Clark University’s Harrington Public Affairs Lecture Series will sponsor “The Supreme Court and the Polarization of American Politics,” a lecture by political scientist Lawrence Baum of Ohio State University. The talk will be held on Wednesday, October 24, at 4 p.m. in Tilton Hall, second floor of the Higgins University Center.

Professor Lawrence Baum studies U.S. judicial politics, judicial elections in the United States, and the Supreme Court in our broader system of government. The subjects of his research include the determinants of judges’ choices, the creation and behavior of specialized courts, and voting behavior in judicial elections.

Baum has been chair of the Law, Courts, and Judicial Process section of the American Political Science Association and has served on several editorial boards, including the American Political Science Review and the American Journal of Political Science. Professor Baum earned his Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin.

His books include “American Courts: Process and Policy” (Wadsworth Publishing Company 2001), “Judges and Their Audiences” (Princeton University Press 2008), “Specializing the Courts” (University of Chicago 2011), and the 11th edition of “The Supreme Court” (CQ Press/Sage Publications 2012).

This event is sponsored by the Department of Political Science. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call 508-793-7155.

Since its founding in 1887, Clark University in Worcester, Mass., has a history of challenging convention. As an innovative liberal arts college and research university, Clark’s world-class faculty leads a community of creative thinkers and passionate doers and offers a range of expertise. Clark is nationally recognized is the areas of psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies and international development and social change. Clark’s students, faculty and alumni embody the Clark motto: Challenge convention. Change our world.