Affiliate

Zoë West

Zoë West, a Data & Society affiliate, is a senior researcher of worker rights and equity at the Worker Institute in the ILR School at Cornell University. For over 15 years, her research and education work has centered on labor and migration, with a particular focus on the low-wage economy, precarious work, and care work. Her research examines the structural roots of exploitation and precarity and explores how race, ethnicity, gender, and immigration status shape workers’ experiences. She also explores emerging models of policy, training, and collective representation. Zoë’s work relies on qualitative and participatory methods to contextualize workers’ lived experiences within broader systemic structures. Recent projects include studies on home care workers, including research on consumer-directed home care and financialization in the home care sector; standards-raising initiatives for domestic workers; and the impact of generative AI on workers in the fashion industry. Zoë holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Oxford.