Upcoming public event: “Governors, Legislators, and the Academy”

On Thursday, May 11, join us for a free online public presentation, “Governors, Legislators, and the Academy”, with Isaac Kamola, PhD.

A recording of the presentation can be found here: https://youtu.be/Okl9G1vLXUc

Isaac Kamola is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Trinity College. He received his BA from Whitman College, his MA and PhD from the University Minnesota.

His research examines the university as a site of world politics. He is the co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money: Manufacturing a Campus Culture War and Making the World Global: U.S. Universities and the Production of the Global Imaginary. His article “Dear Administrators: To Protect Your Faculty From Right Wing Attacks, Follow the Monet” was published in the AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom. Dr. Kamola has consulted with the AAUP on legislative initiatives aimed at interfering with higher education institutions. 

With regard to recent actions to change higher education in Florida, Kamola commented:

“Three years ago, many people were starting to demand a structural transformation of U.S. society. The right saw and heard this demand and freaked out. They weaponized [critical race theory] and Black Lives Matter turning both into villains. The right then made this a lot platform but what DeSantis has done is to bring public education directly into this.”

Kamola added that because the right has a effective echo chamber, their media and think tanks repeatedly “pump out the message that education about race, gender, or sexuality is a threat to the culture and an effort to destroy America.”