Karen has a B.A. in History and Philosophy from Ithaca College, an M.A. in History from the University of Connecticut, and an M.A. in Irish Studies from Queen’s University Belfast. She completed her Ph.D. in European History from Purdue University. Her first book, Charity Movements in Eighteenth-Century Ireland: Philanthropy and Improvement (Boydell & Brewer, 2016) examined how Anglo-Irish Protestants used organized philanthropy to try and stabilize Ireland. She is currently working on a primary source reader on the Great Irish Famine for the Broadview Sources Series.