Katherine Sredl '91

Katherine brings to the Alumnae Association Board of Governors her perspective as an academic, whose research is specifically concerned with the relationship between marketing and social norms of gendered behaviors. More broadly, Katherine’s research develops consumer behavior and advertising theories on market systems, with specific attention to the relationship between changes in consumer practices and changes in market structures. Applying sociological theories on the relationship between structure and agency, and historical perspectives on change, the content areas that Katherine empirically researches are advertising, ritual, gender, and globalization. Currently, she is a Visiting Scholar, Department of Marketing, Quinlan College of Business, Loyola University of Chicago. A resident of Chicago, and a native of Paducah, KY, Katherine holds a B.A. in History from Centre College, and an M.S. in Advertising and a Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Katherine was the subject of a profile in the Spring 2007 Westover Magazine while she was living in Croatia doing consumer behavior research in that post-Communist society for her doctoral dissertation. “To fund the collection of the data while I was living in Croatia,” Katherine said, “I accepted a Borden Fellowship from the Department of Defense and an IREX fellowship, which was funded partially through the Department of State.”

“Some of the most enriching things about my Governor experience so far have been my relationships and interactions with the other governors,” Katherine said. “Experiencing the strength of a group of expressive and analytical women seems to me to embody a quote I recently clipped from a Westover admissions piece that reads, ‘Ideas of what a woman should or should not be do not exist here.’ (I posted that clipping right over my desk). Being a Governor is an opportunity to grow. I encourage those alumnae who are interested in becoming more involved with Westover to please take the time to do so."

At Westover, Katherine has served as a Class Agent, a Reunion Chair, and as a Reunion Gift Chair. Her outside interests include tennis, swimming, gardening, travel, photography, and reading.

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Being a professor feels like a dream come true for me, both as a profession, and as a member of a professional culture. Through my research, I take my curiosity about the world around me and find answers. I am interested in more than learning how culture is. I want to uncover why it is the way it is. Specifically, I am interested in how consumer practices influence changes in advertising and marketing, and how changes in the industry influence changes in consumer practices. I am especially interested in the way two aspects of society change: gender norms. I see gender norms manifest in a variety of consumption and advertising contexts: the family, including family meal rituals, house purchasing, food meanings, and parenting, and life stages such as childhood and young adulthood.

I explore these questions by using television shows and chatrooms as data, as well as by interviewing consumers about their practices, and building theories about a phenomenon, such as back-to-school shopping, based on what consumers tell me. Although professors don’t have to research and present their work in multiple countries, I have explored these questions in the USA and across the globe with my co-authors in places such as Croatia and Bosnia. My co-authors are more than colleagues, they are very close friends. I have developed great relationships through my profession.

The barriers to entry into this profession are very high. Graduate school is very demanding, as is researching for and writing a dissertation. I am here to help you navigate that barrier successfully. Also, there might be many misconceptions about the profession, especially related to gender, that you would like to have explained. I am here to help you understand if this is the job you want. Society views professors as men, radical leftists, out of touch with reality, and often as people who couldn’t find another, better job. In fact, we research the world around us, especially marketing professors who address gender and consumer behavior. In case people thought it was easy, publishing our research is extremely demanding. We usually leave our politics outside of classroom discussions; our job is to ask students to question for themselves why things are the way they are and to consider alternatives. Yes, most academics are men, but that is slowly changing. Finally, I, and my peers, chose this job because we like to think, to ask, and to explore. We love to learn. Sharing that love of learning is what motivates us to teach. This is a great life for people who love to learn.

Nothing about my academic performance at Westover indicates that I would become a professor. Even so, I owe Westover my skills at writing and my willingness to be a woman who thinks and shares knowledge for a living, when the world tells women that we should be satisfied with being pretty.

My Credentials
• Visiting Scholar, Loyola University Chicago, Quinlan School of Business, Department of Marketing, Chicago, IL 2014-2015
• Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business, Department of Marketing, Notre Dame, IN 2009-2014
• Graduate Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003-2009.
o Ph.D. in Communications with a Minor in Balkan Studies, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009
• M.S. in Advertising, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002
• BA in History, Centre College, 1995

My Publications
• Please download them, for personal use, from my website - http://katherinesredl.com/publications/

Type of Advice / What we can cover in our session(s):
• How does one know if one would really like being a professor? What is it like to be a professor? What is the lifestyle? What is the professional culture of academia like? What is it like for women?
• Teaching/working with students and research are often separate activities for scholars. They can feel like two different jobs. What is each part of the job like? How does one manage them?
• How do you find ideas for your research?
• How does one get into this career: accepted into graduate school and completing it with a PhD in your chosen area and a job? How do I get funding for graduate school?
• How do I pick a doctorate program, a dissertation advisor, and a dissertation topic? What are all of the variables involved?
• What is the process of publishing your research like?
• There are many different University titles – Graduate Student, Fellow, Visiting, Adjunct, Assistant, Associate, Professor – what do they mean?

Katherine with students in 2010