Hello! My name is Tomás Gold, and I am a sociologist interested in political strategy-making from a cultural and historical perspective. My research examines how political actors respond to moments of change and uncertainty, paying particular attention to how they interpret evolving situations and adjust their courses of action. I am especially interested in how strategic action emerges through interaction over time, rather than from fixed preferences or stable organizational scripts.
I pursue this research through the study of right-wing and free-market politics in Latin America, where shifting political alignments and contested institutions make strategic adaptation especially visible. I also draw on comparative-historical methods to clarify how similar processes unfold across other regional contexts.
I am currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California. Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University, and I received my PhD from the University of Notre Dame.
My research has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Sociological Theory, Social Movement Studies, Information, Communication & Society, and Latin American Politics & Society, among other outlets, and has received awards from multiple sections of the American Sociological Association.