Guest Lecture by Cliff “Ubba” Kodero (Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA)
The Political Economy of Black Masculinity and Fatherlessness: The Obama Biographies
July 13, 2026, 5 pm, room P 7 (Philosophicum)
In this developing project, Kodero utilizes life writing to investigate the political economy of Black masculinity through the intersecting biographies of Barack, Malik, Mark, and George Obama. Moving beyond conventional biography, the study examines how a fractured patriarchal legacy produced vastly different masculine identities across distinct global landscapes. Central to this analysis is how each brother navigates complex social spaces between Black and white, negotiating identity across continents. By evaluating primary-source memoirs, the research demonstrates how the brothers deploy their narrative capital to leverage their family lineage, contest institutional erasure, and resist predetermined structural roles while producing vastly different expressions of manhood and Blackness.
Dr. Cliff “Ubba” Kodero is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. A scholar of international relations and global political economy, Dr. Kodero’s research uncovers how global structures, geography, and power intersect with personal identity. He is the co-editor of the newly released volume, Navigating Diaspora: Migrant Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity, and Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026), which examines how displacement and transnational social dynamics shape the modern migrant experience. He is a citizen of Kenya, grew up in a small town in Migori, Kenya, and is a lover of football and a father of two girls and a boy.
You can download the poster for the event here.
