Episode 10 – Robert Perkinson
Ashley and Wren sit down with historian and educator Robert Perkinson to explore the intersections of incarceration, higher education, and public dialogue. Robert shares how his path from student activism to academia eventually brought him to Hawaiʻi and to the University of Hawaiʻi’s Better Tomorrow Speaker Series, a program designed to bring complex social issues into open, community-centered conversations.
Together they examine how systems such as mass incarceration and immigration detention shape society, and why prison should be a last resort rather than a default response. The conversation also looks at the role universities can play in social change by producing knowledge, connecting diverse voices, and creating space for big ideas to meet real-world implementation. At its core, the episode reflects a shared belief that progress happens when people come together to question assumptions and imagine better futures.
-
-
Robert Perkinson is the Director of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series and an Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He is the author of Texas Tough: The Rise of a Prison Empire, a history of American punishment, and his work focuses on race, criminal justice, and U.S. political history.
-
@robert_perkinson
@uh_btss
@uhmanoanews
-