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NEWS RELEASE

12-18-03

Contacts:
Annette Hacker, ISU News Service, (515) 294-3720
Kevin Brown, ISU News Service, (515) 294-8986

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY SOURCES ON POLITICS, CAUCUSES

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University faculty experts are available to provide insightful commentary on the upcoming Iowa caucuses and the 2004 presidential election. Experts are listed by topics:

Civic engagement, coastal policy and coastal zone management, cyber (Internet) politics, foreign policy, international politics, judicial politics, national/regional/local elections/campaigns, media and elections, voting and the media, youth voting patterns

STEFFEN SCHMIDT, university professor of political science. Schmidt specializes in congressional and presidential elections. He is a frequent media source known for insightful and witty commentary on American politics and international political issues. (He was born in Columbia, South America, and has studied in Colombia, France and Switzerland.) Schmidt hosts "Dr. Politics," a weekly political call-in show on WOI-AM, a National Public Radio affiliate. He is the lead author of the most widely adopted introductory college textbook in American government, "American Government and Politics Today (2003-2004)" -- Wadsworth Publishing.

Political campaign advertising, campaign speeches and debates, gender/women and political issues, media and elections, civic engagement, national/regional/local elections/campaigns, youth voting patterns

DIANNE BYSTROM, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. Bystrom has done extensive research and writing on issues related to women and politics, political advertising and media coverage of women candidates. She researches the styles and strategies used by male and female political candidates in TV advertising and speeches, the coverage of women candidates and political leaders in the media, and gender and political communication. She recently contributed chapters to two new books -- "Anticipating Madam President" and "Women Transforming Congress" -- and will have a chapter on women and their political communication during the past 25 years published in 2004. She is co-editor of "The Millennium Election: Communication in the 2000 Campaign." In the book, Bystrom compares male and female candidates' political ad messages to their newspaper coverage. She is co-editor of "Communicating Politics: Engaging the Public in Democratic Life," which will be published in early 2004, and currently is working on a book about women's political communication.

Campaign speeches, effective public speaking, political rhetoric

RAY DEARIN, professor of English and political science. Dearin studies speech communication and effective speaking. He can talk about the rhetoric of political and campaign speeches.

Domestic sources of foreign policy (e.g., public opinion, interest groups, role of Congress), current issues in American foreign policy, global human rights, international politics.

JAMES MCCORMICK, professor of political science. McCormick specializes in American foreign policy and international politics. He is the author of "American Foreign Policy and Process" and co-editor of "The Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy: Insights and Evidence" (fourth edition).

Caucus procedures and participation, educational minority issues and politics; Latinos/Latinas and politics (national/regional/local); minorities and politics

JOSE AMAYA, assistant professor of English. He is the caucus chair for the Ames, Iowa, 3-1 precinct. He also is president of the board of directors of Humanities Iowa and is working on a book about American citizenship. He has been part of two U.S. Senate Hispanic Leadership summits and given presentations on Hispanic education to the Hispanic Congressional Caucus. He also served on the Lt. Governor's Committee on Diversity and was vice chairperson of the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs.

Latinos and politics (national/regional/local), minorities and politics

HECTOR AVALOS, associate professor of religious studies. Avalos specializes in Latinos/Latinas and their political impact

African religions and politics, Islam and politics, minorities and politics

ROBERT BAUM, associate professor of philosophy and religious studies. Baum specializes in Islam, African religions, and religion and politics. He directs Iowa State's American Studies Program and coordinates the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' international area programs.

International political communication, e-government, politics and the media, war coverage, coverage of conflict in the media

DANIELA DIMITROVA, professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. Dimitrova's research focuses on political communication in Eastern and Western Europe and the United States. She also does research on e-government, use of the Internet to communicate with citizens and key constituencies, and media coverage of the war in Iraqi.

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