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Professional Bio

Professor Ragon is a Labor Education Coordinator and Assistant Clinical Professor at Penn State's School of Labor and Employment Relations. Their areas of research and teaching expertise include social movements, organization studies, labor, and qualitative research methods. Prior to coming to Penn State, Professor Ragon earned a PhD in Sociology at the University of Connecticut and then served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oberlin and Augustana Colleges. While working toward their PhD, Kate got their start in the labor movement by working as a field organizer to help fellow graduate students form their union and was elected to the first Executive Board of UAW Local 6950. At Penn State you can find them developing and facilitating workshops and trainings with their colleagues in the LABOR School as well as teaching undergraduate course LHR 136 Race, Gender, & Employment.

Recent Publications:

Ragon, Kathleen A. and Daisy Verduzco Reyes. 2023. “Insider-Outsider Dynamics and Identity in Qualitative Studies of Social Movements.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change. Volume 47.

Ragon, Kathleen A., Al Evangelista, & Kip Hutchins. 2023. “Bringing Autoethnography to Undergraduates: An Interdisciplinary Course-Cluster and Lab at Oberlin College.” Journal of Autoethnography 4(2): 236–254.

Reyes, Daisy Verduzco and Kathleen Ragon. 2018. “Analyzing Ethnoracial Mobilization.” Sociology Compass. 12(10): 1-13.