Professional Bio

John Gastil studies political deliberation and group decision making across a range of contexts. His newest books are Hope for democracy: How citizens can bring reason back into politics (Oxford, 2020) with Katie Knobloch and Legislature by lot: Transformative designs for deliberative governance (Verso, 2019) with Erik Olin Wright. Gastil also has written several other scholarly books and two novels. Dr. Gastil's current project is leading the Democracy Machine collaborative, a team of researchers and civic reformers aiming to improve platforms for deliberation online.  His work on the Citizens’ Initiative Review has found that an electoral reform can improve the deliberative quality of elections on referenda and ballot initiatives. His Jury and Democracy Project investigated, and helped vindicate, the jury system as a valuable civic educational institution. His work with the Cultural Cognition Project demonstrates how our deeper values steer our information processing and opinion formation. He teaches a range of courses, most recently including Democratic Deliberation (CAS/PLSC 409 and CAS 509) and Quantitative Methods (CAS 304).