Welcome to Scanning the Heavens, my personal website and blog.  My name is Michael Gizzi, and I am a tenured Professor of criminal justice at Illinois State University, where I have taught at since 2008.   I came to ISU after spending thirteen years at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado. I hold a Ph.D. in political science from the University at Albany, SUNY; and a B.A.in political science from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. I teach courses on criminal procedure and evidence, courts, law and society, corrections, and an introductory course.   Student websites are all on ReggieNet.

I publish on search and seizure law, the war on drugs, and Supreme Court decision-making.   My current research is split between two very different areas.  My primary work is on search and seizure law and Supreme Court decision-making.  My book The Fourth Amendment in Flux: The Roberts Court, Crime Control, and Digital Privacy, co-authored with Craig Curtis was published by the University Press of Kansas in May 2016.  In addition, I study conflict-resolution and co-existence projects in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  I have spent almost a month in Israel and Palestine, examining different narratives and efforts at conflict resolution.  My early blog posts on Israel are in this blog, but today I am also a blogger for the Times of Israel, one of the major English-speaking newspapers in Jerusalem.

I am involved in a variety of activities both at the university and in the community. I advise Hillel, the Jewish student union  I am on the steering committee of the local American Civil Liberties Union.

I am an amateur photographer, and all of photography on the site is my own.  I use Canon gear, and shoot with a Digital 4Ti, a Powershot G7X, and a Powershot S100.  The two point-and-shoot cameras are not as powerful as the DSLR, but take great shots.  I also make regular use of my iPhone 7.