Thomas M. Keck
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Syracuse University
Professor Keck's undergraduate teaching examines law and politics in the United States from a variety of angles. Most years, he teaches a two-semester sequence in constitutional law (PSC 324 and PSC 325). These courses examine the major constitutional conflicts that have shaped American political development from the framing of the Constitution in 1787 up through the most recent decisions of the Roberts Court. Professor Keck also regularly teaches an undergraduate course on the Supreme Court (PSC 316) that features a semester-long simulation assignment, in which each student is designed to play a justice, a law clerk, or a lawyer, and the simulated Court hears arguments in and then decides several cases drawn from the real Court's current docket. He has also recently designed a course on sexuality and the law (PSC/QSX 384) that is cross-listed with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program.
At the graduate level, Professor Keck teaches a seminar on American constitutional development (PSC 711) that relies on the work of political scientists, legal scholars, and historians to interpret and explain the key moments of constitutional conflict and periods of constitutional change that have shaped American politics since 1787. In recent years, he has also taught the department's "field seminar" for American politics (PSC 621), which provides a broad survey of classic and contemporary political science research on the principal ideas, interests, and institutions that shape the American political system.