Berube’s work pays close attention to the experiences of working-class people and to the intersection of politics, cultural expectations, work conditions and gender roles in their lives. His current project is an oral history and analysis of the Marine Cooks’ and Stewards’ Union, which organized the service workers on the passenger liners and freighters in the Pacific from the 1930s to the 1950s and was among the most racially integrated unions in the U.S.

He has received several honors, including a Rockefeller Residency Fellowship and the Community Service Award from the Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights. Berube, who studied at the University of Chicago, was named a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1996. The Creative Approach to Public Policy lecture series invites four MacArthur Fellows to share insight and perspective on current public policy issues.