Katherine Cramer is a Professor of Political Science and the Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work focuses on the way members of the public make sense of public affairs. Her innovative approach to the study of public opinion includes methods like inviting herself into the conversations of groups of people to better understand their interpretations of politics. Recently she has focused on how many people in rural Wisconsin use their rural identity to think about current events in that state.
Cramer’s book The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker (2016) uncovered rural resentment toward cities and discussed its implications for contemporary politics. Cramer, publishing as Katherine Cramer Walsh, is also the author of Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference (2007), and Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life (2004).
Cramer is the recipient of the 2018 APSA Heinz Eulau Award for the best article published in Perspectives on Politics (with Benjamin Toff) and the 2017 APSA Qualitative and Multi-Method Research section Giovanni Sartori Award for the best book developing or using qualitative methods published in 2016. She was a finalist for the 2017 APSA Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs. She also received the 2012 APSA Qualitative and Multi-Methods Research Section award for the best qualitative or multi-method submission to the American Political Science Review; a 2006 UW-Madison Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award; a 2012-2014 UW-Madison Vilas Associate Award; a 2015-17 Leon Epstein Faculty Fellowship; and a 2017-2022 UW-Madison Kellett Mid-Career Faculty Researcher Award. In 2019 she was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Cramer received a B.A. in Political Science and Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2000.
