Melinda Gann Hall

Melinda Gann Hall is Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University. She also is a member of the select group of faculty at MSU who have received the Distinguished Faculty Award. Professor Hall received her Ph.D. from the University of New Orleans in 1983 and joined the MSU faculty in 1996.

Professor Hall is a nationally recognized authority on judicial politics and state politics, with particular interests in judicial behavior in comparative contexts and in judicial campaigns and elections. Her research has appeared in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, State Politics & Policy Quarterly and a wide variety of other scholarly journals, law reviews, and edited volumes. In collaboration with Chris Bonneau at the University of Pittsburgh, she has just published In Defense of Judicial Elections, which uses empirical evidence to challenge the conventional wisdom about electing judges. Professor Hall now is working on a book assessing trends in state supreme court elections since the 1980s, and has just begun several collaborative projects on negative advertising in judicial campaigns.

Professor Hall has been a leading contributor to infrastructure development in the study of courts. In collaboration with Paul Brace at Rice University, Professor Hall created the State Supreme Court Data Project, a publicly accessible multi-user database sponsored primarily by the National Science Foundation. The Data Project contains vital information about the cases decided by the highest courts of all fifty states. The website housing these data (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pbrace/statecourt/) has received over 13,500 “hits” from scholars and practitioners who are using the data to study the politics of state supreme courts and to make important public policy choices.

Professor Hall has received numerous awards for research, teaching, and service. Among these are the American Judicature Society Award (best paper award) and the McGraw-Hill Award (best article award) from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association, and the State Politics & Policy Award (best paper award) from the State Politics and Policy Section. She also received the campus-wide Top Five Professors Award from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and was rated as one of the “top professors” at Colorado State University by the Associated Students of Colorado State University. At MSU, Professor Hall has received several citations for meritorious teaching and was elected to chair the University Committee on Faculty Tenure. She is serving, or has served, on numerous editorial boards, including the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, and State Politics & Policy Quarterly, and on a wide variety of committees and executive councils of professional associations. Professor Hall has just completed terms as Vice President of the Midwest Political Science Association and President of the State Politics and Policy Section.

Professor Hall offers graduate courses in judicial politics and state politics. She teaches undergraduate courses in constitutional law, comparative legal systems, and moot court.