Bruce Oppenheimer

Professor of Public Policy and Education

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1973

Research Area

American national institutions and policy, Congress, congressional elections, political parties

Short Biography

Bruce Oppenheimer received his A.B. from Tufts University (1967) and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin (1968 and 1973 respectively). He has been a Brookings Fellow in Governmental Studies (1970-71) and an APSA Congressional Fellow (1973-74).

Prior to coming to Vanderbilt in 1993, Professor Oppenheimer was on the faculty of the University of Houston (1977-1993) and Brandeis University (1971-77). His books include: Oil and the Congressional Process (Lexington Books, 1973), Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (with Frances Lee, University of Chicago Press, 1999), and U.S. Senate Exceptionalism (Ohio State University Press, 2002). In addition, Congress Reconsidered, a book which he co-edits with Lawrence Dodd, is now in its 8th edition (CQ Press, 2005).

Professor Oppenheimer has also written numerous articles on Congress, congressional elections, and congressional policy making. His current projects involve reexamining his earlier work on energy legislation and contrasting efforts to enact legislation in the 1970s with more recent struggles over energy policy.

Among the awards Professor Oppenheimer has received are the D.B. Hardeman Prize from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation for the best book on Congress (Sizing Up the Senate...) and the Robert H. Birkby Award for distinguished teaching in political science.

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