Kathy Cramer

Katherine J. Cramer (born 1970) is an American political scientist. She is a professor in the political science department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service.^[1]

Katherine Cramer
Born	1970 (age 54–55) Grafton, Wisconsin, United States
Awards	Heinz I. Eulau Award
Academic work
Discipline	political science
Institutions	University of Wisconsin–Madison
Main interests	rural resentment
Notable works	The Politics of Resentment

Career

Cramer is the author of The Politics of Resentment,^[2] a book based on almost a decade of studying political attitudes in rural Wisconsin through ethnography.^[3] She argues that "rural consciousness" acts as a basis for rural residents to form a social identity and as a lens through which they "think about themselves, other people, and public affairs."^[4] According to Cramer, a driver of political sentiment in rural Wisconsin is the beliefs among voters that "I’m not getting my fair share of power, stuff or respect" and "All the decisions are made in Madison and Milwaukee and nobody’s listening to us".^[3][5] Cramer has found this "rural resentment" comes partly from changes to rural life and partly from massive changes in the economy.^[6] Rural people, she asserts, feel overlooked and disrespected by elites; they work hard, yet they see the "good life" is passing them by, which is one reason why they voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.^[5]

Publications

Some published under the name Katherine Cramer Walsh

• Walsh, Katherine Cramer (2001). Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226869063. OCLC 76828861.^[1]
• Walsh, Katherine Cramer (2004). Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226872216. OCLC 659560826.^[1]
• Cramer, Katherine J. (2016). The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker. Chicago Studies in American Politics. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226349114.^[1]

Honors and awards

• Heinz I. Eulau Award - 2018^[7]
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow - 2019^[8]