Ryan Black
- Professor
- American Politics
- Department of Political Science
- MSU College of Law
- 307 S. Kedzie Hall
- 368 Farm Lane
- East Lansing MI 48823
- 517-432-9967
- 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 work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and covered by national media outlets. His current research obsession is Supreme Court conference, the super secret meetings held by justices where they discuss and vote on court cases.Black was a MSU Lilly Teaching Fellow (2012-2013), a 2014 winner of MSU’s campus-wide Teacher-Scholar Award, the 2016 winner of the College of Social Science Alumni Association Outstanding Teaching Award, the 2017 winner of MSU’s Honors College Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honors Students, a winner of the 2018 MSU Alumni Club of Mid-Michigan Quality in Undergraduate Teaching Award, the 2019 winner of the President’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and the 2019 winner of the Graduate School Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. 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 squash, reading, scuba diving, traveling, and building LEGO. His favorite color is blue, he shares a birthday with Elvis Presley, and he generally only refers to himself in the third person when writing mini-biographies like this.