Kathleen Belew's research, writing, and teaching center on the place of violence in American life and culture. She is interested ideas of the end of the world and what they reveal about identity and belonging, conservatism, community, and the future. Belew’s first book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, uses previously classified FBI documents and vivid personal testimonies to explore how white power activists created a vast and influential social movement through a shared, post-Vietnam story about betrayal by the government. Belew excavates the deliberate disappearance of this movement that allowed it to resurface in the present moment. She has spoken about this project and its findings in a variety of media.

Belew has received fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (2019-20), Northwestern University, and Rutgers University. Her research has won generous support from benefactors such as the Chauncey and Marion Deering McCormick Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Jacob K. Javits Foundation. She holds M.A., M.Phil, and doctorate degrees in American Studies from Yale University.