(Posted October 8, 2012)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Anthony Nownes, a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will lecture at Juniata College on "SuperPACS and the Presidential Election" at 8 p.m., Monday, Oct. 15 in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Nownes' most recent research interests include the effects celebrity support have on United States political parties, as well as the effect interest group endorsements had on the 2008 election.

Nownes will discuss how SuperPACs have enabled Republican and Democratic candidates to air advertising with virtually unlimited budgets. SuperPACs are political action committees that cannot make contributions to candidate campaigns or parties, but may engage in unlimited political spending independently of the campaigns that can raise funds from corporations, unions and other groups, and from individuals, without legal limits.

Nownes' most recent research interests include the effects celebrity support have on United States political parties, as well as the effect interest group endorsements had on the 2008 election. He also is interested in political interest groups and the political activities of corporate executives.

He teaches courses on Political Parties and Interest Groups and U.S. Government and Politics. He joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee in 1993 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1999 and to full professor in 2008.

He has published his research in such scholarly journals as Party Politics, American Political Research, Interest Group Politics and Social Science Quarterly.

He has written a textbook and two books for general audiences: "Total Lobbying: What Lobbyists Want (and How They Try to Get It)," published in 2006, and "Interest Groups in American Politics: Pressure and Power," revised in 2012.

He earned a bachelor's degree in 1986 from the University of California, Berkeley. He went on to earn a master's degree in political science in 1989 and a doctoral degree in 1993, both from the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, Kan.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.