scholars have depicted as unique to the United States. As one recent study put it, “Labor racketeering is an important example of American exceptionalism. No other country has a history of significant organized crime infiltration of its labor movement, and no other country has an organized crime syndicate with a power base in labor unions.”
This talk will provide an overview of Hoffa’s notorious career, including the continuing mystery of his disappearance. But it will also probe the popular understanding of Hoffa’s role as a symbol of the prevalence of union corruption and offer a comparative perspective on this apparent example of American exceptionalism.
David Witwer is the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair of American Studies for the 2022-23 academic year. He is a professor of American Studies at Penn State University.
After college, David worked for the New York County District Attorney’s Office. He was an investigative analyst on assignment with the New York State Organized Crime Task Force looking into the mob’s role in the construction industry.
He received an M.A. and PhD in History from Brown University. He has written three books on union corruption, organized crime, and the political exploitation of these issues: Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters Union (2003); Shadow of the Racketeer: Scandal in Organized Labor (2009); and most recently, co-authored with Catherine Rios, Murder in the Garment District: The Grip of Organized Crime and the Decline of Labor in the United States (2020). His articles have appeared in a range of journals, including: Journal of American History, Labor: Studies in Working-Class History, Journal of Social History, International Labor and Working-Class History, Labour/Le Travail, and Journalism History.
He has previously received full-year fellowships from Princeton University’s Shelby Cullom Davis Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2020-2021, he was named the Penn State Laureate. He is currently working on a book about the disappearance of the Teamster President James R. Hoffa.