I am a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at Georgia State University, specializing in judicial politics. My research primarily examines the role of state high courts in the broader political and legal environment.
My new book, US Supreme Court Doctrine in the State High Courts (with Benjamin Kassow) is currently available from Cambridge University Press.
At Georgia State University, I teach courses at the graduate and undergraduate level on constitutional law, judicial process, and research methods. I received my Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina and my M.A. and B.A. degrees from the University of Kentucky.
Curriculum Vita
A pdf copy of my CV is available here.
Research
My research examines the role of state high courts in the broader political and legal environment with specific focus on questions related to judicial federalism and the extrajudicial behavior of state high court judges.
My recent book with Benjamin Kassow, US Supreme Court Doctrine in the State High Courts (Cambridge 2020), offers a comprehensive theoretical explanation of how state high courts use (or elect not to use) the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Using historical, quantitative, and qualitative methods, we show that state high courts have a great deal of freedom in how they use the decisions of the Supreme Court, including the ability to ignore those decisions altogether when they wish to expand the rights of their states’ citizens.
A full list of my publications with replication materials is available here.
Teaching
As a first-generation college student, the value I place on my own education is immeasurable. For me, recognition of the importance of education for expanding one’s professional opportunities and social mobility is not a mere abstraction, and this is something that has dramatically impacted the way I approach my role as a teacher.
At its core, my teaching philosophy is simply that education should teach students to think. In the classroom and beyond, I constantly strive to assist my students in developing the ability to think critically and analytically, to clearly articulate their thoughts and arguments, and to appreciate the value of diversity in thoughts and beliefs.
Teaching Schedule:
Fall 2023:
POLS 8140: Judicial Process and Policy Making
POLS 4131: Civil Liberties and Rights
LaTeX Resources
Getting Started
- Click here for slides from an introduction to LaTeX workshop for GSU graduate students presented by Susanne Schorpp and me on 29 March 2019.
- The LaTeX Project’s website contains lots of links and useful material.
- If you are a Mac user, the MacTeX distribution provides everything you need to get started including a text editor. For a better text editor, you may wish to check out the Aquamacs text editor.
- For PC users, the proTeXt distribution provides everything you need to get started with LaTeX.
Reference
- The “Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2e” is a wonderful guide for individuals new to LaTeX.
- A “Short Math Guide for LaTeX” from the American Mathematical Society can be found here, and “The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List” is available here.
- For help with Tables, the Wikibook’s page is useful.
- The BibTeX project homepage provides a wealth of information when learning how to set up automated bibliographies, and the Natbib package provides a useful alternative to the standard bib.sty.
- For those needing an updated .bst file consistent with the requirements of the APSA Style Manual, one is available here.
Contact Information
Michael P. Fix, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science
Georgia State University
38 Peachtree Center Ave., Suite 1005
Atlanta, GA 30303
Office: Langdale 1007
Primary e-mail: mfix@gsu.edu
Twitter: @mpfix1