Kathy Thelen

Kathy Thelen serves as the Ford Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology within the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. An active faculty member since joining MIT in 2007 (previously at Northwestern University), she presented original research at Freie Universität Berlin's John F. Kennedy Institute in June 2023 on retail capitalism's evolution.

Her research examines institutional change through comparative analysis of political economies, with particular expertise in:

• Gradual institutional transformation mechanisms
• Labor market restructuring under globalization
• Varieties of capitalist development
• Regulatory adaptation to digital platforms

Recent work analyzes Amazon's impact on retail capitalism, revealing how corporate strategies interact with institutional frameworks to reshape labor-consumer dynamics. Her publication record demonstrates consistent output in top political economy journals with strong emphasis on methodological innovation.

Professional recognition includes:

• American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership
• APSA Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award
• MIT Killian Faculty Achievement Award (2022)
• Stein Rokkan Prize for comparative social science

Thelen maintains active research collaborations through MIT's Political Economy Workshop and Weatherhead Research Cluster, supervising doctoral students in institutional analysis and comparative political economy.