Guest lecture and panel debate at the Center for the Study of the Americas
Obama: Year One
One year ago, Barack Obama won a sweeping victory in the U.S. presidential election, with promises of “change you can believe in.” Has he and his administration delivered so far? How has the American political landscape changed in that year? What is the nature of the opposition to his political agenda? What has his tenure in the White House revealed about his political outlook, his style of leadership, his ability to make decisions? How is he likely going to handle major challenges such as health care, climate change, financial reform, and not least the war in Afghanistan and other international conflicts in his next year in office? These are among the pertinent questions that our invited speaker and panelists will address at this event.
The Center for the Study of the Americas is honored to welcome Professor Ruth O’Brien from the City University of New York and the Center for American Progress as our keynote speaker for this event. We are also honored to introduce our visiting Fulbright Professor for 2009-2010, Stephen Amberg from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and to welcome back our Adjunct Professor, Carl Pedersen.
Programme:
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14.30-15.30 |
Keynote address: Ruth O’Brien, Out of Many, We are One:
Obama and the 3rd American Liberal Tradition The talk argues that President Barack Obama’s political vision represents a third, lesser known and harder traveled American tradition of small “d” democratic progressivism or populism. The talk discusses five aspects of Obama’s thought that identifies him with this third tradition which echoes the Three Musketeers’ cry: “out of many we are one.” Obama’s distinctive vision helps us better understand not only his administration’s accomplishments but his failures as well. Discussant: Carl Pedersen, Adjunct professor at CBS |
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15.45-17.15 |
Panel debate: The Obama administration’s first year in office: “Change you can believe in”? |
Organized by:
The Center for the Study of the Americas
Registration:
All are welcome Registration not necessary
Further information: Please contact Merete Borch mh.iadh@cbs.dk
Panelists:
Ruth O’Brien is Professor at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, (Political Science & American Studies) as well as Adjunct Affiliated Scholar for the Center for American Progress and Book series editor of Princeton University Press-- the Public Square, which showcases public intellectuals on politics; Her most recent publications include the edited volume Telling Stories Out of Court: Narratives about Women and Workplace Discrimination (Cornell university press). She is the author of Bodies in Revolt: Gender, Disability, and a Workplace Ethic of Care (Routledge Press); Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act (Oxford University Press); Crippled Justice: The History of Modern Disability Policy in the Workplace (University of Chicago Press); Workers’ Paradox: The Republican Origins of the New Deal Labor Policy, 1886-1935 (University of North Carolina Press), as well as numerous articles.
Stephen Amberg is Associate Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio and visiting Fulbright Chair in American Studies at the Center for the Study of the Americas for 2009-2010. Stephen Amberg’s primary research areas are the political development of U.S. economic policies, the adjustments of welfare states to globalization, and institutional design and learning processes in politics. He is currently writing about the bailout of the American automobile industry.
Carl Pedersen is Adjunct Professor at the Center for the Study of the Americas, CBS. Carl Pedersen's research ranges widely, from African-American studies to US politics and society and Caribbean history. His latest book is Barack Obama: Bending the Arc of History (2009)
Niels Bjerre-Poulsen is Associate Professor at CBS and Director of the Center for the Study of the Americas. His primary fields of research are American political culture, US history and foreign policy, and the development of the American presidency in particular. He is currently co-writing a book on the international history of the Vietnam War.
Edward Ashbee is Associate Professor at the International Center for Business and Politics and the Center of the Study of the Americas, CBS. He has written extensively about US politics and society. His publications include studies of elections, court rulings, and George W. Bush's presidency. More recently, his work has concentrated on political economy and economic policymaking in both the US and Britain. His next book, The US Economy Today, will be published by Manchester University Press in 2010.