Oct. 9, 2002

Contact: Paul Schumaker, Political Science, (785) 864-9038.

Pulitzer Prize finalist to visit KU, deliver public lecture

LAWRENCE -- A finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in history and distinguished professor at the University of Pennsylvania will be on the University of Kansas campus this week to meet with students and deliver a public lecture.

Rogers M. Smith, the Christopher H. Browne distinguished professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, will visit KU beginning Thursday, Oct. 10, as a Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar. Over the course of the two-day visit, he will meet informally with students and faculty members.

Smith will deliver the public lecture "Political Allegiances in the 21st Century" at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11, in Alderson Auditorium at the Kansas Union.

In 1998, Smith was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history for his book "Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History." He wrote or co-wrote three other books: "The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America"; "Citizen Without Consent: The Illegal Alien in the American Polity"; and "Liberalism and American Constitutional Law." He is completing a book titled "Stories of Peoplehood: The Politics and Morals of Political Membership."

Each year, the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program makes available 12 or more distinguished scholars who visit 100 colleges and universities. They spend two days on each campus, meeting students and faculty, taking part in classroom discussions and giving public lectures open to the entire academic community.