Federico Brandmayr is a lecturer in political science and sociology at Yale University. His research investigates the shifting boundaries and meanings of science: how it is defined and contested across social settings, and how its authority and limits are shaped by changing political orders. He focuses in particular on how intellectual elites formulate and circulate theories of science, and how these ideas are interpreted, evaluated, and taken up by diverse publics. His interests also include how policymakers rely on expert advice in crisis management, how social science research is used in legal and political contexts, and how moral assumptions influence epistemic decisions in the social sciences. He is currently working on a book manuscript titled Exculpatory Knowledge? How and Why Social Science Becomes Apologetic, which explores what it means to say that research in the social sciences excuses, justifies, or normalizes unjust practices and institutions.
