Tomás Gold and Benjamin Bradlow co-authored a paper titled “A Processual Framework for Understanding the Rise of the Populist Right: The Case of Brazil (2013–2018)” that was published in the sociology journal Social Forces.
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Tomás Gold
Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public Affairs
Areas of Expertise
Democracy & Elections, International Institutions, Political Economy, Social Movements
Areas of Interest
Political Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Development, Social Movements, Political Economy, Social Theory, Comparative-Historical & Qualitative Methods
Biography
Tomás Gold is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs. He previously received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame, where he was also a Research Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. His work applies a cultural and historical lens to the study of political strategy-making, with a focus on right-wing and free-market advocacy. His current book project focuses on the international expansion and uneven success of free-market think tanks in Latin America. This project has been generously funded by the Fulbright Program and the Social Science Research Council.
Research
Tomás' research agenda lies at the intersection of political, cultural, and global sociology. He uses a variety of methods (including interviews, social network analysis, participant observation, and archival work) to explain how political elites and civil society organizations shape cultural and institutional change, and why they sometimes fail to do so. His agenda is currently organized in four substantive areas: the expansion of conservative transnational advocacy networks; the dynamics of cooperation and conflict between elites and social movements; the cultural repertoires of political organizations; and the organizational and professional foundations of contemporary far-right populism.
Publications
Bradlow, Benjamin, and Tomás Gold. 2025. "A processual framework for understanding the rise of the populist right: the case of Brazil (2013–2018)" Social Forces.
Gold, Tomás, and Ann Mische. 2024. “Channeling Anti-partisan Contention: Field Structures and Partisan Strategies in a Global Protest Wave (2008-2016).” American Journal of Sociology, 129(6): 1660-1719.
Pereyra, Sebastián, Tomás Gold, and María Soledad Gattoni. 2023. “Social Mobilization and Anti-Corruption in Latin America,” in Oxford Handbook of Latin American Social Movements, Federico M. Rossi (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gold, Tomás. 2022. “Contentious Tactics as Jazz Performances: A Pragmatist Approach to the Study of Repertoire Change.” Sociological Theory, 40(3): 249-271.
Peña, Alejandro M., and Tomás Gold. 2022. “The Party-on-the-Net. The Digital Face of Partisan Organization and Activism.” Information, Communication and Society, 26(16): 3257–3274.
Gold, Tomás, and Alejandro M. Peña. 2021. “The Rise of the Contentious Right: Digitally Intermediated Linkage Strategies in Argentina and Brazil”, Latin American Politics & Society, 63(3): 93-118.
Gold, Tomás, and Alejandro M. Peña. 2018. “Protests, Signaling, and Elections: Opposition-Movement Interactions in Argentina’s Anti-Government Protests (2012-2013)”, Social Movement Studies, 18(3): 324-345.