Patrick Schmidt completed a B.A. in Political Science at the University of Minnesota (1993) and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University (1999). Before arriving at Macalester in 2006 he held a researchfellowship at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Nuffield College, Oxford, and an assistant professorship at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.
His teaching and research interests range widely in the category of "all things legal," but begin in constitutional law and judicial behavior, and find their home in what is known as the "law and society" tradition. A special interest is lawyers: what they do, what they think they do, and what they say they think they do. Finding joy in what many think is joy-less--as if studying lawyers weren't enough--Schmidt conducts research into bureaucracies and government regulation of society. His current projects including the study of disclosure and Freedom of Information, collegiality on the Supreme Court, and human rights litigation in the U.S.
Schmidt is an unrepentent Anglophile, beer snob, and fan of Celtic music. After sharing his distorted view of "fun" and "interesting" with any students who care to listen, he goes home to attempt to impose it on his wife and three kids.
