Steve McKay

Steve McKay is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the UCSC Center for Labor and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research focuses on labor, gender, migration, racial formation, globalization, and Southeast Asia. He leads multiple community-engaged research initiatives in the Santa Cruz area, including the Watsonville Is in the Heart community archive, We Belong (immigrant justice collaboration), Working for Dignity (low-wage worker study), and No Place Like Home (affordable housing crisis research).

Education: Ph.D. Sociology (2001, University of Wisconsin-Madison), M.A. Southeast Asian Studies (1996, UW-Madison with Distinction), B.A. Political Economy of Industrial Societies (1989, UC Berkeley with Honors).

Current research includes a book project analyzing ethno-national labor niches in global shipping through historical and ethnographic methods, titled Born to Sail? Race, Masculinity and the Making of Filipino Seafarers. His work bridges academic scholarship with community-based activism, emphasizing participatory research methodologies.