Katherine Sredl
Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing
Katherine C. Sredl conducts research in transformative consumer research and consumer culture theory, with a focus on gender and consumer culture. Her work examines how everyday practices, such as family meals and rituals, reveal the relationships between power, identity, memory, and markets. Using ethnography and qualitative research methods, Sredl explores how consumers navigate branded and mediated environments and how these experiences shape broader social and cultural structures.
As an educator, Sredl is committed to preparing students for successful careers in marketing. She considers one of her greatest accomplishments to be helping students develop the knowledge, skills, and emotional intelligence needed to become lifelong learners and make a meaningful impact in their fields.
As the inaugural recipient of the Follett Fellowship through Loyola University Chicago's Quinlan School of Business Family Business Center, Sredl has developed case studies that combine her personal experience growing up in a family business with her academic and consulting background in multimedia storytelling.
Sredl's Croatian-American heritage also informs her professional and philanthropic work. Her research examines Croatia and the Western Balkans as contexts for understanding the relationship between social structures and individual agency, particularly how gendered identities are shaped through consumption, advertising, and broader systems of governance.
Education
- PhD, Communications, College of Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate Minor in Balkan Studies
- MS, Advertising, College of Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate Minor in Balkan Studies
- BA, History, Centre College of Kentucky
Research Interests
- Marketing
- Consumer Behavior
- Advertising
- Gender
- Globalization
- Ethnography
- Digital Ethnography
Professional Employment
Academic Positions
- Department of Marketing, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago, 2014-present
Senior Lecturer, Lecturer, Adjunct Instructor, Visiting Scholar - Follett Fellow, Family Business Center, Loyola University Chicago, 2023-24
- International Advisory Board Member, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, 2022-present
- Visiting Scholar, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, 2017-24
- University of Notre Dame, 2009-14
Assistant Professor, Mendoza College of Business, Department of Marketing; Faculty Fellow, Nanovic Institute for European Studies; Faculty Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies - Public and Congressional Affairs, Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the USA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Republic of Croatia, 1997-2000
Other Positions
- Senior Advisor Board Member, Vlahovic Group LLC (Zagreb, Croatia, Government Relations)
- Founder, 385 LLC (marketing strategy and Implementation, including digital and social analytics and content. Clients in US and Croatia)
Professional/Community Affiliations
- New Frontier Foundation (Zaklada "Nova granica"), Zagreb, Croatia, Head of Research, Present
- American Academy of Advertising, 2003-present
- American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 2003-09
- American Marketing Association, 2009-present
- Association for Consumer Research, 2003-present
- Association for Croatian Studies, an affiliate organization of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), 2017-present
- Consumer Culture Theory Consortium, 2014-present
- European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) Community, 2020-present
- Macromarketing Society, 2003-present
Service to Community
- Association of Croatian American Professionals, Member, Board of Directors (2021-22; 2024-26), Marketing Committee Chair (2024-26); Chicago Chapter, President (2020-23), Vice President (2023-24)
- Board of Governors, Westover School, Middlebury, CT, 2012-15
- Hrvatska Žena Branch 1, Chicago (Croatian Women’s Charity Organization)
- Croatian Women’s Network, 2017-present
Courses Taught
MBA
- Digital Marketing
- Consumer Behavior
- Advertising Management
Undergraduate
- Consumer Behavior
- Fundamentals of Marketing
- International Marketing
- Introduction to Marketing
- Gender and Marketing
Publications/Research Listings
Sredl, K.C. (2018). “Gendered Market Subjectivity: Autonomy, Privilege, and Emotional Subjectivity in Normalizing Post-socialist Neoliberal Ideology,” Consumption Markets & Culture, 21:6, 532-553, https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2017.1374950
Sredl, K.C., Shultz, C.J. II, & Brečić, R. (2017). “The Arizona Market: a Marketing Systems Perspective on Pre- and Post-War Developments in Bosnia, with Implications for Sustainable Peace and Prosperity,” Journal of Macromarketing, September, 37, (3), 300-316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146717712359
Zayer, L.T., Sredl, K., Parmentier, M.A., & Coleman, C. (2012). “Consumption and Gender Identity in Popular Media: Discourses of Domesticity, Authenticity, and Sexuality,” Consumption Markets & Culture, 15:4, 333-357.
- Honorable Mention, CMC article of the year, Lead Article, Equal authorship
Awards
- 2025 ACAP Professional Excellence Award from the Association of Croatian American Professionals (ACAP) in recognition of contributions to scholarship, mentorship, and the Croatian-American community.
- 2020 Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award, Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business
- Croatian Women of Influence Award Recipient, USA in the area of Science and Technology, Croatian Women’s Network/Mreža Hrvatskih Žena, 2024