Joe Goddard lectures, teaches, and writes on American politics, society, and contemporary American history at the Department of English, Germanic, and Romance Studies, Copenhagen University. Major research projects have focused on the intersection of the city and the environment since 1945, while pilot projects have dealt with the role of race and gender in the 2008 elections, the construction of the American Bicentennial, the role of children's literature in the creation of ideas, and immigration in contemporary America. Goddard co-ordinates his research within the informal Contemporary America project and network which he co-directs with Russell Duncan.

Goddard's publications include: Contemporary America (2009: with Russell Duncan) PalgraveMacmillan, London; "Landscape and Ambience on the Urban Fringe: From Agricultural to Imagined Countryside" (2009) in Environment and History, White Horse Press; and "Virginia Lee Burton's Little House in Popular consciousness: Fuelling Postwar Environmentalism and Anti-urbanism?" (forthcoming) in The Journal of Urban History, Sage Publications.

Since defending his dissertation, Goddard has given presentations, lectured, or chaired panels at the American Society for Environmental History bi-annual conference, the Nordic Association of American Studies Bi-annual conference, Copenhagen Business School, Gender and Art conference at Halic University, History and Memory at Bahecesir University, as well as giving working paper and outreach lectures at the University of Copenhagen.

Goddard has taught at the University of Copenhagen since 1997, and also taught at Copenhagen Business School from 1996-2002. He is also a current member of the CBS examiners' corps. Goddard has taught over twenty undergraduate and elective courses, and eight courses at Master's level. He has advised eighteen Master's thesis students and many more Bachelor projects. Goddard has co-organized eleven academic excursions to the U.S. under the auspices of the Contemporary America Project (Washington D.C.; Boston, Mass; and New York City). The excursion engages major political institutions, think tanks, experts, and cultural luminaries in a continuing dialog. Cumulatively, approximately three hundred students have taken part.

Goddard defended his doctoral dissertation, The Creation of Penurbia: a Geography of the Heart, 1945-2005 in October 2005, and is currently preparing his doctoral research for publication as a monograph. Goddard also holds a MA degree in Contemporary History from the University of Bristol, and a BA in History and Danish from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.