Katie Krumbholz, Ph.D.
Bio
I am a Project Manager with YouGov and received my doctorate from Rutgers University. I study American politics, public law, and methodology. More specifically, as a formerly incarcerated individual, I am interested in how the criminal justice system impacts the social identity of those it touches and how that identity is politicized. I am an avid data scientist with particular interests in text analysis, AI and privacy.
I received my BA in political science from the University of Iowa in 2017 with an emphasis in international relations and completed my MA in political science at Iowa State University in 2019 with an emphasis in public policy. My thesis was titled “Felon Disenfranchisement and Political Culture” and looked at the role of political culture in determining the severity of a state’s disenfranchisement policies. Prior to resuming my education, I accumulated fifteen years of administrative and reporting experience across multiple industries, including financial services, sales, production, and transportation.
Scholarly Work
Publications​
“What Does Politics & Gender Publish? Trends, Methods, and Topics in Gender and Politics Research.” (with Carolyn Barnett, Michael Fitzgerald, and Manika Lamba), Politics & Gender, Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2025, pp. 6-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X24000540.
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“Tracking the Trackers: Menstruapp Privacy Policies Following the Dobbs Decision.” (with Kyle Morgan, and Alice Militaru), Journal of Women, Politics & Policies (2024), 45(1), pp. 167-189. DOI: 10.1080/1554477X.2024.2300103.
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“Strange, Unusual, and Creative Sentences: Analyzing “Outside the Box” Criminal Sentencing.” (with Milton Heumann, Kyle Morgan, Lance Cassak, and Alice Militaru), Victims & Offenders, 18:8 (2023), pp. 1446-1473. DOI: 10.1080/15564886.2023.224987.
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“Gender in the Journals: A Dataset of Gender and Politics Research.” (with Carolyn Barnett, Michael Fitzgerald, and Manika Lamba), PS: Political Science and Politics 55, no. 3 (2022): pp. 511-518. DOI: 10.1017/S1049096522000385.
Searchable dataset can be accessed via the project website: https://gender-politics.shinyapps.io/apps/.
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Under Review​
“Trust us, this is for your own good: Rethinking Americans' Attitudes Towards Privacy, Big Tech, and The Exchange Model.” (with Milton Heumann, Kyle Morgan, Lance Cassak, Alice Militaru, and Lauren Johnson)
“Women or Fetuses First? An experimental study of the effectiveness of the “pro-woman” frame of the pro-life movement.” (with Amanda Roberti and Kyle Morgan)
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Manuscripts in Progress​
​"Carceral Identity: The Missing Link Between Carceral Experiences and Political Behavior."
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“Are you seeing this? A Conjoint Experiment on Americans' Attitudes Towards Surveillance.” (with Milton Heumann, Kyle Morgan, Lance Cassak, Alice Militaru, and Lauren Johnson)​​
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“Gendered Consequences of Contact with the Carceral State.” (with Amy Benner)​
Carceral Identity: The Missing Link Between Carceral Experiences and Political Behavior
Drawing on social identity theory, I introduce "carceral identity," a crucial but overlooked social identity that forms among those with sustained contact with the criminal justice system. A criminal record, particularly when coupled with incarceration, carries a heavy stigma that negatively impacts one's self-concept. Yet, this stigma can also forge a sense of solidarity among those who share these experiences, driving them to connect with one another to normalize their experiences and even mobilize for change. This study argues that varying levels of attachment to carceral identity significantly influence the development of group consciousness which shapes political behavior.
Gender in the Journals
"Research on gender and politics is becoming increasingly mainstreamed within political science. To document this process, we introduce a comprehensive dataset of articles published in 37 political science journals through 2019 that can be considered 'gender and politics' research. Whereas recent related literature has explored the descriptive representation of women in political science by examining authorship and citation patterns, we argue that the identification of publications substantively focused on gender and politics not only illuminates trends but also can contribute to broader conversations about substantive representation and methodological diversity in the discipline."
Strange, Unusual, and Creative Sentences
"One may not expect a pig, a yoga class, or flowers on a grave to be connected to criminal sentencing. Yet periodically we have all read media accounts of what could only be called 'strange sentences.' These 'man bites dog' sentences would typically include things like parading in front of a post office with a placard proclaiming something about the defendant’s guilt in stealing mail. Unlike the media, who may be covering these stories on a slow news day or through a quirky human-interest lens, these sentences piqued our interest because of the questions that they raised about their use and/or role in the criminal justice system-we wanted to know how these sentences came about, if judges are even allowed to do this, why the judge felt this was a better or more appropriate sentence, and what those on the ground thought of them."
