UMass Boston

PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Szelényi’s research centers on a) higher education’s contributions to the public good in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education; b) faculty members’ work-life experiences; c) doctoral students’ school-work-life experiences; and d) the international and global dimensions of higher education. Within these thematic areas, a major focus of her work is on gender in intersection with other social identities, including race/ethnicity, family status, and national origin.

Dr. Szelényi’s co-authored book with Robert A. Rhoads, Global citizenship and the university: Advancing social life and relations in an interdependent world (Stanford University Press, 2011), received awards from the American Educational Research Association (Division J: Postsecondary Education, Exemplary Publication Award, 2012) and the ASHE Council for International Higher Education (2013). Her work has appeared in such journals as The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, Minerva, Higher Education, the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, Comparative Education Review, Community College Review, and Education & Society. Dr. Szelényi serves on the Editorial Board of Research in Higher Education, served as Chair of the ASHE Council for International Higher Education (2014-2015), and chaired the AERA Division J (Postsecondary Education) Outstanding Dissertation Award (2017-2019).

Dr. Szelényi has taught courses on the history of higher education in the United States, gender in higher education, contemporary research on students, qualitative research methods, research design, educational leadership skills, and the globalization of higher education.

Prior to joining UMass Boston, Dr. Szelényi was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Maryland, College Park, where her work focused on the National Study of Living Learning Programs (NSLLP), a large-scale, mixed-methods research study funded by the National Science Foundation. Her dissertation was cited for excellence by the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s Bobby Wright Dissertation of the Year Award. She received her B.A. in English Language and Literature from Eötvös Loránd Univesity in Budapest, Hungary; and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Higher Education and Organizational Change from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Selected Publications

Szelényi, K., & Denson, N. (forthcoming). Personal and institutional predictors of work-life balance among women and men faculty from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. The Review of Higher Education.

Poloma, A., & Szelényi, K. (2018). Coloniality of knowledge, hybridisation, and indigenous survival: Exploring transnational higher education development in Africa from the 1920s to the 1960s. Compare: The Journal of Comparative and International Education.

Denson, N., Szelényi, K., & Bresonis, K. (2018). Correlates of work-life balance for faculty across racial/ethnic groups. Research in Higher Education, 59(2), 226-247.

Szelényi, K., Bresonis, K., & Mars, M. M. (2016). Who am I versus who can I become: Exploring women’s science identities in STEM Ph.D. programs. The Review of Higher Education, 40(1), 1-31.

Mars, M., Bresonis, K., & Szelényi, K. (2014). STEM doctoral student socialization, logics, and the national economic agenda: Alignment or disconnect between science and entrepreneurship. Minerva, 52(3), 351-379.

Szelényi, K., & Bresonis, K. (2014). The public good and academic capitalism: Science and engineering doctoral students and faculty on the boundary of shifting knowledge regimes. The Journal of Higher Education, 85(1), 126-153.

Szelényi, K., Denson, N., & Inkelas, K. K. (2013). Women in STEM majors and professional outcome expectations: The role of living learning programs and other college environments. Research in Higher Education, 54(8), 851-873.

Szelényi, K, & Rhoads, R. A. (2013). Academic culture and citizenship in transitional societies: Case studies from China and Hungary. Higher Education, 66(4), 425-438.

Szelényi, K. (2013). The meaning of money in the socialization of science and engineering doctoral students: Nurturing the next generation of academic capitalists? The Journal of Higher Education, 84(2), 266-294.

Szelényi, K., & Goldberg, R. A. (2011). Commercial funding in academe: Examining the correlates of faculty’s use of industrial and business funding for academic work. The Journal of Higher Education, 82(6), 775-802.

 Szelényi, K., & Inkelas, K. K. (2011). The role of living-learning programs in women’s plans to attend graduate school in STEM fields. Research in Higher Education, 52(4), 349-369.

McClure, K., Szelényi, K., Anderson, A.,* Niehaus, N,* & Reed, J.* (2010). We just don’t have the possibility yet: U.S. Latina and Latino narratives on study abroad. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 47(3), 367-386.

Lindholm, J. A., & Szelényi, K. (2008). Faculty time stress: Correlates within and across academic disciplines. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 17(1-2), 19-40.

Szelényi, K., & Rhoads, R. A. (2007). Citizenship in a global context: The perspectives of international graduate students in the United States. Comparative Education Review, 51(1), 25-47.