Penn State Department of Political Science: Faculty Bios

Christopher Zorn, Professor
	Contact Information: 226 Pond University Park, PA 16802-6200 Office phone: 863-9446 zorn@psu.edu Links: Curriculum Vitae Office Hours: Please click here for this semester's office hours.

Brief Biography
Christopher Zorn is Professor of Political Science at Penn State University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University (1997) and a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Truman State University (1991). Prior to coming to Penn State, he was Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina (2005-2007), a Visiting Scientist and Program Director for the Law and Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation (2003-2005), and Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at Emory University, where he taught from 1996 to 2003. In addition, he regularly teaches courses at the University of Michigan and Oxford University. His research focuses on judicial politics, and on statistics for the social sciences. He is currently the principal investigator for two NSF-supported projects; the first examines the roles played by judges' positions in the legal/judicial hierarchy on their decision making, while the second develops a class of mixture-based item response models for proximity and dominance items. He is the author of two forthcoming books and more than two dozen articles and the recipient of four grants from the NSF, as well as numerous other fellowships and awards. In addition, he currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Political Analysis, and on the executive boards of the Midwest Political Science Association, the American Judicature Society, the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, and the Empirical Legal Studies weblog, as well as on numerous editorial boards.

Brief Biography

Christopher Zorn is Professor of Political Science at Penn State University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University (1997) and a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Truman State University (1991). Prior to coming to Penn State, he was Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina (2005-2007), a Visiting Scientist and Program Director for the Law and Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation (2003-2005), and Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at Emory University, where he taught from 1996 to 2003. In addition, he regularly teaches courses at the University of Michigan and Oxford University. His research focuses on judicial politics, and on statistics for the social sciences. He is currently the principal investigator for two NSF-supported projects; the first examines the roles played by judges' positions in the legal/judicial hierarchy on their decision making, while the second develops a class of mixture-based item response models for proximity and dominance items. He is the author of two forthcoming books and more than two dozen articles and the recipient of four grants from the NSF, as well as numerous other fellowships and awards. In addition, he currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Political Analysis, and on the executive boards of the Midwest Political Science Association, the American Judicature Society, the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, and the Empirical Legal Studies weblog, as well as on numerous editorial boards.