Alice Cook (professor)

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Alice Hanson Cook (November 28, 1903 – February 7, 1998) was an activist and professor of labor history at Cornell University in the United States. At Cornell, the Alice Cook House residential college was named in her honor.

Labor history or labour history is a sub-discipline of social history which specialises on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. The central concerns of labor historians include industrial relations and forms of labor protest, the rise of mass politics and the social and cultural history of the industrial working classes. Labor historians may also concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity and other factors besides class but chiefly focus on urban or industrial societies which distinguishes it from rural history.

Cornell University private university in Ithaca (New York, US)

Cornell University is a private and statutory Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the university was intended to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge—from the classics to the sciences, and from the theoretical to the applied. These ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's founding principle, a popular 1868 Ezra Cornell quotation: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."

Cornell West Campus

West Campus is a residential section of Cornell University's Ithaca, New York campus located west of Libe Slope and between the Fall Creek gorge and the Cascadilla gorge. It now primarily houses transfer students, second year, and upperclassmen.

Contents

Her varied life experiences included social worker, YWCA secretary, labor educator, post World War II advisor in Germany on reconstituting German labor unions, professor, university ombudsman, world acclaimed researcher, and to the very end, an activist. [1] Cook was appointed Cornell University's first ombudsman and worked to establish the credibility and acceptance of that office. [2]

Ombudsman government service charged with investigating complaints of maladministration or violation of rights

An ombudsman, ombudsperson, ombud, or public advocate is an official who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints of maladministration or a violation of rights. The ombudsman is usually appointed by the government or by parliament, but with a significant degree of independence. In some countries an inspector general, citizen advocate or other official may have duties similar to those of a national ombudsman, and may also be appointed by a legislature. Below the national level an ombudsman may be appointed by a state, local or municipal government. Unofficial ombudsmen may be appointed by, or even work for, a corporation such as a utility supplier, newspaper, NGO, or professional regulatory body.

Autobiography

A Lifetime of Labor: the autobiography of Alice H. Cook / foreword by Arlene Kaplan Daniels. 1st ed. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1998.

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References

  1. "Who was Alice Cook?" . Retrieved 2006-06-02.
  2. "Carter, Cook Named to University Posts". Cornell Daily Sun. Sep 17, 1969. p. 1. Retrieved 2009-11-06.