Scholarship and Biography

Karen V. Hansen’s new book, Working-Class Kids and Visionary Educators in a Multiracial High School: A Story of Belonging, centers on a beleaguered working-class high school in California during the 1970s. The book chronicles how adults and youth created a culture of involvement and collaborated to reduce violence, broaden the curriculum, and increase girls’ access to sports.

Exploring the nexus of gender, class, and racial-ethnic inequality, Hansen co-directs a study of downward mobility, "Cascading Lives: Stories of Loss, Resilience, and Resistance," a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with the Raikes Foundation.

Hansen’s book Encounter on the Great Plains: Scandinavian Settlers and the Dispossession of Dakota Indians, 1890-1930, won the 2016 Gita Chaudhuri Book Prize from the Western Association of Women Historians.

Links

Research and Book Profile

Honors

Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award
University of California, Berkeley (United States, Berkeley) - UCB, 1984-1985
Gertrude Jaeger Prize, Most Outstanding Graduate Student Essay Written by a Woman in Sociology
University of California, Berkeley (United States, Berkeley) - UCB, 1987-1988
Research Grant in Women's Stuides
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (United States, Princeton), 1988
Bunting Institute Fellow, Radcliffe College
Harvard University (United States, Cambridge), 1991-1992
Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities, Harvard University
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (United States, New York), 1991-1992
Grant
American Philosophical Society (United States, Philadelphia) - APS, 1992
Marver and Sheva Bernstein Faculty Fellowship
Brandeis University (United States, Waltham), 1992-1993
Norwegian Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Emigration Fund of 1975
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway, Oslo), 1998
Fellowship
National Endowment for the Humanities (United States, Washington D.C.) - NEH, 1999
Finalist, C. Wright Mills Award for Not-So-Nuclear Families: Class, Gender, and Networks of Care
Society for the Study of Social Problems (United States, Knoxville) - SSSP, 2005
Dean of Arts and Sciences Mentoring Award for outstanding mentoring of students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Brandeis University (United States, Waltham), 2005
William J. Goode Book Award, Honorable Mention
American Sociological Association (United States, Washington D.C.) - ASA, 2006
Fellowship
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (United States, New York), 2006-2007
Faculty Scholar, Student-Scholar Partnership Program
Brandeis University (United States, Waltham), 2009-2010
Fellow, Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History
Harvard University (United States, Cambridge), 2012-2013
Finalist, Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize
University of Nebraska–Lincoln (United States, Lincoln) - UNL , 2014
Fulbright "Distinguished Chair in American Studies," Uppsala University, Sweden
Fulbright Association (United States, Washington D.C.), 2015-2016
Gita Chaudhuri Prize
Western Association of Women Historians , 2016-2017
Book of the Month, Center for Great Plains Studies
University of Nebraska–Lincoln (United States, Lincoln) - UNL , 2017
Merit Award
Eastern Sociological Society, 2019-2020
Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, Doctorem Philosophiae Honoris Causa
University of Southern Denmark (Denmark, Odense) - SDU, 2020
Grand Challenges: Voices for Economic Opportunity Grant
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (United States, Seattle) - BMGF , 2020-2021
Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Sociology
Brandeis University (United States, Waltham), 2021

Organizational Affiliations

Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Sociology, Emerita, Department of Sociology, Brandeis University

Past Affiliations

Associate Fellow, University of Nebraska–Lincoln (United States, Lincoln) - UNL

Visiting Scholar, Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard University (United States, Cambridge)

University of California, Berkeley (United States, Berkeley) - UCB

Harvard University (United States, Cambridge)

Associate Senior Researcher, Berkeley Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley (United States, Berkeley) - UCB

Visiting Scholar, Henry A. Murray Research Center, Radcliffe College, Harvard University (United States, Cambridge)

Education

University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A.
University of California, Santa Barbara
B.A.