[11] During that time, she brought a sexual harassment complaint against Harvard Professor Jorge I. Domínguez, the senior Latin American scholar in the department.
[5] This was a decade before similar allegations gained national prominence during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
[15][10] She won the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching (1989), the Allan V. Cox Medal for Faculty Excellence Fostering Undergraduate Research (1994), the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Graduate and Undergraduate Teaching (1997; the university's highest academic prize), and was given the Rio Branco Prize by Brazil President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in recognition of her service in fostering academic relations between the United States and Latin America.
Her work in this area was recognized by winning the Latin American Studies Association Guillermo O’Donnell prize.
A pioneer in using political science methodologies as investigative techniques and the Nuremberg doctrine of command responsibility in trials charging crimes against humanity and major human rights violations., Karl has served as expert witness in the U.S., Europe and Latin America, S testifying for the Department of Justice and the War Crimes Unit of Homeland Security, the High Court of Spain, and various national courts in Latin America.