  We show that Poincare-invariant topological gravity in even dimensions can be
formulated as a transgression field theory in one higher dimension whose gauge
connections are associated to linear and nonlinear realizations of the Poincare
group ISO(d-1,1). The resulting theory is a gauged WZW model whereby the
transition functions relating gauge fields live in the coset
ISO(d-1,1)/SO(d-1,1). The coordinate parametrizing the coset space is
identified with the scalar field in the adjoint representation of the gauge
group of the even-dimensional topological gravity theory. The supersymmetric
extension leads to topological supergravity in two dimensions starting from a
transgression field theory which is invariant under the supersymmetric
extension of the Poincare group in three dimensions. We also apply this
construction to a three-dimensional Chern-Simons theory of gravity which is
invariant under the Maxwell algebra and obtain the corresponding WZW model.
