Dan Clawson teaches sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is also co-president of the faculty union (affiliated with the National Education Association).
In recent years he's put energy into trying to link academics and intellectuals with the labor movement. One part of that was work in SAWSJ (Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice), a national association that helped organize numerous "Teach-Ins With the Labor Movement" and that promoted other activities. Another was helping organize a conference on Unions and Child Care that brought together labor leaders, academics, and children’s advocates. More recently he was involved in helping to create a section on Labor and Labor Movements inside the American Sociological Association; he is chair-elect of that group.
Previous scholarly activities include two (co-authored) books on how corporations dominate campaign finance, elections, and the shaping of public policy: Money Talks: Corporate PACs and Political Influence (Basic Books 1992) and Dollars and Votes: How Corporate Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy. Clawson has also edited the American Sociological Association's journal Contemporary Sociology, is currently one of the co-editors of its Rose Series in Sociology, and has published books or articles on work-family issues, sociology's most influential books, and bureaucracy.