Laura Kettel

Laura Kettel is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the Graduate School of North American Studies of the Freie Universität Berlin. Her Ph.D. project examines municipal policy responses to homelessness in the United States, with an emphasis on the role of intergovernmental policymaking and external pressures on local policy choice. The thematic focus of this dissertation project was inspired by the research Laura completed for her Master’s thesis, which investigated the criminalization of homelessness and punitive governance in the urban environment. Prior to starting her Ph.D., Laura completed her Master of Arts in North American Studies with a disciplinary focus in political science and economics. As part of her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Laura spent time at the University of California, Santa Barbara and at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Laura is affiliated with the interdisciplinary Graduate School of North American Studies at Freie Universität and was awarded the Dissertation scholarship of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. Beyond the dissertation project, her research interests include social policy and social control, poverty and inequality, and welfare state development.