Gordon Gauchat

Gordon Gauchat is a visiting fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. His research examines the institutional foundations of scientific legitimacy and the relationship between science and democratic life. He studies how citizens understand scientific institutions, how science gains or loses public legitimacy, and how political and cultural conditions shape public responses to expertise. His work has appeared in Nature, the American Sociological Review, the Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Public Understanding of Science.

While at the Ash Center, Gauchat will develop an institutional approach to public understanding of science. The project moves beyond conventional measures of scientific knowledge and trust to examine how citizens understand the norms and practices through which scientific claims are evaluated, criticized, and revised. His research asks how this institutional understanding shapes public judgment, political engagement, and support for democratic governance. He is also developing a book on the legitimacy of science in contemporary democracy.