Link to Updated CV (Google Doc)
Amanda Hollis-Brusky, Ph.D.
Chair & Professor of Politics | Pomona College
425 North College Ave | Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 607-8296 | amanda.hollis-brusky@pomona.edu | @HollisBrusky (Twitter)
https://research.pomona.edu/amanda-hollis-brusky/
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley. Political Science (2010)
M.A. University of California, Berkeley. Political Science (2005)
B.A. Boston University. Philosophy and Political Science (2003)
EMPLOYMENT
Professor of Politics, Pomona College (2022-present)
Associate Professor of Politics, Pomona College (2016 – 2022)
Assistant Professor of Politics, Pomona College (2011 – 2016)
Visiting Scholar, Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley School of Law (2010-2011)
Graduate Student Instructor, Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley (2004-2007)
FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
Hewlett Foundation, U.S. Democracy Program, “Strengthening Voting Rights.” Project Director (with Nadia Brown). $17,000 (2021)
National Science Foundation, Law and Social Sciences Division, “Studying Variance Within and Evaluating the Efficacy of Support Structures for Legal Mobilization,” award number 1551871 $157,000 (2016-2019)
Hirsch Research Initiation Grant. Pomona College Internal Grant (2015-2017).
Mike Synar Fellowship for Outstanding Research in American Politics. Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley (2009).
Phi Beta Kappa Alpha Chapter of Northern California Doctoral Fellow (2008-2009).
HONORS AND AWARDS
Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching, Pomona College (2022)
Hubert Morken Best Book Award, the American Political Science Association’s Religion and Politics Section, Honorable Mention (for Separate But Faithful) (2021)
C. Herman Pritchett Award for Best Book on Law and Courts, the American Political Science Association’s Law and Courts Section (for Ideas with Consequences) (2016)
Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching, Pomona College (2014)
Graduate Student Instructor and Mentor of the Year, UC Berkeley Undergraduate Political Science Association (2007).
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, Office of Teaching Resources, University of California, Berkeley (2006)
Phi Beta Kappa Epsilon Chapter of Massachusetts (2003)
Polytropos Award, Faculty of the Core Curriculum of Boston University (2003)
Peter M Nelson Memorial Award for Excellence in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy at Boston University (2001)
PUBLISHED WORK
Books
Separate But Faithful: The Christian Right’s Radical Struggle to Transform Law and Legal Culture. With Joshua C. Wilson. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Ideas with Consequences: The Federalist Society & the Conservative Counterrevolution. Oxford University Press, 2015; 2019.
Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals & Law Review Journals (* = Invited submission)
“Beyond the Torture Memos: How the Office of Legal Counsel Matters for Executive Branch Scholarship.” w/ Isaac Cui. Presidential Studies Quarterly. (Aug 2021)
“‘In the mold of Justice Scalia’: The Contours & Consequences of the Trump Judiciary.” w/ Celia Parry. The Forum. Vol. 19 No. 1 (2021)*
“Exhuming Brutus: Constitutional Rot & Cyclical Calls for Court Reform.” Missouri Law Review. Vol. 86 (2021)*
“Impeachment as a ‘Madisonian Device’ Reconsidered.” Chicago Kent Law Review. Vol 96(1): 101-121 (2020).*
“Higher Law: Can Christian Conservatives Transform Law Through Legal Education?” With Joshua C. Wilson. Law and Society Review, Volume 52, No. 4 (2018).
“Playing for the Rules: How and Why New Christian Right Public Interest Law Firms Invest in Secular Litigation.” With Joshua C. Wilson. Law and Policy, Vol. 39, Issue 2: 121-141 (2017)
“Lawyers for God and Neighbor: The Emergence of ‘Law as a Calling’ as a Mobilizing Frame for Christian Lawyers.” With Joshua C. Wilson. Law and Social Inquiry 39(2) (2014).
“It’s the Network: The Federalist Society as a Supplier of Intellectual Capital for the Supreme Court.” Studies in Law, Politics, and Society Vol. 61 (2013).
“An [Un]Clear Conscience Clause: The Sources and Consequences of Statutory Ambiguity in State Contraceptive Mandates.” With Rachel VanSickle-Ward. Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law 38 (4) (2013).
“Helping Ideas Have Consequences: Political and Intellectual Investment in the Unitary Executive Theory, 1981-2000.” Denver University Law Review 89 (1) (2011-2012).
“Support Structures and Constitutional Change: Teles, Southworth, and the Conservative Legal Movement.” Law and Social Inquiry 36 (2): 551-74 (2011).
Book Chapters
“An Activist’s Court: Political Polarization and the Roberts Court.” in Parchment Barriers: Political Polarization and the Limits of Constitutional Order. Eds. Zachary Courser, Eric Helland, Kenneth P. Miller. University Press of Kansas (2018).
Book Reviews
“Reports of the Reagan Era’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated.” Review of Mark Tushnet, Taking Back the Constitution: Activist Judges and the Next Age of American Law. Balkinization. August 5, 2020.
Review of Rebecca Sanders, Plausible Legality: Legal Culture and Political Imperative in the Global War on Terror. International Affairs. 95(3): May 2019.
Review of Daniel Bennett, Defending Faith: The Politics of the Christian Conservative Legal Movement. Great Plains Research. Vol 29(1): Spring 2019
Review of Laura Kalman, The Long Reach of the Sixties: LBJ, Nixon, and the Making of the Contemporary Supreme Court. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2017.
Review of Jefferson Decker, The Other Rights Revolution: Conservative Lawyers and the Remaking of American Government. Law and Politics Book Review. Vol 27 (3): 49-52 (2017).
Review of William Howell and Terry Moe, Relic: How our Constitution Undermines Effective Government and Why We Need a More Powerful Presidency. The Forum. Spring 2017.
“The Constrained Court.” Review of Ian Millhiser, Injustices: The Supreme Court’s History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted. Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Issue 37 (Summer 2015).
Review of Pamela Karlan, A Constitution for All Times. Law and Politics Book Review, 24 (6): 283-286 (June 2014).
Review of Michael Avery and Danielle McLaughlin, The Federalist Society: How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals. Political Science Quarterly, 129(1): 177 (Spring 2014)
SELECT PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND POLICY IMPACT
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Supreme Court Term Limits Working Group. 2022-2023.
Testimony for the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. Aug. 3, 2021
Testimony before the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives. “Maintaining Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law: The Causes and Consequences of Court Capture.” September 22, 2020.
Senators Debbie Stabenow, Chuck Shumer and Sheldon Whitehouse, “Captured Courts: The GOP’s Big Money Assault on The Constitution, Our Independent Judiciary, and the Rule of Law.” May 2020 (featuring research from Ideas With Consequences and “Helping Ideas Have Consequences” pp. 33, 34, 48, 49, 52.)
Seila Law v. CFPB, “Brief of Amici Curiae U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal and Mazie Hirono in support of Court-Appointed Amicus Curiae.” January 22, 2020. (featuring research from “Helping Ideas Have Consequences” pp. 13, 14, 28, 30.)
PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS/ INVITED TALKS:
“Law and Politics in the Roberts Court.” Panel Discussion. Harvard Law School Series on The Supreme Court and American Democracy. Moderator Rena Daphnan. w/ Adam Liptak, Leah Litman, Janai Nelson & William Baude. Sep. 19, 2022.
“The Future of Choice: Dobbs, Roe and Reproductive Freedom.” Panel Discussion. Center for American Politics at the Scrivener Institute, Korbel School of International Management. University of Denver. May 10, 2022.
“The Texas Abortion Ruling: What it means for rights beyond Texas’s Borders.” w/ Seth Masket, Joshua C. Wilson, & Ian Farell. Center for American Politics at the Scrivener Institute, Korbel School of International Management. University of Denver. Sept 9, 2021.
“The Trump Judiciary.” Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogota, Colombia. May 11, 2021.
“Separate But Faithful: The Christian Right’s Radical Struggle to Transform Law and Legal Culture.” American Constitution Society & Catholics at Berkeley. Berkeley Law School. Mar. 2, 2021.
“Separate But Faithful: The Christian Right’s Radical Struggle to Transform Law and Legal Culture.” Author meets reader panel with Andrew Lewis, Paul Collins and Seth Masket. Center for American Politics. University of Denver. November 11, 2020.
“The Court, Judge Barrett and the 2020 Election w/ Amanda Hollis-Brusky.” The Foley Institute. Washington State University. October 26, 2020.
Allen L. Poucher Lecture, “Prospect, History and Controversies of Supreme Court Reform.” w/Ganesh Sitaraman, Laura Kalman and Merritt McAlister. Presented by the Florida Law Review. October 23, 2020.
“Separate But Faithful.” Book launch talk. Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession. UC Irvine Law School. October 1, 2020
“Legal Societies and Outside Actors.” Featured panelist at “Politics of Judicial Nominations in an Age of Mistrust.” Princeton University. March 6, 2020.
“The Supreme Court: What’s at Stake.” California Women’s Law Center. August 21, 2018.
“How the Constitution Changes: Lawyers, Legal Institutions and the ‘Support Structure’ for Constitutional Development.” Taking the Constitution Seriously Speaker Series. Claremont Graduate University. May 2, 2017.
“Justice Confirmed.” Supreme Court Panel Discussion. Foley Institute. Washington State University. March 20, 2017.
“Black-Robed Policymakers or Defenders of the Constitution? When the Supreme Court Should and Should not Govern Us.” Constitution Day Lecture. Northwestern University, Department of Legal Studies. October 1, 2015
“Culture Warrior, Esquire: Will Christian Law Schools and Training Programs Reshape Law and Politics?” Boston University Political Science Department. May 1, 2015.
“Ideas with Consequences: The Federalist Society and the Conservative Counterrevolution.” University of Pennsylvania Law School (sponsored by the American Constitution Society). Mar. 18, 2015.
“Ideas with Consequences: The Federalist Society and the Conservative Counterrevolution.” University of California, Berkeley (co-sponsored by Center for Right Wing Studies, Center for the Study of Law and Society, and Travers Department of Political Science). Feb. 19, 2015.
“Ideas with Consequences: The Federalist Society and the Conservative Counterrevolution.” Marsico Visiting Scholar, University of Denver Political Science Department. Feb 3-6, 2015.
“Wrestling with Conscience Clauses” (with Rachel Van Sickle-Ward, Pitzer College). Southwestern Law School Faculty Speaker Series. April 5, 2013.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (Past Five Years Only)
“‘Serviceable Instruments of His Authority’: How Lawyers Built the Imperial Presidency.” w/ Isaac Cui. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association. Lisbon, Portugal. July 15, 2022.
“‘Serviceable Instruments of His Authority’: How Lawyers Built the Imperial Presidency.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. Virtual/Zoom. September 11, 2020.
“‘A Generation of Christian Attorneys’”: How Newly Formed Christian Right Law Schools are Outfitting the Culture Wars.” (with Joshua C. Wilson). Presented at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association. May 31, 2019.
“Separate but Faithful: Can the Christian Right Reshape Law Through Legal Education?” (with Joshua C. Wilson). Presented at Inaugural Conference on Right Wing Studies. Center for the Study of Right Wing Studies, UC Berkeley. April 27, 2019.
“Culture Warrior, Esquire.” Presented at the “Role of Lawyers in Constitutional Change” conference. Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession, UC Irvine School of Law. March 15, 2019.
“Culture Warrior, Esquire.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA. September 1, 2018
“Support Structures and Legal Mobilization: Lessons in Movement Building and Efficacy from New Christian Right Law Schools and Training Programs.” (with Joshua C Wilson). Presented at the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Mexico City, MX. June 20, 2017.
“Freedom and Constraints in Building a Movement: Lessons from New Christian Law Schools and Training Programs.” (with Joshua C Wilson). Presented at the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Vancouver, B.C. Apr 15, 2017.
“Thickening Support: The Conservative Christian Legal Movement and the Development of Support Structure Models.” (with Joshua C Wilson). Presented at the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA. June 3, 2016.
“Support Structures: Just Seventeen, You know What I Mean.” (with Joshua C Wilson). Presented at the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA May 30. 2015.
“When the Public Interest is God’s Interest: The Strategies, Successes and Failures of New Christian Right Public Interest Law.” (with Joshua C Wilson). Presented at the Annual Meeting of American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C. Aug 28, 2014
“When the Public Interest is God’s Interest: The Strategies, Successes and Failures of New Christian Right Public Interest Law.” (with Joshua C Wilson). Presented at the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN. May 29, 2014.
“Judicial Activism, Inc. How the Federalist Society Network Shaped Citizens United.” Presented at the Second Annual Meeting of the Southern California Law and Social Science (SoCLASS) Forum. Whittier Law School. Mar. 28, 2014.
OTHER CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION:
Co-facilitator (w/ Nadia Brown & Laura Seay), “Writing for the Monkey Cage.” Workshop for the American Political Science Association’s Graduate Student fellows in Public Engagement. June 15, 2022.
Discussant, “Attorneys in the U.S. & Abroad.” Brownbag, Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association. December 14, 2021.
Co-facilitator (w/ Nadia Brown), “Writing on Voting Rights for the Monkey Cage.” Workshop funded by the Hewlett Foundation. October 29, 2021.
Co-facilitator (w/ Nadia Brown, Vlad Mendenica & Kim Yi Dionne), “Writing for the Monkey Cage.” Workshop for the American Political Science Association’s Graduate Student fellows in Public Engagement. June 3, 2021.
Panelist at Symposium on Jack Balkin’s, The Cycles of Constitutional Time. Hosted by University of Missouri Law Review. November 13, 2020.
Panelist, “The Cycles of Constitutional Time” by Jack Balkin. Author Meets Reader. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. Virtual/Zoom. September 13, 2020.
Chair and Discussant, “Perspectives on Constitutional Interpretation.” Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. Virtual/Zoom. September 10, 2020.
Panelist, “Raised Right: Fatherhood in Modern American Conservatism” by Jeffrey Dudas. Author Meets Reader. Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association. Mexico City. June 20, 2017.
Welcoming Remarks. “Law and Legitimacy.” Fifth Annual Meeting of the Southern California Law and Social Science Forum. Claremont McKenna. April 28, 2017.
Discussant. “Politics in an age of Societal Division.” Fourth Annual Meeting of the Southern California Law and Social Science Forum. UC San Diego. March 18, 2016.
Panelist, “Polarization and the Supreme Court.” David Dreier Roundtable, Claremont McKenna College, October 9, 2015.
Organizer, “Lawyers, Networks and Institutions: Examining the ‘Support Structure’ for Legal Development.” Presented at the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA May 30. 2015
Chair, “Regulation in Uncharted Territory.” Third Annual Meeting of the Southern California Law and Social Science Forum. USC Law School. Mar. 27, 2015.
Co-Organizer, Law, Politics, and Democracy, Second Annual Meeting of the Southern California Law and Social Science Forum. Whittier Law School. Mar. 28, 2014.
Chair, Empirical Inquiries in Constitutional Law, APSA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, Aug 29-Sep 1, 2013
Chair, Constitutional Law and the Political Theory of Rights, APSA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, Aug 29-Sep 1, 2013
Co-Organizer, Host, and Opening Remarks, Law at the Fault Lines Conference, The First Annual Meeting of the Southern California Law and Social Science Forum. Pomona College, March 1, 2013
Discussant, “Polarization in the Judiciary,” Politics to the Extreme. CSU Channel Islands, Oct 8-9, 2012
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Political Science Editor, “The Monkey Cage” at The Washington Post (Jan. 1, 2020-present)
Editorial Board, Journal of Law and Courts (2019-2020)
Referee/ Reviewer for: Studies in American Political Development, Political Research Quarterly, Law and Social Inquiry, Law and Society Review, Journal of Law and Courts, Journal of Law & Religion, University of California Press, National Science Foundation Law and Social Sciences Division; MacArthur Foundation’s Levers for Change: Stronger Democracy Award (2021)
Co-Founder & Chair, Steering Committee, Southern California Law and Social Science Forum (2012 – present)
Member, Law and Society Association (2010 – present)
Member, American Political Science Association (2007 – present)
2019-2020: Division Co-Chair (w/ Corey Brettschneider), Constitutional Law & Jurisprudence (Division 27)
2018-2019: Served on C. Herman Pritchett Award Committee for Best Book on Law and Courts
2017-2018: Served as Chair of APSA Distinguished Teaching Award Committee
2014-2015: Served as Chair, Law & Courts Section Best Graduate Student Paper Award
2012-2013: Served on the Law & Courts Section Best Paper Award Committee
COLLEGE SERVICE
Research Committee (2021-2022)
Chair, Politics Department (7/1/2021 – present)
Chair, Work-Family Committee (2019-2021)
Faculty Chair, Task Force on Public Dialogue (2017-2018)
Faculty Executive Committee (“Committee on Committees”) (2017-2018)
Chair, Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) (Spring 2017)
Mentor, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (2016-present)
Curriculum Committee (2016-2017)
Analyzing Difference Committee (2016-2017)
Dean of the College Search Committee (2015 – 2016)
Critical Writing and Thinking Committee (2015- 2016)
Faculty Advisor, The Claremont Journal of Law and Public Policy (2015 – present)
Pomona College Emergency Building Coordinator, Carnegie Bldng (2013-2014)
Pomona College Ad Hoc for Arts and Humanities (AHAH) (2013 – 2014)
Pomona College ID-1 Steering Committee (2012 – 2013)
PPE Steering Committee (2012 – 2014)
Faculty Host, Downing College Visiting Scholar (2012-2013)
Co-Organizer, Pomona College Social Science Research Confab (2012-2013, 2016-2017)
