Received her bachelor of arts from the George Washington University, with a focus on American literature and creative writing, and then, she attended New York University’s John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Humanities and Social Thought and concentrated on literary studies. At Rice, her current research interests are 19th Century American literature and studies of collective reasoning and identity with an emphasis on issues of race relations, economics, currency, finance law, and regionalism. She was granted the Caroline S. and David L. Minter Summer Research Grant to visit the archives of William Faulkner (UVA) and W.E.B. DuBois (UMass Amherst) over the summer of 2010. Also, in fall 2010, she was invited to the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association to share her paper, "Religion as Currency in Blake or The Huts of America and Uncle Tom’s Cabin."

Karen Rosenthal's two 2011 scholar-in-residence lectures revealed her research on the 1912 Camp Logan Riot in Houston.

Houston's Rhetoric of Economic Progress and the 1917 Camp Logon Riot

Exploring the 1917 Camp Logan Riots Connection to Houston