Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), he is the author of Democratic Practice: Origins of the Iberian Divide in Political Inclusion, Oxford University Press, 2019, translated into Spanish as Práctica Democrática e Inclusión, Catarata, 2021.

Prior to moving to UC3M, he taught in the United States, first at Harvard University and then at the University of Notre Dame. He has also been a visiting professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). He earned his PhD in Sociology from Yale University in 1985.

Fishman's articles have appeared in World Politics, American Sociological Review, Annual Review of Political Science, Politics and Society, Theory and Society, Comparative Politics, Contributions to Political Economy, and other scholarly journals, as well as in numerous edited books and several newspapers, including El País, La Vanguardia, The New York Times and the Portuguese Público. His academic work focuses on the themes of democracy, cultural change, social protest and inequality.