2026-27 
Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics

Katherine Cramer
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Katherine (Kathy) J. Cramer is the Virginia Sapiro Professor of Political Science and Vilas Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her work focuses on the ways that people make sense of politics and their place in it. Cramer is known for her refreshing approach to the study of public opinion. In order to figure out why people think the way they do, she invites herself into the conversations of ordinary people, sitting down with them in the places they normally gather, such as small town diners, gas stations, and churches, and listening deeply to their organic conversations to learn how they piece the world together for themselves.

Her innovative approach has led the way in understanding some of the most central issues affecting democracy in the United States and around the world. Her book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker (University of Chicago Press, 2016), was one of the first to draw our attention to the rural/urban divide in contemporary politics and is widely considered one of the authoritative works on this topic. 

She is the author or co-author of six books including the 2026 book with Larry Bartels, The Politics of Social Change: From the Sixties to the Present Through the Eyes of a Generation. 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.

Audrey Lucero

Professor
CLLAS, College of Education, Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education, IRES, Latinx, Educational Foundations, Curriculum and Teacher Education

Project Title: Fostering Cultural Citizenship through Counternarrative Picturebooks in Teacher Education

Project Description: At this time of national divisiveness in the United States, it is more important than ever for youth to have teachers who can facilitate critical conversations about race, immigration, gender, and other important cultural and civic issues. One way teachers can do so is through high quality picturebooks, especially those that present stories by and about those from historically marginalized communities. >> More project information and biography