Cassandra Engeman, Ph.D.

Cassandra Engeman was a visiting researcher in the Inequality and Social Policy research unit at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center from 2014 to 2016. She received her PhD in 2016 from UC Santa Barbara, where she was also a Senior Research Fellow at the National Science Foundation Center for Nanotechnology in Society. Engeman has applied quantitative and qualitative methods to examine social movements and their policy outcomes relating to immigration, family leave, and new technology governance. Her dissertation shows that organized labor contributes to leave policy adoption in U.S. states by facilitating access to decision-making arenas and negotiating leave rights in the public sector, thereby reducing state costs of legislation. Her work on union involvement in immigrant rights movements was published in Work, Employment & Society and received honorable mention for the 2015 Harry Braverman Award. Findings from her NSF collaboration on the nanomaterials industry’s safety and health practices were presented in a 2012 report to the U.S. President. In an article under review, Engeman extends the “economic opportunity structure” framework to study state-oriented social movements. Her newest project will explore social movement effects on the timing of parental and family leave policy adoption across 22 countries using event history and comparative case studies.