Natalia Fazio grew up in a family supported by union work in Las Vegas and understands firsthand the importance of the labor movement to hard-working Nevada families.
Now a historian and graduate student at the University of Nevada, Reno, Fazio is nationally known for his research on the mutually supportive relationship between the civil rights and labor movements in Southern Nevada 50 years ago.
Ms. Fazio, who completed her undergraduate studies in the university’s history department in May, was selected as the recipient of the Barbara Wertheimer Prize in Labor History, awarded by the New York Labor History Association. Named after the labor organizer and historian whose research focused on the history of labor and gender in the United States, this award recognizes the serious study of labor and labor history in the United States by undergraduate students. Recognize research.
Her senior thesis, “Labor Unions and Exclusion: Civil Rights in the Las Vegas Labor Movement,” delves into court records, newspaper articles, and other sources from the 1960s and 1970s to demonstrate how workers of color and women were forced into labor unions. tells how they fought to achieve equal opportunity in the United States. . The survey covers labor organizations ranging from the local construction industry to the powerful Culinary Union, which represents hotel and casino workers.
Essays with personal roots
Fazio’s family background gave her first-hand knowledge of the labor movement, but being selected for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees’ Union Scholars Program in 2023 motivated her to pursue research. It got even higher.
In the program, which prioritizes students from historically marginalized communities, Fazio spent the summer of her junior year working as an organizer for local officials in the Miami area. She found that many workers, some of them union members, had limited knowledge of the historical background of the labor movement.
“It’s important for workers to understand their union, its roots and how it has overcome problems in the past,” Fazio said. “The problems we face today did not suddenly appear out of nowhere.”
Critical faculty support
In the fall of 2023, I decided to return to my undergraduate degree and work on my graduation thesis, although it is not a requirement for graduation in the history department. She worked closely on this project with Eric Nystrom, associate professor of history and director of graduate programs in the Department of History.
Nystrom said Fazio’s 12,000-word paper is an impressive work of research and writing by an undergraduate student.
“She went above and beyond what was asked of her,” Nystrom said.
Fazio said it could have gone much further without the invaluable help Nystrom provided to sharpen the focus of the research and thesis when it threatened to spread out of control. He said it might have happened.
“I’ve never written a paper this large before, and there were moments during this process where I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. “Dr. Nystrom listened to me and helped me throughout the project.”
Mr. Nystrom served as Mr. Fazio’s advisor on the paper, but also drew on the expertise of Michael Aguirre, an assistant professor of history at the university who is particularly interested in the labor and political economy of the U.S.-Mexico border region.
Fazio said faculty support was especially important because she didn’t start working on the project in earnest until the start of the spring semester. As a result, she was given only half the time that most students spend on their senior thesis.
New research digs deeper
Fazio is currently planning to continue researching labor organizations for her master’s thesis. She outlines a proposal to conduct research on labor movements along the West Coast that developed differently than the more well-documented unionization efforts on the East Coast.
She will take some time off from her graduate studies to work as a teaching assistant and virtually attend the December ceremony where the New York Labor History Association will award the Wertheimer Prize and its $500 check.
After completing her education, Fazio envisions a career where she can use her love of historical research, perhaps through a job in public policy development.
Nystrom said Fazio’s award of the Wertheimer Prize for Undergraduate Research was particularly noteworthy because the list of past recipients is dominated by students from top universities on the East Coast. Fazio’s work helped establish the university’s History Department and the College of Arts and Sciences as a whole.
“Our history department is small, but rough. We have very high quality faculty who work closely with our students,” Nystrom said. “We’re helping open doors for really motivated students.”
Fazio’s dedication to education and her drive to help others with what she learns is how she embodies the Wolf Pack Way.
