Public Events
Plays and other live performances
In October 2025, ILHS brought David Rintels’s play, “Clarence Darrow” to five venues across the state.
Stay tuned for more live theater events highlighting Midwestern workers and their unions!
film screenings
Each September and May, ILHS sponsors screenings of films with labor and working-class themes. Screenings take place in coordination with our partners at FilmScene in Iowa City and the Varsity Theater in Des Moines. Information about upcoming screenings can be found here on our website, on the theaters’ sites, and on the society’s Facebook page.
Matewan
The Varsity Cinema, Sept. 6, 2025
Salt of the Earth
FilmScene, Iowa City, Sept. 1, 2025
The Organizer
The Varsity Cinema, Des Moines, May 3, 2025
Made in L.A.
FilmScene, Iowa City, May 1, 2025
The World According to Amazon
Varsity Cinema, Des Moines, Sept. 1, 2024
Pajama Game
FilmScene, Iowa City, Sept. 1, 2024
Pajama Game,
Co-Sponsors
Pride
FilmScene, Iowa City, May 1, 2024
Pride, Co-Sponsors
Public Conferences
Between 2017 and 2022, ILHS co-sponsored an annual public conference with the UI Labor Center to highlight connections between the past and present. These conferences drew dozens of participants to listen to and interact with historians, archivists, and labor activists from around the state, region, and nation.
2022: Speaking of Work: The Making of An Iowa Working Class
Featured Speakers:
John McKerley, Oral Historian, University of Iowa Labor Center
Shel Stromquist, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa Dept. of History
2020: Epidemic Disease and the Future of Work: From Public Health Crises to Movements for Worker Justice
Featured Speakers:
Jessica E. Martinez, Co-Executive Director, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health
Nate Holdren, Assistant Professor of Law and Politics, Drake University
2019: Workers’ Dream for an America That “Yet Must Be”: Struggles for Freedom and Dignity, Past and Present
Featured Speakers:
Pablo Alvarado, Co-Executive Director, National Day Laborers Organizing Network
Organizers from the Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), Minneapolis, Minn.
2018: Building Workers’ Power in a Globalized World: Shifting Legal Landscapes, Past and Present
Featured Speakers:
Shelton Stromquist, Professor of History, Emeritus, University of Iowa
Marybe McMillan, President, North Carolina AFL-CIO
2017: Labor and Civil Rights in Iowa’s Past, Present, and Future
Featured Speakers:
William P. Jones, Professor of History, University of Minnesota
Jamal Watkins, National Outreach Director AFL-CIO