George S. Parthemos Lecture
presented by the Department of Political Science

“Why We Should Study the Behavior of Judges”
by
Dr. Lee Epstein

Friday, February 10, 2017
10:30 a.m.

Lee Epstein is the Ethan A.H. Shepley Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research and teaching interests center on law and legal institutions, especially the behavior of judges.

Professor Epstein is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She also serves as Co-Director of the Center for Empirical Research in the Law, Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago, a Principal Investigator of U.S. Supreme Court Database project, and co-editor of the Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization. During the 2016-17 academic year, she will be a visting scholar at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and the University of Georgia; and, from 2016-2020, a visiting professor at the University of Bergen (Norway).

A recipient of 12 grants from the National Science Foundation, Professor Epstein has authored or co-authored over 100 articles and essays and 17 books, including The Choices Justices Make (co-authored with Jack Knight), which won the Pritchett Award for the Best Book on Law and Courts and, more recently, the Lasting Contribution Award “for a book or journal article, 10 years or older, that has made a lasting impression on the field of law and courts.” The Constitutional Law for a Changing America series (co-authored with Thomas Walker), now in its 9th edition, received the Teaching and Mentoring Award from a section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). Her most recent books are The Behavior of Federal Judges, with William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner (Harvard University Press) and An Introduction to Empirical Legal Research, with Andrew D. Martin (Oxford University Press). In September of 2016, Epstein received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association.

Professor Epstein teaches courses on constitutional law, judicial behavior, the U.S. Supreme Court, and research design and methods. In 2011, she received Northwestern University School of Law’s Outstanding First-Year Course Professor Award. At Washington University she was named Professor of the Year by the Undergraduate Political Science Association and received a Faculty of the Year Award from the Student Union. She is also a recipient of Washington University’s Alumni Board of Governors Distinguished Faculty Award and the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award.

This lecture series is named after George S. Parthemos, who served the University of Georgia with great distinction for over 30 years until his death in 1984. During that time he served as Head of the Department of Political Science and Vice President for Instruction. He was also an extraordinary teacher. This series, sponsored by the Department of Political Science, honors his commitment to education. Each year, the Parthemos Scholar not only delivers this lecture, but teaches classes and interacts with students and faculty over two to three days.