KU News Release

KU political scientist to travel to Iraq on State Department assignment

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas political science professor Burdett Loomis will travel to Iraq this week to speak about U.S. politics and the Obama administration. His trip is at the invitation of the U.S. State Department.

Loomis will blog about his two-week trip on his Web site.

While in Iraq, he will speak to students and faculty at three universities in three cities in the Kurdistan region. He also will lecture at the Kurdistan National Assembly and meet with the Iraqi minister of higher education.

“I’m looking forward to talking with the Iraqi Kurds about how American politics works — or sometimes doesn’t — and what the outlook is for the Obama administration as it faces a full menu of crises. I hope to be able to talk with a lot of Iraqis about not just our politics, but how they see their nation as developing in the months and years to come,” Loomis said.

Last year, Loomis traveled to China, Malaysia and Singapore on similar State Department assignments. Loomis has made previous speaking tours in Brazil, the British West Indies and Mexico, and has served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Argentina.

He is a Hall Center Fellow this spring and working on a new book about Kansas politics. He is focusing on the tremendous change and dislocations that took place in Kansas politics from 1960 through 1975, when “the state was yanked out of the 19th century, into the late 20th century, for better or for worse.”

Loomis’ books include “The Contemporary Congress,” “Time, Politics and Policies: A Legislative Year,” “The New American Politician,” “Esteemed Colleagues: Civility and Deliberation in the United States Senate” and “The Sound of Money,” written with Darrell West. He is co-editor of “Choosing a President” and co-author of “Republic on Trial.” He and Allan Cigler, professor of political science, are co-editors of seven editions each of “Interest Group Politics” and “American Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings.”

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 to 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.

Loomis 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.

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