• Curator, Iowa Women's Archives, University of Iowa Libraries

Dr. Kären Mason, founding curator of the Iowa Women’s Archives in the University of Iowa Libraries, came to the University in 1992 to establish this repository of Iowa women’s history. Over the next 28 years she oversaw its growth into a nationally recognized repository especially attentive to preserving the voices of those left out of the archival and historical record, including African American, rural, Latina, and Jewish women. Mason earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in history from the University of Michigan. Her involvement with women’s history dates to the late 1970s, when she worked on the groundbreaking Women’s History Sources Survey at the University of Minnesota and co-authored a Women's History Tour of the Twin Cities. Mason was honored with the Midwest Archives Conference’s Distinguished Service Award in 2020. She retired in December 2020.