Panellist: ‘Class in the Workplace from New Jerusalem to the Present: Panel Discussion’. ESRC Festival of Social Science. October 2025.
Conference paper: ‘Striking Similarities? Applying Protest Event Analysis to Platform Workers’
Struggle’. Alternative Futures and Popular Protest Conference, University of Manchester, June 2025.
Conference paper: ‘Building a Digital Workers’ Movement: The Emergent Years of Platform Labour Protest in India’. Disrupting Technology, University of Leeds, June 2025.
Press contribution: BBC Radio Manchester, interview on Uber drivers’ strike action, 1st May 2025.
Press contribution: The Meteor, ‘Deliveroo Drivers: Mobile workers with a Mobile Union’, interviewed, March 2025.
Event organiser and speaker: Towards a History of Food Delivery Workers’ Organising. Working Class Movement Library. December 2024. Recording available here.
Invited speaker: ‘Beyond Regulatory Fixes: Ways to Advance Better Working Conditions for Platform Workers.’ PACTA India, September 2024.
Invited speaker: ‘Delivering Justice? Striking in the Gig Economy’. Pint of Science Festival, Social Movements in a Changing World, May 2024.
Teaching: SOCY20032 Work, Economy and Society, University of Manchester, 2024.
Co-organiser and co-facilitator of an art-making workshop for Sheffield-based delivery drivers, with Dr Vera Weghmann and the artist Ella Jones, December 2023.
Conference paper: ‘The Anatomy of a Platform Strike: Strategic Decision-Making in the 2021-22 Stuart Delivery Dispute’. British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA) Conference, July 2023.
Conference paper: ‘Deconstructing the collective actor: Strategy formation and transformation in a platform labour dispute’. Alternative Futures and Popular Protest Conference, University of Manchester, June 2023.
Conference paper: ‘Class Struggle in McDonald’s Carparks: The Micro-dynamics of Platform Couriers’ Collective Action’. Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC), Annual Doctoral Conference, University of Leeds, May 2023.
Invited member: Working Class Movement Library Collections Development Group.
Shortlist, PSRS Research Image Awards 2023.
Teaching: Guest lecture on ‘Low-wage and precarious work in the global economy’. SOCY10912 Work, Organisations & Society, University of Manchester, April 2023
Conference paper: ‘The beginning never ends: the erratic temporality of platform couriers’ collective action’. BSA Annual Conference 2023: Sociological Voices in Public Discourse, April 2023.
Conference paper: ‘Pay Rise, Not Pay Cut! Struggle over Strategy in a Platform Dispute’. Work and Equalities Institute, Fairness at Work Conference, January 2023.
Discussion facilitator: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. Movements@Manchester Social Movements Reading Group, December 2022.
Organising Committee member: Alternative Futures and Popular Protest Conference, 2023.
Teaching: SOCY20031 Work, Economy and Society, University of Manchester, 2022.
Research Assistant: Recent Developments in the Sociology of Work, Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, 2022.
Invited speaker: ‘Unions 101’, RANK + FILE, July 2022.
Press contribution: Voice.Wales, ‘“Toothless” – How A Union’s Deal With Deliveroo Put Partnership Working In The Spotlight’, interviewed, 1st July 2022.
Elected Council Member: Manchester Industrial Relations Society, 2022 – 23.
Conference paper: ‘Deciding to Defy: Collective Contention as Collective Cognition in the UK’s Gig Economy Strikes’. Department of Sociology PGR Conference, University of Manchester. June 2022.
Press contribution: The Northern Echo, ‘Just Eat drivers strike and picket fast food outlets in Darlington’, interviewed and advised on article, 17th May 2022.
Conference Organiser: Alternative Futures and Popular Protest Conference, 2022.
Teaching Assistant Rep, Sociology Board, University of Manchester. 2021-22.
Teaching: SOCY20601 Social Class and Inequality in Britain, University of Manchester, 2021.
Interview on management control and workers’ resistance in call centres, for: Horgan, A. (2021) Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism. London: Pluto Press. PP 123-124.
Discussion facilitator: ‘Workers’ Power and Trade Unionism in Wales’. Welsh Underground Network, May 2021.
Conference paper: ‘The Network Makes Us Strong: Alternatives to the Union Form Amongst Organised Platform Couriers’. CRASSH, University of Cambridge. April 2021.
Discussion facilitator: Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts. Movements@Manchester Social Movements Reading Group, March 2021.
Press contribution: Interview with independent journalist Emma Doyle on Deliveroo couriers’ organising in Sheffield, February 2020.
Invited speaker: ‘Call Centres and Mental Health’, Broomhill & Sharrow Vale Labour Party, October 2019.
Public talk: ‘Queering Anti-Fascism: Exploring histories of LGBT+ opposition to the far-right’. LGBT History Project North East, Public Day, February 2018.
Affiliations / Ymlyniadau
British Sociological Association
British Universities Industrial Relations Association
Manchester Industrial Relations Society
Movements@Manchester
Trade union experience / Profiad o fewn undebau llafur
Communication Workers Union workplace activist, Convergys call centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2018.
UNISON shop steward, Newcastle City Council and Your Homes Newcastle call centres, 2019.
UCU Anti-Casualisation Officer, University of Manchester branch, 2021-22.
UCU Ordinary Member of the branch Executive Committee (responsible for administering the branch Hardship Fund and organising educational events), University of Manchester branch, 2022-23.
Dr Morgan Rhys Powell 