Niels Bjerre-Poulsen

Curriculum

Niels Bjerre-Poulsen,
Associate Professor, Ph.D.
Center for American Studies,
Department of History and Civilization
University of Southern Denmark
Campusvej 55
DK-5230
Odense M, Denmark
Telephone +45 65 50 31 33
E-mail address [email protected]

Education
Ph.D., American History, University of California, Santa Barbara (1993)
Ph.D., History, University of Copenhagen (1993)
B.A., American Studies, University of Copenhagen (1986)
M.A., History, University of Copenhagen (1984)
Fulbright Scholar, 1987-88, 1990.
Current Position
Associate Professor in American History, politics and society at Center for American Studies, and the Danish Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Southern Denmark (2010-)
Previous Positions
Director, Center for the Study of the Americas, Copenhagen Business School (2004-2010)
Associate Professor, Department of International Culture and Communication, Copenhagen Business School (1988-2010)
Lecturer, American politics, Dept. of Political Science, University of Copenhagen (2000)
Lecturer, American History, Dept. of History, University of Aarhus (1993-1997)
Assistant Professor, American politics, Copenhagen Business School (1988-1993)
Lecturer, American Studies, Open University – University of Copenhagen (1989)
Teaching Assistant, Dept. of English, University of Copenhagen (1987)
Academic Researcher, Dept. of English, University of Copenhagen (1986-87)

Prizes
In 2015, Niels Bjerre-Poulsen won University of Southern Denmark’s award for research dissemination.

In 2005, Niels Bjerre-Poulsen received “FUHUs Formidlingspris” as recognition of his public outreach.

Niels Bjerre-Poulsens book Vietnamkrigen – en International Historie 1945-1975 was nominated for both ”History Book of the Year 2015” and “Læsernes Bogpris 2015”.

Research management and professional Activities
Niels Bjerre-Poulsen was Director of the Center for the Study of the Americas at CBS from May 2004 to September 2010. His work has included the management of center research projects, as well as establishing connections with international partners, i.e. through the American Studies Network – a network of research centers around Europe. Other professional activities include:

• President of Nordic Association for American Studies, 2005-2007
• Organizer of the biennial conference of the Nordic Association for American Studies in Copenhagen, Denmark, August 8-11, 2001 (with Eric Guthey).
• Organizing 10-15 lectures and conferences for Center for the Study of the Americas every year (2004-2010).
• Board member of the European Association for American Studies, 2005-2007
• Board member in the Danish Association for American Studies, 2001-2005.
• Co-editor of American Studies in Scandinavia, 1989-1995.
• Member of the Academic Council at CBS, 2007-2009
• Ph.D. committee at Copenhagen Business Schools, Aalborg University (International Studies), University of Southern Denmark (political Science), and University of Copenhagen (history).
• Has served on assessment committees for Assistant- and Associate professorships at University of Copenhagen (3 times), University of Southern Denmark (2 times), University of Aarhus (1 time), CBS (2 times), and University of Aalborg (3 times).
• Advising doctoral candidates (two at the moment).


Current research
Niels Bjerre-Poulsen’s major areas of research are the political history of the United States, American political culture, the American presidency and the foreign relations of the United States. He is concerned with the long-term cultural shifts within the United States and their impact upon politics, just as he looks at electoral processes, ideologies, structures and representations of power, and the making of public policy. A crucial element in the understanding of any given national or regional entity is to come to terms with not just the political and legal framework, but also the political culture – that is, “the values within which the political system operates.” The study of political culture is concerned with the ways in which power and the discourse of power is represented in or projected onto society (or segments of society). It also involves discussions of the framing of political discourses, symbolic representations of presidential power, and the struggles over collective memories.


Papers at international conferences include:

“Abandoning the Road to Serfdom: The Mont Pelerin Society and the Reconstruction of the Postwar German Economy,” Colloque international, “Les dimensions transnationales de L’anticommunisme de guerre froide: actions, reseaux, transferts”, Université de Fribourg, October 26-29, 2011.
Discussant, “Liberals and Conservatives at Mid-Century,” Society for U.S. Intellectual History, City University of New York, November 17-18, 2011.
“From Birchers to Birthers – analyzing “the Radical Right” then and now," Midwestern Political Science Association, annual conference, Chicago, April 22-25, 2010.
“The Eisenhower Administration’s Decision Not to Intervene in Dien Bien Phu, 1954; A Historiographical discussion”, American Political Science Group, St. Annes College, Oxford University, January 9-12, 2010.
Plenary lecturer at the biennial conference of the Nordic Association for American Studies in Tronheim, Norway, August, 2003
Speaker at the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University, “The United States In The 1980s: The Reagan Years”, 2005
Speaker at ”The Reagan Presidency; A Second-generation Reassessment.” University of California, Santa Barbara, March, 2002.
Speaker at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Los Angeles, April 2001.

Numerous lectures at universities and other institutions in Denmark and abroad,
Including University of Fribourg, The Danish Defense Academy, Baltic Defense College (Tartu, Estonia), Udenrigspolitisk Selskab, Danish Institute for International Studies, Danish Institute of Human Rights, and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Recent activities also include a public debate with Francis Fukuyama at Aarhus University/Danish School of Education (May 12, 2009). In August 2009, he organized a workshop on “recent trends in American History” at the Danish Historical Association’s meeting at University of Copenhagen. In May 2011, he was an ERASMUS visiting professor at the University of Vienna, in June 2012 he was an ERASMUS visiting professor at Ludwig Maximilian Universität in Munich, In June 2013 he was an ERASMUS visiting professor in American Studies at University of Leipzig, In May 2014, he was an ERASMUS visiting professor at American Studies, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz.


Public outreach
With more than twelve hundred interviews, Niels Bjerre-Poulsen is one of the most widely used commentators on American politics for Danish public radio and the national television networks. In the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 he served as an expert for Danish TV2 in their coverage and on their website. In 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2016 he served in the same function for Denmark’s Radio. Niels Bjerre-Poulsen is also a frequent contributor of opinions and analyses on American politics to Danish journals and newspapers



Publications

Dissertation
Organizing the American Right, 1945-1965, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1993

Books
Vietnamkrigen – en International Historie 1945-1975 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2015) [The Vietnam War – An International History 1945-1975]
Vietnam; Den Kolde Krigs Slagmark, 1945-1975 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2016)
Projections of Power in the Americas (ed. With Jan Gustafsson & Helene Balslev) (Oxford: Routledge, 2012)
USA: Historie og Identitet. Revised and expanded version (Århus: Systime, 2010)
Bushs Amerika (with David Gress, Jørgen Dragsdahl og Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard) (Copenhagen: People’s Press, 2005)
Right Face; Organizing the Conservative Movement, 1945-65 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press/University of Copenhagen, 2002).
(The book has been favourably reviewed in The Journal of American History, 90.4, The American Historical Review, 108/5, National Review May 5, 2003, Choice October 2003, as well as in a number of Scandinavian journals of history and some Danish newspapers. Excerpts from the review can be found here: http://www.mtp.hum.ku.dk/details.asp?eln=200119#press).
USA: Historie og Identitet (Copenhagen: Gads Forlag, 2000)
American Isolationism: From Old to New (with Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard)
(Uppsala: The Swedish Institute for North American Studies, 1997)
Amerika og Amerikanere (Copenhagen: FUHU, 1996)
”USA efter 1945” in Mogens Carstensen et. al (eds.), Verdensanalyse (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1993)
USA og Sovjetunionen efter 1945; Samfund og Politik (with Carsten Pape) (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1990)


Selected Articles
“Here, we see the future:” The Obama administration’s Pivot to Asia” in John Dumbrell & Edward Ashbee (eds.), The Obama Presidency and the Politics of Change (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016)
”Midten er ikke nok”, Ræson 02/2016, pp. 11-13.
”Velkommen i Trumps Verden”, Ræson 02/2016, pp. 2-10.
”Udfordreren”, Ræson, 03/2015, pp. 57-65.
”Tilfellet Trump”, Innsikt, Issue 8, September 2016, pp. 59-67.
“William F. Buckley, Jr. – Den konservative bevægelses dørvogter” in Astrid Nonbo Andersen & Christian Olaf Christiansen (eds.), Amerikanske Tænkere; 14 intellektuelle der ændrede USA (København: Informations Forlag, 2016).
”The Loaded Gun: The Obama Administration and the Legacy of George W. Bush’s “War on Terror”, in Eva Maria Lassen & Erik Andre Andersen: Europe and the Americas; Transatlantic Approaches to Human Rights (Leyden: Brill Academic Publishers, Incorporated, 2015), pp. 337-360.
“USA”, in Clement Kjersgaard: Verdens Magter (Copenhagen: Ræson Medier, 2014), pp. 8-48.
”The Mont Pelerin Society and the Rise of the Postwar Neoliberal Counter-Establishment”, in Luc van Dongen, Stéphanie Roulin and Giles Scott-Smith, Transnational Anti-Communism and the Cold War (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
“Standing Athwart History, Yelling Stop: Te Emergence of American Movement Conservatism, 1945-1965, American Studies in Scandinavia, Vol 45: 1-2 (2014), pp. 15-33.
”Republikanernes Talrige Obama-angreb Giver Bagslag”, i Anders Agner Pedersen & Jens Aagard, Fem År med Obama – Forandring, Vi Kunne Tro På? (København: Rosenkilde & Bahnhof, 2014), p. 252-258.
”Er Tiden med Obama Nu?”, Ræson No. 1, 2013, pp. 52-60.
”På en Måde Er Alt i Amerika Liberalisme”: Koldkrigsliberalismens storhed og fald, 1945-1974, i Jeppe Nevers, Niklas Olsen & Casper Sylvest (ed.) Liberalisme; Danske og Internationale Perspektiver (Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2013), p. 247-269.
”Hadetale: Det Amerikanske Paradoks,” in Dansk PEN (ed.), Hatespeech: Fra Hadetale til Hadesyn (Copenhagen: Informations Forlag, 2013)
”Baggrund: Konservatisme i Amerika” Ræson, no. 1, 2012, pp. 18-24.
”Hvem Kan Slå Obama?” Ræson, No. 1, 2011, pp. 66-72.
”Obama Får det Svært” (panel discussion), Ræson No. 2, 2010, pp. 18-22.
“Sundhedsreform Mod Alle Odds,” Ræson 6, Nr. 2, Efterår 2009
”Obama’s West Wing,” Ræson 6, Nr. 2, Efterår 2009
”American Conservatives Trapped in the Age of Reagan,” in Contemporary Issues in the Americas, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Copenhagen: Center for the Study of the Americas, CBS, 2009), pp. 5-10.
“The Bush Administration and the Theory of the Unitary Executive,” in Helene Balslev, Niels Bjerre-Poulsen and Jan Gustafsson (eds.), Projections of Power in the Americas (Oxford: Routledge, 2012).
“Puritans in the Wilderness; American Foreign Policy as the Loss and Reassertion of National Innocence”, in Per Durst Andersen & Elsebeth Lange (ed.), Culture & Mentality, North, South, East & West (Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press, 2009), pp. 197-213.
”American Conservatives Trapped in the Age of Reagan,” in Contemporary Issues in the Americas, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Copenhagen: Center for the Study of the Americas, CBS, 2009), pp. 5-10.
“Krisen må ikke gå til spilde, “ Ræson 5, No.. 01 (Spring 2009), pp. 38-42.
“Reformchancen,” Ræson, No. 2 (December 2008), pp. 24-29.
”The Road to Mount Rushmore; The Conservative Commemoration Crusade for Ronald Reagan,” in Gareth Davies & Cheryl Hudson, Ronald Reagan and the 1980s (Houndmills: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008).
“Det Amerikanske Præsidentvalg 2008” (special theme), Gyldendals Online Leksikon (www.gyldendalsleksikon.dk), 2008
“10 Profiler i USA”, Ræson, No. 1 (May 2008), pp. 22-26
“Ti Ting at Holde Øje med i Amerika,” in Ræson, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring 2007), pp. 6-13.
(with Mads Fuglede) "Arrogante Amerikanere og Europæiske EUnukker: Transatlantiske Fjendebilleder", i Kulturmøde og konfliktløsning: Danmark-Europa-Verden (København: Højskolernes Hus, 2004).
”Hvor Blev Amerika Født? Gangs of New York som national skabelsesmyte” in Helle Porsdam (ed.), Coming to a Theatre Near You (Odense: Odense University Press, 2005)
”Det man ikke ved…; Hemmeligholdelse og magt i Bush-regeringen,” Samfundsøkonomen, No. 4 (oktober 2004), pp. 36-43.
”Paranoia Americana; Konspirationstænkning i amerikansk politisk kultur”, Kritik (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2002).
”USA: Republik eller Imperium? ’Den gode krig’ og revisionisterne” in Carsten Due-Nielsen (ed.), Festskrift til Inga Floto; Historie Danmark – Europa – USA (Copenhagen: Den danske historiske Forening, 2002).
”Hunting in the Pond Where the Ducks Are’; Conservative Opposition to Civil Rights Legislation Since 1964” in Helle Porsdam (ed.), Folkways and Law Ways: Law in American Studies (Odense: Odense University Press, 2001)
”’At the Mercy of the Accident of Personality;’ Presidential Character and the 2000 Election,” Anglofiles, December 2000, No. 118, pp. 19-24.
”Passion Plus Archives; An Interview with Warren F. Kimball” American Studies in Scandinavia, Vol. 29, No. 2 (1997), pp. 195-205.
”A Choice Not an Echo” Humaniora, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1994), pp. 7-11.
”Reagan-revolutionen Tur/Retur,” Engelsk Meddelelser No. 75 (April, 1992), pp. 10-15.
”The Heritage Foundation: A Second-Generation Think Tank” Journal of Policy History, Vol. 3, No. 2, (1991), pp. 152-173.
”The Transformation of the Fundamentalist Movement, 1925-1942” American Studies in Scandinavia, Vol. 20 (1988), pp. 91-103.
”Populism: A Brief Introduction to a Baffling Notion” American Studies in Scandinavia, Vol. 18 (1986), pp. 27-36.

In addition, Niels Bjerre-Poulsen has written more than 130 articles on American history for Den Store Danske Encyclopædi (The Great Danish Encyclopedia). He has been editor of entries on US History for the supplemental volumes of Den Store Danske Encyclopædi and is currently the editor of entries on American History for the online version of the encyclopedia.


Reviews
”En mand af Folket?” anmeldelse af Poul Høis Bushland, Kristeligt Dagblad, 20. januar 2010, s. 5.
“Ordensmagten,” anmeldelse af Lars Erslev Andersen, Den Amerikanske Orden; USA og det moderne Mellemøsten, Weekendavisen 23. maj 2003, ”Bøger”, p. 11.
Regin Schmidt: Red Scare. FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000), in Historisk Tidsskrift, Vol. 101, No. 1, 2001, pp. 224-230.
”Journeys in Evangelical America” (review essay), American Studies in Scandinavia, Vol. 24 (1992)


Selected articles from Danish newspapers, journals and websites

”Obama var en fremragende præsident” (kronik), Politiken, 21. januar 2017.
”Dream Baby Dream”, Filmmagasinet Ekko, #74, Januar-marts 2017, p. 88-91.
“Balance. USA må træde varsomt i Krim-sag” (analyse), Politiken, 9. marts 2014, Kultur, p. 12.
”Kløften mellem USA og Europa” (med Mads Fuglede), program til forestillingen ”Øjeblikket” på Betty Nansen Teatret (forår 2009), pp. 18-25.
”The Selfmade Man – Kampen mellem idealisme og grådighed i den amerikanske sjæl”, Det Kongelige Teaters program til stykket ”Alverdens Rigdomme” af Eugene O’Neill (4. December 2009)
”2. Halvleg - Et År med Obama”, Magasinet F! (december 2009).
”Ekspert Niels Bjerre-Poulsen om sygesikringen i USA,” Dansk Industri’s hjemmeside (31. marts, 2009)
”Undren over Henrik Fogh,” Berlingske Tidende (September 11, 2008), p. 6.
”Niels Bjerre-Poulsen om 'Amerikanske tilstande'” (A critique of Henrik Fogh-Rasmussens book Amerikanske Tilstande (July 3, 2007) http://www.amerikansketilstande.dk/
”Jordskredsvalg: Øretæve. Republikanerne får tæsk i november” Politiken, 2. Sektion, p. 7.
”Magtkamp: Glubsk. Har Bush forspist sig på magten?” Politiken (13. september 2006), p. 5.
”11. september og frygtens tveæggede sværd,” Kristeligt Dagblad (11. september 2006), p. 7.
“Frelste Ronald Reagan den vestlige verden?” Politiken (20. januar, 2006), 2. sektion, p. 7
”Americana. George W. Bush og genvalgets forbandelse” Politiken (20. december, 2005), 2. Sektion, p. 5.
”Højesteret. Nye ansigter kan tippe magtbalancen” (analysis), Politiken (september 6, 2005), Section 2, p. 5.
”Ledig plads ved verdens vigtigste dommerbord” (analysis), Politiken (september 4, 2005), section 3, p. 7.
”Manden, der blev bortdømt,” Politiken (July 2, 2005), Debat & Bøger, p. 1&4.
”De neokonservative høge flyver ikke samme vej” (analysis), Politiken (March 18, 2005), section 2, p. 7.
”Supermagt. Verdens mægtigste mand vender blikket indad,” (analysis) Politiken, (January 20, 2005), Section 2, p. 7.
”Vil Bush træde frem?” (post-election analysis) Urban (November 5, 2004), p. 18.
”Kom bare an!” (analysis of John Kerry’s chances in the presidential election), Politiken (March 11, 2004), Section 2, p. 7.
”Høvdinge uden Indianere” (interview), Nyhedsmagasinet Ræson, 27.August
(http://www.raeson.dk/index270803.htm)
“Myter om republikanerne og missilskjoldet,” Politiken (June 14, 2001), Section 2, p. 5.
”Den Bekvemme Humanisme,” Politiken (3. juni, 1999), 2. Sektion, p. 7