Ryan Black
- Professor
- American Politics
- Department of Political Science
- MSU College of Law
- 307 S. Kedzie Hall
- 368 Farm Lane
- East Lansing MI 48823
- rcblack@msu.edu
CURRICULUM VITAE
BIOGRAPHY
Ryan C. Black is Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University and a faculty affiliate with the MSU College of Law. His research focuses on U.S. Supreme Court decision making. He has published five books and more than 60 articles or chapters in a variety of scholarly outlets. His research has won best article and best book awards from the American Political Science Association, received funding from the National Science Foundation, and attracted coverage by national media outlets.Black is the the 2025 winner of the Law and Courts Mentoring Award from the American Political Science Association. Previous teaching and mentoring honors include a Lilly Teaching Fellowship in 2012-2013, MSU's campus-wide Teacher-Scholar Award in 2014, the College of Social Science Alumni Association Outstanding Teaching Award in 2016, the Honors College Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honors Students in 2017, the MSU Alumni Club of Mid-Michigan Quality in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2018, the President's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2019, and the Graduate School Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award also in 2019. His teaching interests focus on judicial politics (judges, what's their deal?) and integrative social science (data are everywhere!). He hopes to soon teach a class that revolves around the television show the West Wing (students, ask your parents).
He joined MSU in 2009 after receiving his Ph.D. in political science from Washington University in St. Louis earlier that same year. He earned his bachelor's degree, also in political science, in 2004 from the University of Minnesota. Outside of work, he enjoys playing reading, scuba diving, traveling, and building LEGO. His favorite color is blue, the C stands for Christopher (not cookie), he shares a birthday with Elvis Presley, and he generally only refers to himself in the third person when writing mini-biographies like this.