BY KEN KRALL, WXPR News

With hotly contested political races coming to a close, the next speaker at Science on Tap in Minocqua Wednesday takes a look at what grassroots Wisconsin is thinking.

Courtesy UW Madison

Dr. Kathy Cramer is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters and Science.

Dr. Cramer’s work focuses on the way people in the United States make sense of politics and their place in it. Her award-winning book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker, brought to light rural resentment toward cities and its implications for contemporary politics.

Cramer says at her presentation she will be talking about the implications of what she learned while writing the book.

“What the book is about is the resentment we hear from a lot of our rural communities toward the cities in the state in the sense that the folks in the smaller towns don’t get their fair share of attention, resources or respect from people making big decision that affect their lives.”

Cramer says she set out to study something different, but what she was hearing steered her toward the topic she ended up doing.

“And what I was doing was inviting myself into groups of regulars of people who hang out in gas stations and diners and places of worship on a regular basis to visit with one another. I sampled 27 communities across the state.”

Cramer is speaking Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Minocqua Brewing Company in Minocqua.