Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America

Mark Ledwidge, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and American Studies, has been appointed Vacation Visiting Research Fellow at the prestigious Rothermere American Institute (RAI), University of Oxford. Dr Ledwidge, who is also a founding member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Network on the Presidency of Barack Obama, researches the relationship and impact of African-Americans on U.S. foreign policy. It provides a unique insight into the effect race and ethnicity has had upon U.S. foreign policy, as well as highlighting how race has been relatively excluded from mainstream theories in international relations. Kevern Verney is a Professor in American History and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom. Together with Professor Inderjeet Parmar and Dr Mark Ledwidge he is currently a co-organizer of the Barack Obama Research Network funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Other Network partners include the University of Warwick and the University of Middleburg in the Netherlands.Inderjeet Parmar currently teaches in the Department of International Politics at City University London, having for the previous 21 years taught at the University of Manchester. His latest book, Foundations of the American Century: Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power was published in 2012 by Columbia University Press. He is President of the British International Studies Association and Chair of the Obama Research Network.