Katherine Browne

Katherine E. Browne is a professor emeritus of anthropology at Colorado State University. Her research concerns how resilience to human adversity may be conditioned by social histories, cultural identities, and needs for agency, as well as institutional commitments to equitable recovery. Browne’s public-facing books, ethnographic films, and articles suggest that a paradigm nudge is sorely needed to integrate vital local knowledge into all phases of disaster mitigation, preparation, and recovery. Such insights emerged from in-depth ethnographic research and analysis, as detailed in Browne’s post-Katrina book, Standing in the Need: Culture, Comfort, and Coming Home After Katrina, and the one-hour film, Still Waiting: Life After Katrina broadcast on PBS stations. In 2016, these insights also led her to co-found and co-direct the Culture and Disaster Action Network (CADAN), an academic/practitioner collaboration for improving disaster policy and practice. She has received 12 National Science Foundation grants as a principal investigator. She gives guest lectures for NSF, private and public universities, nonprofits, non-government agencies, and federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. With collaborative support from CADAN colleagues, she led or co-led two FEMA-funded Research Reports, including Building Cultures of Preparedness (2019) and Vaccine Hesitancy and Approach to Action (2021). In 2019, she organized and led the first U.S.-based Risk and Disaster Field School on the Texas Gulf Coast for Colorado State University, a four-week immersion program. In 2018, the American Anthropological Association named Browne the recipient of its highest honor, the Franz Boas Award. She was also named University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University. Browne holds a PhD.