{{short description|American political scientist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Use American English|date=March 2024}} '''Karen Orren''' (born 1942) is an American political scientist,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/673549342.html?dids=673549342:673549342&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Nov+01%2C+1984&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Cable+Forums+to+Study+UCLA+Research&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712120941/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/673549342.html?dids=673549342:673549342&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Nov+01,+1984&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Cable+Forums+to+Study+UCLA+Research&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 12, 2012|title=Cable Forums to Study UCLA Research|last=Gollner|first=Philipp|date=November 1, 1984|work=Los Angeles Times|page=WS6|accessdate=July 11, 2011|quote=... include UCLA political science professors John Petrocik and Karen Orren and history professor Robert Dallek.}}</ref> noted for her research on American political institutions and social movements, analyzed in historical perspective, and for helping to stimulate the study of American political development.
==Biography== Orren graduated with a B.A. from Stanford University, majoring in anthropology and political science. She then attended graduate school at the University of Chicago, completing her M.A. in political science in 1965 and her PhD degree in 1972. Her doctoral dissertation examined life insurance politics in Illinois. Orren is a professor of political science at UCLA, where she has taught since 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/people/karen-orren|title=UCLA Department of Political Science|website=www.polisci.ucla.edu|access-date=October 6, 2017}}</ref>
Orren's research considers political questions in broader historical settings and in the context of institutional change. In her first book, ''Corporate Power and Social Change'' (1974), she studied corporate investment in housing over a century to illuminate the range of possible authority relations between government and business and account for the prevailing form. In ''Belated Feudalism'' (1991), Orren overturned the Hartzian proposition that American history is characterized by the "absence of feudalism," through an investigation of the labor movement’s prolonged confrontation with ancient master-and-servant laws. In 1993, ''Belated Feudalism'' won the J. David Greenstone Prize for the best book in politics and history, awarded by the American Political Science Association (APSA).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.apsanet.org/section-24-J-David-Greenstone-Book-Prize|title=American Political Science Association > MEMBERSHIP > Organized Sections > Organized Section 24: J. David Greenstone Book Prize|website=www.apsanet.org|access-date=January 9, 2019}}{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 1998, Orren won the Franklin L. Burdette Award for the best paper presented at the previous year's APSA annual meeting.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.apsanet.org/burdetterecipients|title=American Political Science Association > PROGRAMS > APSA Awards > Franklin L. Burdette/Pi Sigma Alpha Award Recipients|website=www.apsanet.org|access-date=January 9, 2019}}</ref>
Orren has often collaborated with Stephen Skowronek, including founding the academic journal ''Studies in American Political Development'' in 1986, and co-authoring the books ''The Search for American Political Development'' (2004) and ''The Policy State: An American Predicament'' (2017).<ref>{{Cite book|title=The search for American political development|last=Karen.|first=Orren|date=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|others=Skowronek, Stephen.|isbn=978-0-521-54764-2|location=Cambridge, UK|oclc=53793479|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/searchforamerica0000orre}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Policy State: An American Predicament|last1=Orren|first1=Karen|last2=Skowronek|first2=Stephen|date=2018|isbn=978-0-674-98265-9|doi = 10.4159/9780674982659}}</ref> Through their work, Orren and Skowronek have significantly fostered the growth of American political development (or APD) as a distinct subfield within the discipline of political science. In recent years, Orren has increasingly focused on the study of the U.S. Constitution. In 2018, she co-edited ''The'' ''Cambridge Companion to the United States Constitution''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge companion to the United States Constitution|last1=Orren|first1=Karen|last2=Compton|first2=John W|date=2018|isbn=978-1-316-14848-8|language=English|oclc = 1032315490}}</ref>
Orren was president of the Politics and History Section of APSA for 1995–1996 and from 2007 to 2009 was a co-editor of the American Political Science Review.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Politics & History: An Organized Section of the American Political Science Association (Fall/Winter 1995-1996)|url=https://www.apsanet.org/Portals/54/newsletters/section24/clio_6_1.pdf |website=www.apsanet.org |access-date=January 9, 2019}}</ref> In 2006, she was selected to deliver the UCLA Faculty Research Lecture, an honor reserved for "the university's most distinguished scholars."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.specialevents.ucla.edu/productions/faculty_research_lecture.html|title=Faculty Research Lecture {{!}} UCLA Special Events & Protocol|website=www.specialevents.ucla.edu|access-date=January 9, 2019|archive-date=January 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190109111550/http://www.specialevents.ucla.edu/productions/faculty_research_lecture.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://senate.ucla.edu/funding-opportunities/awards/FRL/FRLrecipients|title=Faculty Research Lecturer Recipients {{!}} UCLA Academic Senate|website=senate.ucla.edu|access-date=January 9, 2019|date=June 28, 2017}}{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Selected publications== * {{cite book | last = Orren | first = Karen | title = Corporate Power and Social Change: The Politics of the Life Insurance Industry | year = 1974 | publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press | location = Baltimore | isbn = 978-0-8018-1507-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/corporatepowerso0000orre }} * {{cite journal | last = Orren | first = Karen | title = Standing to Sue: Interest Group Conflict in the Federal Courts | date = September 1976 | journal = American Political Science Review | volume = 70 | issue = 3 | pages = 723–741 | doi = 10.2307/1959864 | jstor = 1959864 | s2cid = 147605680 }} * {{cite book | last = Orren | first = Karen | title = Belated Feudalism: Labor, the Law, and Liberal Development in the United States | year = 1991 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | isbn = 978-0-521-41039-7 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/belatedfeudalism0000orre }} * {{cite encyclopedia | author1-last = Orren | author1-first = Karen | author2-last = Skowronek | author2-first = Stephen | editor1-last = Dodd | editor1-first = Lawrence C. | editor2-last = Jillson | editor2-first = Calvin | encyclopedia = The Dynamics of American Politics | title = Beyond the Iconography of Order: Notes for a 'New Institutionalism' | year = 1994 | publisher = Westview Press | series = Transforming American Politics | location = Boulder | isbn = 978-0-8133-1711-3 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/dynamicsofameric0000unse}} * {{cite journal | last = Orren | first = Karen | title = Labor Regulation and Constitutional Theory in the United States and England | date = February 1, 1994 | journal = Political Theory | volume = 22 | issue = 1 | pages = 98–123 | doi = 10.1177/0090591794022001006 | s2cid = 143477778 }} * {{cite journal | last = Orren | first = Karen | title = The Primacy of Labor in American Constitutional Development | date = June 1995 | journal = American Political Science Review | volume = 89 | issue = 2 | pages = 377–388 | doi = 10.2307/2082431 | jstor = 2082431 | s2cid = 146852655 }} * {{cite journal | last = Orren | first = Karen | title = Officers' Rights: Toward a Unified Field Theory of American Constitutional Development | date = February 2001 | journal = Law and Society Review | volume = 34 | issue = 4 | pages = 873–909 | doi = 10.2139/ssrn.256002 | doi-access = free }} * {{cite book | last1 = Orren | first1 = Karen | last2 = Skowronek | first2 = Stephen | title = The Search for American Political Development | year = 2004 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | isbn = 978-0-521-83894-8 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/searchforamerica0000orre }} * {{cite book | last1 = Orren | first1 = Karen | last2 = Skowronek | first2 = Stephen | title = The Policy State: An American Predicament | year = 2017 | publisher = Harvard University Press | location = Cambridge | isbn = 978-0-674-72874-5 }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Orren, Karen}} Category:American women political scientists Category:American political scientists Category:Stanford University alumni Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:Living people Category:1942 births Category:21st-century American women