Kathleen Blee

Kathleen Blee is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and the Bailey Dean of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and the College of General Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. A highly productive scholar, Kathleen has published 7 books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters. Much of her scholarship is based on analysis of her up-close ethnographic observations and interviews with white supremacists in the United States, including her books Women in the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920 (University of California Press, 1991), Inside Organized Racism (University of California Press, 2002) and Understanding Racist Activism: Theory, Methods and Research (Routledge, 2017). Her work has won many awards, including a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize, the 2013 Charles Tilly Award for Best Book from the American Sociological Association, and the 2012 Outstanding Book in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research Award from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. In 2015, she was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements of the American Sociological Association. Her research has been supported by an array of philanthropic institutions and federal agencies including the Aspen Institute, Maurice Falk Foundation, National Science Foundation, Department of Justice, and USDA. Blee has served as a pro-bono consultant/advisor on violent extremism to numerous civic, religious, and governmental bodies including the armed forces, police and security agencies, U.S. Congressional committees, synagogues and churches, educator forums, and schools. She has been interviewed by hundreds of national and international media and invited to speak about her research across the United States and Europe. She is a founding and current advisory board member of C-Rex, the Center for Research on Extremism in Oslo, Norway.