Kendrick Backmon
Ph.D. Student | Law and Public Policy
Brief Biography:
Kendrick was born in 1996 and raised in South Carolina. He is passionate about education policy and social justice. He enjoys spending time with his family and friends. Kendrick is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 
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Kendrick's research interests include unilateral presidential power, presidential decision-making, constraints on presidential power, education law, civil rights, and social inequality. He is passionate about investigating the president's role in advancing civil rights, examining presidential power in congressional and judicial policy vacuums, and promoting inclusive enrollment practices for honors programs in higher education. A complete summary of Kendrick's research interests and topics can be found on the Scholarship page.
Kendrick has a dual research focus that spans the fields of political science and education. For political science, Kendrick's primary area of inquiry engages this question: how do policy vacuums invite unilateral presidential power? This question has generated papers and research ideas about emergent civil rights and the capacity of the president to act unilaterally in the absence of legislative and judicial activity regarding public policy. In the field of education, Kendrick's primary scholarly interests include inclusive honors education models in higher education and within the K-12 setting. In 2020, United States v. Fordice became the anchoring case for ongoing research into contemporary systemic inequalities in higher education. He began the research and writing phase for a forthcoming dissertation about United States v. Fordice in September 2022. Prior to his graduate studies, Kendrick served as a distinguished college senator and activist for four years. Kendrick also served as an intern on Capitol Hill in the United States Senate, the Obama Foundation's Community Leadership Corps, and with the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina as a college activist raising awareness about voting rights and civil rights, for which he received the Flame of Inspiration Award from ACLU of SC. |
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Favorite Presidential Quote
"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."
— President Barack Obama |
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