Amy Steigerwalt
Department Chair Political Science- Specializations
American Politics, Public Law
- Biography
Amy Steigerwalt is a Department Chair of Political Science at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on the federal judicial selection process, as well as the role of courts as institutions and the differing influences on court operations and decision-making. She is the current Director of the Georgia Legislative Internship Program. She has published four books to date, including Battle Over the Bench: Senators, Interest Groups and the Politics of Courts of Appeals Confirmations (UVA Press, 2010), as well as articles in journals such as Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, and Justice System Journal. Her most recent book is Gendered Vulnerability: How Women Work Harder to Stay in Office, coauthored with Jeff Lazarus (University of Michigan Press, 2018), which argues that female politicians face a more treacherous electoral landscape, and this leads them to pursue a more constituent-oriented approach to legislative activity once in office. Dr. Steigerwalt, along with Drs. Corley and Ward, was awarded the 2013 Hughes-Gossett Award for the best article published that year in the Journal of Supreme Court History.
Dr. Steigerwalt is a frequent panelist on GPB's daily show "Political Rewind with Bill Nigut," and has recently been cited in outlets such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Post, New York Times, Bloomberg News, and The Independent.
- Publications
Jeffrey Lazarus and Amy Steigerwalt. 2018. Gendered Vulnerability: How Women Work Harder to Stay in Office. University of Michigan Press.
* Research findings discussed in Time (2019); Washington Post (2019, 2018); Houston Chronicle (2019); Politifact (2018)
* Reviewed in Political Science Quarterly (2019); The Forum (2018); Canadian Journal of Political Science (2019)Amy Steigerwalt and Wendy Martinek. 2017. “Lower Federal Court Confirmations.” In The
Handbook of Judicial Politics, Robert M. Howard and Kirk Randazzo, eds. Routledge Press.Amy Steigerwalt, Pamela C. Corley, and Artemus Ward. 2016. “Honeymoon on the Court? Chief
Justices and Consensus Building on the Supreme Court.” In The Chief Justice: Appointment and Influence, Artemus Ward and David J. Danelski, eds. University of Michigan Press.Susan Navarro Smelcer, Amy Steigerwalt, and Richard L. Vining. 2014. “Where One Sits Affects
Where Others Stand: Bias, the Bar, and Nominees to Federal District Courts.” 2014. Judicature 98 (July/August): (special issue on judicial nominee evaluations).Pamela C. Corley, Amy Steigerwalt, and Artemus Ward. 2013. The Puzzle of Unanimity: Consensus
on the United States Supreme Court. Stanford University Press.* Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2014
* Research findings discussed in New York Times, May 27, 2013, A11; New York Times, July 2, 2014, A1
* Reviewed in Choice (2014), Law & Politics Book Review (2014), Political Science Quarterly (2014), Journal of American Studies (2014), Law Library Journal (2014), H-Net (2014), Perspectives on Politics (2015), Tulsa Law review (2015)Susan Navarro Smelcer, Amy Steigerwalt, and Richard L. Vining. 2012. “Bias and the Bar: Evaluating the ABA’s Ratings of Federal Judicial Nominees.” Political Research Quarterly 65: 827-840.
Robert M. Howard and Amy Steigerwalt. 2011. Judging Law and Policy: Courts and Policymaking in the American Political System. New York: Routledge.
Amy Steigerwalt. 2010. Battle Over the Bench: Senators, Interest Groups and Lower Court Confirmations. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.