Karen Gould

Karen Gould is a master’s student in social science at the University of Chicago and will join the University of Chicago’s Leadership and Society Initiative Fellowship in 2026. She intends to pursue a PhD focused on antisemitism research with a political science lens. 

Karen has been a long-time senior executive and serves as a national commissioner with the Anti-Defamation League. She publishes public scholarship on institutional governance and antisemitism in higher education through her LinkedIn newsletter, Derek Eretz. 

Her research interests converge around three causal pathways: how dominant ideological frameworks (such as intersectionality and postcolonialism) may impact antisemitism, in particular anti-Zionist antisemitism; how foreign funding, particularly from authoritarian states like Qatar, may influence institutional narratives and priorities; and how universities publicly frame antisemitic violence, such as the Hamas massacre of October 7, and what consequences this framing may have on antisemitic incidents or sentiment. Her thesis will draw on a mixed-methods approach of comparative case analysis, structured content analysis, and causal inference methods.