Niall Palmer

Qualifications

• BA Swansea (1984)
• PhD Bristol (1989)

Personal Biography

After completing my PhD at Bristol, I undertook a 2-year Teaching and Research Fellowship with the university’s Politics department and then joined the American Studies department at the West London Institute from 1991-99. From 1999 to 2006, I taught on the American Studies programme at Brunel University, after which I became a member of the Department of Politics and History.

Research Overview

My research interests centre primarily upon American political history, though my writing and commentary extends up to and including modern US political issues. I have published historical studies of the Harding and Coolidge administrations and of US politics and society in the 1920s. Latest research analyses expansion and change in the powers and scope of executive authority during the early 1920s. I have also published work on (and contributed extensively to radio commentaries on) modern US political and electoral issues and events.

Current Projects

Whigs and Stewards: The Transitional Presidency of the Early 1920s (Journal article) (2012-13)

Front-Loaded Democracy: the influence of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary in the modern American election process (Journal article for the Journal of Political Marketing) (2012)

False Historiography:The Fall and Rise of Warren G. Harding. (book chapter) (2012-13)

Recently Completed Projects

The Veterans’ Bonus and the Evolving Presidency of Warren G. Harding (Journal article: Presidential Studies Quarterly 2008)

US Diplomacy: World War I Through World War II. (Co-authored project with Dr Martin H. Folly). Scarecrow Press. 2010.

“Tenure Reform and Presidential Power: The Single Six-Year Term Proposal”. Book chapter in Iwan Morgan (ed) Broken Government? American Politics in the Obama Era. (ISA-Brookings Institute. 2012)

PhD Supervision

Diane Smith: Governor Huey P. Long Jr; 2009 - 2017

Undergraduate Programmes

Module convenor

• Introduction to American Politics
• Issues in American Politics
• Media, Politics and Power in the US

Postgraduate Programmes

Module joint convenor

• The United States in World Affairs 1945-2001

• Admissions and recruitment (1999-2012)
• NSS (Politics) coordinator and TPTL (2012- )

• British Association of American Studies
• Historians of the Twentieth Century United States (HOTCUS)
• Fellow of the Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA)
• External examiner (PhD upgrades) for the ISA