Facilitators

Professor and Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science and Virginia Sapiro Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Katherine Cramer is the Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science and the Virginia Sapiro Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her current work focuses on the implications of experience in the economy on political behavior. She is known for her innovative approach to the study of public opinion, in which she uses methods such as inviting herself into the conversations of groups of people to listen to the way they understand their connections to politics and government, and to each other. She is the author or co-author of six books including a forthcoming book with Larry Bartels, The Politics of Social Change: From the Sixties to the Present Through the Eyes of a Generation (February 2026, University of Chicago Press). 

She is also known as a scholar who actively puts her knowledge into action. She recently co-chaired the American Academy of Arts and Science Commission on Reimagining Our Economy (CORE), and has worked with the Center for Constructive Communication at MIT, and the affiliated nonprofit Cortico, since 2017 to create a platform and approach that aims to improve public understanding and policy making. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. She recently served as a co-chair of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University

I'm Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Ludwig Program in Public Sector Leadership, and director of the American Political Economy eXchange (APEX) at Yale. I'm also a founding director of the Consortium on American Political Economy (CAPE), and I co-chaired the APE section of the American Political Science Association for its first three years. I have authored or coauthored more than a half-dozen books, numerous journal articles, and a wide range of popular writings. My latest book, written with Paul Pierson, is Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality (2020). Other books include The Great Risk Shift (rev. ed. 2019) and, with Pierson, American Amnesia (2016), and Winner-Take-All Politics (2010). My 2002 book The Divided Welfare State was awarded the Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award of the American Political Science Association. In 2020, I received the Robert Ball Award of the National Academy of Social Science. I'm a a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and fellow of American Academy of Political and Social Science.

My research interests span public policy, political economy, and American politics. I began my career writing about health policy, and developed the so-called public option prior to the 2009-10 debate over the ACA. I continue to contribute to health and social policy discussions, but my primary interests now center on the contemporary evolution of the American political economy. I have written widely about the politics of economic insecurity and inequality, with much of this work done with my frequent coauthor Paul Pierson. Over the past decade, Paul and I have focused on the transformation of the contemporary Republican and Democratic parties and its implications for the health of American democracy. Currently, I am working with Philipp Rehm on a project on inequality and redistribution in advanced democracies, with Paul and a team of graduate students and predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows on the transformation of (a) the political-economic geography of the United State, (b) the interest groups coalitions shaping the Democratic Party, and (c) the perceptions of metro dwellers about their shared economic interests, cultural values, and political orientations in the knowledge economy. Paul and I are currently writing a book about the past, present, and contested future of the Democratic Party.

Postdoctoral Fellow 

Itay Machtei is a political scientist and the CAPE postdoctoral fellow based at Yale University’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS). He earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2025) and holds an M.A. in Politics from New York University.

His research explores the political economy of advanced, postindustrial democracies in North America and Europe, with a particular focus on how the interplay between states and markets shapes distributive and political outcomes. Machtei’s published work investigates the determinants of redistribution, and his current projects examine the politics of privatization and the distributive consequences of far-right parties.

John Powers Chair in International Business Diplomacy, School of Foreign Service and Government Department, Georgetown University and Director, BMW Center for German and European Studies

Abraham L. Newman is the John Powers Chair in International Business Diplomacy in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University and Director of the BMW Center for German and European Studies. His research focuses on the politics generated by globalization and is the co-author most recently of Underground Empire: How American Weaponized the World Economy (Holt 2023), which received the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Bronze Medal and was named one of Foreign Affairs’ best Books of the Year, and co-author of Of Privacy and Power: The Transatlantic Struggle over Freedom and Security (Princeton University Press 2019), which was the winner of the 2019 Chicago-Kent College of Law / Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize and the 2020 International Studies Association ICOMM Best Book Award. He is the winner of the 2022-2023 Berlin Prize and has published over forty peer-reviewed articles in journals including Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, International Security, Nature, Science, and World Politics. He is a regular commentator on international affairs with pieces appearing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Foreign Affairs. 

Tony and Teddie Brown Associate Professor of Public Policy, Sta

Mallory is the Tony and Teddie Brown Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Her work explores how public policies and political institutions influence the way that people think about politics and exercise their political power in the United States—especially for those navigating financial hardship.

She is the author of two books exploring American political economy, including Uncivil Democracy: How Access to Justice Shapes Political Power (with Jamila Michener) and Democracy Declined: The Failed Politics of Consumer Financial Protection. She is currently working to understand the politics of U.S. consumer debt relief policy, the emerging political economy of “fringetech”, and the political consequences of adopting AI tools to help address access to civil legal help. 

Mallory holds a PhD in Government from Cornell, an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a BA with honors from Smith College. She has also worked in both electoral politics and policy advocacy.

Associate Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University

I am an associate professor of political science and Institute for Policy Research faculty fellow at Northwestern University. I received my PhD in political science from UC Berkeley and BA in economics and political science from Johns Hopkins.

My research is at the intersection of American political development and political economy and has focused on the development of social and economic policies, racial and gender inequalities in the marketplace, interest groups and social movements, institutional change, and historical analysis. I am author of At the Boundaries of Home Ownership: Credit, Discrimination, and the American State (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and co-author (with Emily Zackin) of The Political Development of American Debt Relief (University of Chicago Press, 2024).