Peter Burns is the author of two books, Electoral Politics Is Not Enough: Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Urban Politics (State University of New York Press, 2006) and Success in College: From C’s in High School to A’s in College (Rowman Education, 2006).

Professor Burns has written and published extensively on governance in New Orleans and the rebuilding of the city after Hurricane Katrina. His research on these subjects has appeared in, among other places, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Marion Orr’s edited volume entitled Transforming the City: Community Organizing and the Challenge of Political Change (University Press of Kansas, 2007).