Karen Mossberger, Head and Professor
Ph.D., Political Science (1996)
Wayne State University

Public Administration (M/C 278)
132 CUPPA Hall
phone: 312-413-8246
fax: 312-996-8804
mossberg@uic.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Karen Mossberger is Professor of Public Administration and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. She teaches courses on public policy, administrative theory, and local government management.  Her research interests include local governance, urban policy, policy learning, information technology and e-government. She is co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Urban Politics with Susan Clarke and Peter John.  Her 2008 book from MIT Press co-authored with Caroline Tolbert and Ramona McNeal - Digital Citizenship:  The Internet, Society and Participation- examines the impact of technology on economic opportunity and political participation.  Other work on digital inequality includes an earlier book with Georgetown University Press, Virtual Inequality:  Beyond the Digital Divide (K. Mossberger, C. Tolbert and M. Stansbury 2003), and “Race, Place, and Information Technology”  which won the best paper award for the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association in 2005. 

Recently, she completed a study of technology use in Chicago with Caroline Tolbert of the University of Iowa, which includes neighborhood-level data for each of the community areas, based on multi-level models. The Chicago study, along with recent national data, is part of a book manuscript currently being written on Digital Cities.  She is also evaluating the "Smart Communities" Broadband Technology Opportunities Program in 5 Chicago neighborhoods. 

Her research has been supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the MacArthur Foundation, among others.  Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including Public Administration Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, and the Journal of Urban Affairs.  She is co-editor of the Georgetown University Press series on American Governance and Public Policy, and on the editorial boards of Urban Affairs Review and the Journal of Information Technology and Politics.  She was also the 2009-2010 President of the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.