Sources: David Procter, 785-532-6868, dprocter@k-state.edu;
Tim Steffensmeier, 785-532-6862, steffy@k-state.edu;
and Lauren Swirbul, lswirbul@gmail.com

Friday, Sept. 24, 2010

UNIVERSITY NEW HOME TO PRESTIGIOUS DEMOCRACY JOURNAL

MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University has become the new home of the Journal of Public Deliberation, with K-State's David Procter and Timothy Steffensmeier serving as co-editors.

Procter is a professor of communication studies and director of K-State's Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy; Steffensmeier is an assistant professor of communication studies and an associate with the institute.

The decision to move the journal to K-State was made in July by the executive committee of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, which publishes the journal. K-State was selected because of the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy's experience with democracy scholars, practitioners, extension educators and public officials.

"We were particularly struck by the highly interdisciplinary work of the institute, which fits well with the diversity of academic interests in deliberative democracy," said Matt Leighninger, executive director of the consortium.

Procter and Steffensmeier will pursue several initiatives as new editors of the journal. They want it to be the premier, peer-reviewed journal in deliberative democracy. They also want to increase the number of issues published per year, broaden the readership, and increase international submissions and readership.

In addition, Procter and Steffensmeier want to expand the journal's presence in online deliberation issues, as well as increase essays and articles regarding the value and process of public participation in political governance.

The interdisciplinary journal was created as a scholarly forum for deliberative democracy. The journal publishes information on research, opinions, projects, experiments and experience of practitioners and academics. Its board of editors consists of leading international scholars from a variety of disciplines, including political science, philosophy, communication studies, economics, government, computer science, sociology, community and regional planning, journalism and mass communications.

The journal is open to scholars and practitioners from all disciplines and welcomes diverse methodologies. The first call for papers from Procter and Steffensmeier will be announced Nov. 1.