This lecture series honors Professor Emeritus Milton Derber, one of the founding architects of what was then-Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. Professor Derber’s leadership, intellectual vision, and contributions helped establish our School as a nationally respected center for labor scholarship and education. Before helping to establish the Institute, he served in several key federal roles—including as an economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Office of Price Administration, a field examiner for the National Labor Relations Board, and a research director at the National War Labor Board.
He served as a Professor in our School for over three decades, from 1947 until his retirement in 1983, including a brief term as Director from 1951 to 1952 – Professor Derber shaped both the field and generations of students. His prolific work included 12 books and over 100 articles, bulletins, and reports addressing timely labor relations that tackled some of the most pressing labor issues in the United States and abroad. We are proud to carry his legacy forward, and we thank the Derber family for their continued support of this vital tradition since 1990.
We are very honored to welcome scholars whose work reflects the same spirit of interdisciplinary rigor and public relevance.
Derber Lecture Speakers
| Year | Speaker | Title |
| 2025 | Rosemary Batt | Alice Hanson Cook Professor of Women and Work, Cornell University |
| 2020 | Steven Greenhouse | New York Times Reporter (canceled due to COVID) |
| 2019 | Karen Nussbaum | Founding Director, Working America |
| 2018 | DeMaurice Smith | NFL Players Association |
| 2017 | Eileen Appelbaum | Senior Economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research |
| 2016 | Ellen Dannin | Former Professor of Law, Penn State University, Dickinson College of Law |
| 2015 | Tim Judge | Franklin D. Schurz Professor in the Management Department, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame |
| 2014 | Joseph A. McCartin | Professor, Georgetown University |
| 2013 | Sanford M. Jacoby | Howard Noble Distinguished Professor, UCLA Anderson School of Management |
| 2010 | Stephen R. Barley | Richard Weiland Professor, Stanford University |
| 2009 | Lisa M. Lynch | Dean and Professor of Economics, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University |
| 2008 | Bob King | Vice President & Director, UAW Ford; Marty Mulloy, Vice President, Global Labor Affairs, Ford Motor Company |
| 2007 | Rosemary Batt | Alice Hanson Cook Professor of Women and Work, Cornell University |
| 2006 | Barry Gerhart | Professor of Management and Human Resources, Bruce R. Ellig Distinguished Chair In Pay & Organizational Effectiveness, School of Business, University of Wisconsin |
| 2005 | Susan E. Jackson | Professor of Human Resource Management, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University |
| 2004 | Henry Farber | Hughes Rogers Professor of Economics and the Director of the Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University (14th Annual) |
| 2003 | Nancy Cantor | Chancellor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 2002 | Sara L. Rynes | John F. Murray Professor of Management, Chair of the Department of Management and Organizations, Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa |
| 2001 | Francine Blau | Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, Research Director of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University |
| 2000 | David Lewin | Neil Jacoby Professor of Management, Human Resources and Organizational Behavior, Anderson School of Management, UCLA |
| 1999 | Jeanne Brett | DeWitt W. Buchanan, Jr. Professor of Dispute Resolution and Organizations, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University |
| 1998 | Peter Cappelli | Professor and Chair, Management Department; Director, Center for Human Resources; Co-Director, National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce; The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania |
| 1997 | Dorothy Cobble | Associate Professor, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University |
| 1996 | Richard Trumka | Secretary-Treasurer of American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), President Emeritus – United Mine Workers of America |
| 1995 | Thomas A. Kochan | George M. Bunker Professor of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 1994 | Irving Bluestone | Former Vice President, UAW General Motors and Instructor, Wayne State University |
| 1993 | Joyce Miller | Executive Director of the Glass Ceiling Commission, US Department of Labor |
| 1992 | John Niland | Dean, University of New South Wales, Faculty of Commerce and Economics |
| 1990 | Robert McKersie | Professor, Work and Organization Studies, Institute for Work and Employment Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |