Richard joined Queen Mary in 2020. Previously, he was a lecturer at Lancaster University. He has held visiting research and teaching positions at Yale University, Cambridge University, and Beijing Foreign Studies University. He studied at Cambridge and Oxford.

With a focus on race and American democratic development, he has written about African American candidates in predominantly white contexts, the ‘two Reconstructions’, liberal Republicans and civil rights, school segregation, the racial politics of Barack Obama’s Chicago, the fundraising strategies of working-class candidates, racially polarised partisanship, and the racial policies of the Obama and Trump administrations. Current projects include an analysis of US foreign policy through the lens of its domestic institutions, the ‘favourite son’ effect of presidents in their home state, and American populist traditions.

Richard Johnson is also interested in British politics, particularly the history of the Labour Party. He has written a number of pieces on Labour Party history, the left and the EU, UK trade policy, and psephology.