KU News Release

KU political scientist selected to speak in U.S. State Department program

Burdett Loomis

LAWRENCE — Burdett Loomis, professor of political science at the University of Kansas, has been invited by the U.S. Department of State to speak later this month in Malaysia and Singapore on critical issues of the 2008 presidential and congressional elections in the United States.

While participating in the State Department’s two-week program, Loomis will meet and address university scholars and meet with media representatives to discuss the 2008 election, the role of interest groups in U.S. politics and the emergence of highly polarized politics in the United States. The trip takes place Feb. 16-29. Loomis has made similar tours for the State Department to Mexico, Brazil and the British West Indies.

A frequent commentator on U.S. politics, Loomis is nationally recognized for his research. Since coming to KU in 1979, he has written or edited more than 25 books including “Interest Group Politics,” which published its seventh edition in 2008; “The Contemporary Congress,” now in its fifth edition; “Time, Politics and Policies: A Legislative Year”; “The New American Politician: Ambition, Entrepreneurship and the Changing Face of Political Life”; and “The Sound of Money,” written with Darrell West.

Loomis is co-editor of “Choosing a President” and co-author of “Republic on Trial,” both published in 2002. He is editor of “Esteemed Colleagues: Civility and Deliberation in the United States Senate.”

Loomis was director of administrative communication for Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in 2005 and interim director of KU’s Dole Institute of Politics from 1997 through 2001. He has directed KU’s Washington, D.C., and Topeka internship programs since the 1980s. Loomis was a Brookings Institution guest scholar in 1984, 1996 and 2000. In 1984, he directed the Congressional Management Project at American University in Washington, D.C., and edited “Setting Course,” a guide for new members of Congress.

In 2006, Loomis received a Fulbright Senior Specialist award to conduct a Fulbright Seminar for Young Leaders in Argentina on “Politics in the United States: 1960s to 2006.” He received a W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 1996 at KU and a congressional fellowship with the American Political Science Association in 1975. His research focuses on large-scale changes in Kansas politics and policy-making from 1960 through the mid-1970s.

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