Karen Tracy studies interactional dilemmas in institutional settings--sites that institutional actors experience as "difficult" because of multiple, conflicting beliefs about what is good communicative conduct. Through a close study of talk and institutional documents (e.g., mission statements, training materials) along with participant interviews, her research seeks to characterize the troubles people face and the discursive strategies they use to manage their multiple interaction problems. Her studies also seek to describe parties' situated ideals--the ideals they use to criticize and praise self and others' communicative choices--and make visible any differences with the parties' espoused ideals. Tracy's research has focused on dilemmas in educational institutions and in the justice system. Past work focused on academic colloquia, and exchanges between citizens, and 911/police call-takers. A current project investigates the deliberative difficulties in school board meetings. She is the author of Colloquium: Dilemmas of academic discourse and regularly publishes in journals in communication and in the multi-disciplinary area of discourse and language studies.