“A few people with unconventional ideas can make a huge difference in what happens if they are in the right place at the right time." - Brooks Bitterman

The Strategic Corporate Research Scholarship honors the legacy of Brooks Bitterman, who devoted his life to bettering the lives of working people.

Brooks grew up in New York City, the son of a public school teacher and a postal worker, both union members. He graduated from the Collegiate School, attended Middlebury College, received his bachelor and master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and worked as an Urban Fellow at the New York Department of Housing and Urban Development. He went on to earn his PhD in economic geography from Clark University, where he completed his dissertation, Workers’ Struggles: The Strategic Use of Place and Space by Labor and Capital, in 1996.

Brooks started his career in labor leafleting for the UE (United Electrical Workers) in Providence and worked as a researcher at Jobs with Justice in Boston. In 1992, he joined HERE Local 100 in New York City and began the work of rebuilding a fighting union.

Over more than 30 years with what became UNITE HERE, Brooks and his comrades developed techniques and strategies to wage corporate campaigns. The goal was always to put pressure on people in power to do the right thing for their employees—and to give those workers voice, agency, and respect through struggle and contracts. Brooks trained generations of researchers right up until he died prematurely of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor.

This scholarship will support students of exceptional promise to attend the CUNY/AFL-CIO Strategic Corporate Research Summer School at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (formerly the Cornell Strategic Corporate Research Summer School), starting in summer 2026. In this way, we will continue Brooks' work to build the labor movement through research and strategic organizing. 

(Your donation is 100% tax deductible. If you have any questions or would like to donate by check, wire, or through a donor-advised fund, please reach out to Lindsey McCormack, Director of Institutional Development at CUNY SLU, at lindsey.mccormack@slu.cuny.edu)

* Brooks' quote is from his PhD dissertation "Geography and Workers’ Struggles: The Strategic Use of Place and Space by Labor and Capital" (1996)