Katherine Cramer (B.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison 1994, Ph.D. University of Michigan 2000) is a professor in the Department of Political Science. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the Elections Research Center, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs, the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Center for Nonprofits, the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, and the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. Her work focuses on the way people in the United States make sense of politics and their place in it. She is known for her innovative approach to the study of public opinion, in which she invites herself into the conversations of groups of people to listen to the way they understand public affairs.

Her book, “The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker,” examines rural resentment toward cities and its implications for contemporary politics (University of Chicago Press, 2016). She has also published as Katherine Cramer Walsh and is the author of “Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference” (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and “Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life” (University of Chicago Press, 2004). She is the recipient of the 2017 APSA Qualitative and Multi-Method Research Section Giovanni Sartori Award for the best book developing or using qualitative methods published in 2016; a finalist for the 2017 APSA Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics or international affairs; 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.