ILR School faculty members Ariel Avgar, Ph.D. ’08 and Virginia Doellgast, Ph.D. ’06 have received the rank of full professor, Alex Colvin, the Kenneth F. Kahn ’69 Dean and Martin F. Scheinman ’75, MS ’76, Professor, announced Monday.

“Ariel and Ginny are outstanding researchers and teachers whose leadership has impacted many hundreds of students,” said Colvin. “Their work has also impacted scholars in their respective fields. At ILR, we are fortunate to have an incredible faculty and these promotions are an acknowledgement of our strength as a school.”

The promotions are effective Nov. 1.

Associate Professor Avgar, who serves as associate dean for ILR Outreach, focuses his research on two primary areas within employment relations.

First, he explores the role of employment relations factors in the healthcare industry. As such, he examines the effects of a variety of workplace innovations, including new technology, delivery of care models and innovative work practices, on patients, frontline employees, and organizational performance.

Second, he studies conflict and its management in organizations with a focus on the strategic choices made by firms. He seeks to better understand the consequences of conflict for employees and employers. In addition, his research investigates the adoption and implementation of organizational level conflict management practices and systems.

His research has been published in a number of journals, including Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industrial Relations, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, International Journal of Conflict Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Negotiation and Conflict Management Review, Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, Health Services Research and Medical Care.

Associate Professor Doellgast, a leading expert in European labor relations, studies comparative employment relations and the political economy of labor, with a focus on the U.S. and Europe. Her research examines the relationship between labor market and collective bargaining institutions, inequality and job quality. Past research projects have compared labor responses to restructuring in incumbent telecom firms; employer collective action in the telecom and information and communication technology (ICT) sectors; and worker voice and well-being in call centers. She is currently studying policy and union responses to technological change in the U.S., Canada, Germany and Norway, based on matched case studies in the ICT services, telecom and auto industries.

Doellgast is co-editor of International and Comparative Employment Relations (Sage, 2021) and Reconstructing Solidarity: Labour unions, precarious work, and the politics of institutional change in Europe (Oxford University Press, 2018). She has authored Disintegrating Democracy at Work: Labor Unions and the Future of Good Jobs in the Service Economy (Cornell University Press, 2012). Her research has been published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Human Resource Management Journal, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industrial Relations, Politics and Society, and Socio-Economic Review, among other journals.

She is a senior research fellow at the Wirtschafts- und Sozial-wissenschaftliches Institut (Hans Böckler Stiftung, Germany), and has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute für Gesellschaftsforschung, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Freie Universität, Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail, and the University of New South Wales. She was previously a faculty member at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at King’s College London.

Mary Catt is the ILR School’s communications director.