Richard Fenno

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard F. Fenno, Jr. is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Rochester. He was denied tenure at Wesleyan University because the department mistakenly and ironically determined his work was not political science.^{[citation needed]} He was hired by the University of Rochester, and received tenure there. He is also a former president of the American Political Science Association.

At Rochester, Fenno went on to write Congressmen in Committees (1975) and Home Style: House Members in Their Districts (1978), which established him as a preeminent scholar of American politics. With Bill Riker, Fenno built the Rochester political science department. Riker focused on positive political science, while Fenno focused on establishing Rochester as a center for congressional studies and American politics. His most recent books include Going Home (2003), about African-American representatives in Congress, and Congress at the Grassroots (2000), about southern politics and political change.