Federico Brandmayr
I'm a sociologist interested in knowledge, science, and expertise.
Currently, I'm a Research Fellow at LUISS, where I study antiscience movements and ideas. I analyze how people define and talk about science in a variety of social contexts, and how ideas about what science is and isn’t, what it can and can’t do, and what it should and shouldn’t do, change across countries and over time. In particular, I focus on the role of intellectuals in shaping and disseminating theories of science, and in the processes through which their ideas are assessed and appropriated by different audiences. I'm also interested in several related topics, including how policymakers rely on expert advice in crisis management, what happens when social science research is used in legal and political contexts, and how moral assumptions influence epistemic decisions in the social sciences. I'm currently working on a book manuscript, titled Exculpatory Knowledge: How and Why Social Science Becomes Apologetic, on what it means to say that research in the social sciences excuses, justifies, or normalizes unjust practices and institutions.
I graduated in political science from the University of Trieste and completed master and doctoral degrees in sociology and philosophy of social science at Sorbonne University. I previously worked as an ATER (research and teaching fellow) at Sorbonne University, as a research associate at CRASSH, University of Cambridge, and as a postdoctoral associate at the MacMillan Center at Yale University.
Publications
‘A Stranger in His Own Field? Bellah’s Radical Critique of Science.’ The American Sociologist, 2023.
‘The Political Flexibility of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.’ Sociologica 16, no. 3 (2022): 85-104.
‘The Legal Significance of Theories of Public Trust in Science: An Illustration from Italy.’ in Trust Matters: Cross-Disciplinary Essays, edited by Raquel Barradas de Freitas and Sergio Lo Iacono, Hart Publishing, 2021, pp. 209-228.
‘Are Theories Politically Flexible?’ Sociological Theory 39.2 (2021): pp. 103-125.
‘Social science as apologia.’ European Journal of Social Theory 24.3 (2021): pp. 319–337.
‘Explanations and excuses in French sociology.’ European Journal of Social Theory 24.3 (2021): pp. 374–393.
‘Public Epistemologies and Intellectual Interventions in Contemporary Italy.’ International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 34 (2021): pp. 47–68.
‘When Boundary Organisations Fail: Identifying Scientists and Civil Servants in L’Aquila Earthquake Trial.’ Science as Culture 30.2 (2021): pp. 237-260.
‘Order and Conflict Theories of Science as Competing Ideologies.’ Social Epistemology 32.3 (2018): pp. 175-195.
‘How Social Scientists Make Causal Claims in Court: Evidence from the L’Aquila Trial.’ Science, Technology & Human Values 42.3 (2017): pp. 346-380.
Reviews and review essays
The Crisis of Expertise, by Gil Eyal, European Journal of Social Theory 24.2 (2021): pp. 306–310.
The Dark Side of Podemos? by Josh Booth and Patrick Baert, The Sociological Review (24 June 2019).
Socialisme et sociologie, by Bruno Karsenti et Cyril Lemieux, Revue française de science politique 68.1 (2018): pp.148-150.
Pour la sociologie. Et pour en finir avec une prétendue ’culture de l’excuse’, by Bernard Lahire. Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia 57.4 (2016): pp. 824-828.
Masters of Uncertainty. Weather Forecasters and the Quest for Ground Truth, by Phaedra Daipha. Revue française de sociologie 57.3 (2016): pp. 597-600.
Globalizing Knowledge: Intellectuals, Universities, and Publics in Transformation, by Michael D. Kennedy. European Journal of Sociology 56.3 (2015): pp. 498-508.
Public writings
‘Social Scientists: A New Priestly Caste?’, The Philosopher, Spring 2021, pp. 43-47.
‘Are the Experts Responsible for Bad Disaster Response? A Few Lessons for the Coronavirus Outbreak from L’Aquila.’ Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 9.5: 1-8, May 2020.
Contact
federico.brandmayr [AT] yale.edu
federicobrandmayr [AT] gmail.com