Education

Ph.D., Education Leadership & Policy Studies, Indiana University (2006)

M.A.,  Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University

B.A.,   Political Science, Vassar College

Biography

Kara Brown teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in social foundations, comparative education and qualitative research methods. Her research focuses on language policy, minority schooling and teacher migration. Brown has well-established projects in Estonia with more recent lines in the U.S. Southeast. Her work appears in Anthropology of Education Quarterly, European Education, European Journal of Language Policy, as well as in edited volumes. Brown’s research has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, Fulbright, the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX), the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, and the University of South Carolina.

Research

Kara Brown researches educational equity and identity issues in education. She explores these themes through examinations of the socio-cultural context of language, the state’s role in structuring educational opportunity in Eastern Europe, and international teacher migration. Her regional expertise in Central Eurasia focused upon the Baltic States and particularly Estonia, where she conducts the bulk of her ethnographic fieldwork. Brown’s research serves scholarly and practical ends: first, to contribute to better theory in the anthropology of education and comparative education, and second, to support the advancement of more equitable education policies in both Europe and the United States.

Teaching

Kara Brown teaches EDFI 300: Schools in Communities, EDFI 361: Comparative & International Education, EDFI 749: Schools in Society, EDFI 741: Comparative & International Education, and EDFI 731: Qualitative Research in Education.

Awards

Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, Office of Research, University of South Carolina, 2023

Innovative Curriculum Development Award, Teaching Comparative Education SIG, Comparative & International Education Society, 2023

Early Career Teaching Award, University of South Carolina, College of Education, 2011

Gail P. Kelly Outstanding Dissertation Award, Comparative & International Education Society, 2007           

Alo Raun Prize for Excellence in Estonian and Finnish Studies, Central Eurasian Studies Department, Indiana University, 2006