Kathleen studies work and inequality. Her dissertation explores how contingent workers navigate instability in light of both ongoing economic transformations and enduring inequality in the labor process. While we tend to associate instability with the recent rise of on-demand “gig” work and the decline of traditional employment, many kinds of work have long been unstable. Kathleen’s dissertation investigates how workers across this spectrum navigate uncertain work schedules and landscapes: not knowing when, for how long, or where they will have work. Her dissertation draws on interviews with 120 workers: agricultural and oil and gas workers in Texas, long-defined by seasonal uncertainty and market fluctuation, respectively; and on-demand delivery workers and adjunct instructors in NYC, typifying the rising gig economy. First, she explores the forces impinging on workers, unpacking the temporal, geographical, and financial challenges workers confront and the interconnected social experiences of work, home, and the boundaries between them. Then she examines how workers manage the present in light of an uncertain future, in both their actions and in the stories that they tell. Having shown the high cost of risky, unstable work across structural contexts, she outlines several policy implications to address the diversity of precarious work.