Faculty and Researchers

Kathleen Thelen

Faculty Director, MIT-Scandinavia Program, MIT-Germany Program

Ford International Professor of Political Science

Email

kthelen@mit.edu

Website

https://www.kathleenthelen.com/

Expertise

Political economy

Historical institutionalism

Labor politics

Social policy

Advanced industrial countries

Publications

Attention, Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy

Princeton University Press

Attention, Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy

The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power

Cambridge University Press

The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power

Strategies for Social Inquiry: Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis

Cambridge University Press

Strategies for Social Inquiry: Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis

Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity

Cambridge University Press

Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity

Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power

Cambridge University Press

Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power

News

Summer 2025 reading from MIT

Books written by CIS-affiliated faculty, including Phil Budden, Fiona Murray, Volha Charnysh, and Kathleen Thelen, were featured in MIT News’s summer reading list.

Summer 2025 reading from MIT

Supersize me

Kathleen Thelen, Ford International Professor of Political Science and faculty director of MIT-Scandinavia, MIT-Germany, and MIT-Switzerland, explains how America’s large retailers got large in her new book.

Supersize me

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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