Adolf Gundersen

Adolf Gundersen’s work as a Fellow of the Interactivity Foundation has added a new, practical dimension to a career devoted to understanding and promoting public deliberation as a teacher, theorist, policy analyst, and social scientist.

As a political scientist, Gundersen has conducted field research on the efficacy and nature of public deliberation.  As a political theorist, he has devoted considerable attention to developing a model of deliberation and then teasing out its implications for democratic institutions.  As a policy analyst, he worked with the World Bank to develop a more participatory and environmentally-friendly approach to population relocation.  A deliberative style also characterized his dozen years in the classroom, spent in about equal measure at Texas A & M University, from which he resigned as Associate Professor 1997, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Gundersen’s policy interests range widely, but have focused primarily on the environment and, more recently, mental health—depression in particular.  In addition to a number of shorter pieces, Gundersen has authored two books and co-edited another with Peter Shively’s wife Ruth.  His most recent book is The Socratic Citizen (Lexington Books, 2000).

Gundersen’s other interests include Spanish modernist poetry, glacial geomorphology, Indian mounds, completing his world culinary map, and mycological foraging—all of which his wife Marguerite, sons Finn and Tryg, and Golden Doodle Neenah make sure he pursues in moderation.