Conference to examine Obama administration's foreign, domestic policy agendas

Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD) is hosting a three-day conference, March 6-8, to examine the implications of the Obama administration’s foreign and domestic policy agendas over the last four years in office.

Titled Barack Obama and American Democracy IV (BOAD): A National Conference for the Study of President Obama and Contemporary America, the event will bring together scholars, leaders and change agents to discuss, debate and analyze the meaning of the historic 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, paying close attention to issues of race, active citizenship and international affairs.

Several key faculty members, including the center’s director Matthew Whitaker and Alonzo Jones, dean of students for the Multicultural Student Center, will lend their voices to the discussion.

“The Barack Obama and American Democracy conference is particularly relevant for the ASU community, the New American University, because we at the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy believe in engaging in diverse and critical conversation about our past, present and future,” said Whitaker.

The annual conference is now in its fourth year. The BOAD conference was originally created by Tufts University (TU) and paved the way for a Center for the Study of Race and Democracy to be created at TU. Now a sister organization of the CSRD at ASU, Whitaker says he is overjoyed to carry on the tradition at ASU.

The CSRD serves as a source of expert opinion on the matters of race and democracy at the local, state, national and international levels. Researchers and practitioners affiliated with the center are tasked with expanding the study of race and democracy beyond the black/white binary to foster an understanding that race and participatory democracy intersect with gender, class, religion, sexuality and nationality.

This event is free and open to the public. Visit csrd.asu.edu/Obama to register now.