KU News Release

KU’s Dole Institute announces programs for March and April

LAWRENCE — The Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas will host four programs featuring three noted authors and the former chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We have more than two months of exceptional programming coming to the institute,” said Bill Lacy, director of the Dole Institute. “In March and early April we will host individuals who are among the top experts in the country on some high profile, and highly charged, subjects such as evolution, intelligent design and disaster preparedness.”

All programs take place at the Dole Institute, begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. The events are also offered via simulcast at KU’s Edwards Campus in Overland Park.

Wall Street Journal reporter Bobby Block, author of “Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security,” will speak March 14. Block covers the Department of Homeland Security for the Wall Street Journal and is a former foreign correspondent who has reported on terrorism and war from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Disaster has been called “likely the best in-depth contemporary analysis of the Hurricane Katrina debacle” by the Washington Post.

On March 28, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes will discuss the evolution vs. intelligent design debate and the school board fights and courtroom battles in Kansas and throughout the country, which culminated in a 2005 court case in Dover, Pa. His newest book is “Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion and The Battle For America’s Soul.” Humes’ other books include “Over Here: How the G.I. Bill Transformed the American Dream,” “School of Dreams,” “Baby E.R.,” “Mean Justice” (a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 1999) and the bestseller “Mississippi Mud.”

Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during Hurricane Katrina, will speak April 4. Brown has consulted on emergency management nationally since he left the agency and is a guest of Dole Institute Fellow Scott Morris, who is conducting a study group this semester titled “The Politics of Disasters.”

On April 17, John Patrick Diggins will discuss his most recent book, “Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom and the Making of History.” Diggins is the author of several books, including “The Rise and Fall of the American Left” and “The Proud Decades: 1941-1960,” as well as biographies of John Adams and Max Weber. He is a distinguished professor of history at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

For more information on these or any Dole Institute programs, visit www.doleinstitute.org or call (785) 864-4900. The institute also has a blog at www.doleinstituteblog.org. For information about the Edwards Campus simulcast, visit www.edwardscampus.ku.edu or call (913) 897-8400.

The Dole Institute is dedicated to the mission of promoting civic involvement, public service and politics. It is located on KU’s west campus next to the Lied Center.

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