Brave New University (AUDIO)

On this week’s edition of Real Politik public intellectual and academic iconoclast Darrell Hamamoto joins James to address an array of issues including the foundation-funded identity politics movement characterizing US college campuses in 2016. Hamamoto’s incisive socio-political research and commentary revealing the machinations of the modern power elite and knowledge machine have made him a significant force for meaningful awareness and change. Such efforts have been met with major resistance by his university employer and the larger forces governing today’s philanthropic and federally-dependent academic institutions.

Darrell Hamamoto is ranking professor Asian American Studies at University of California Davis. He holds degrees in political science, popular culture, and sociology, and is a graduate of University of California at Irvine’s Comparative Cultures doctoral program. A Fullbright Scholar (Japan) Hamamoto is presently the senior ranking professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at UC Davis. Throughout his 30 year academic career he has become a major figure in the study of media, race, and popular culture. Professor Hamamoto’s latest book is Servitors of Empire: Studies in the Dark Side of Asian America (TrineDay 2014). He is also the author of Monitored Peril: Asian Americans and the Politics of TV Representation and Nervous Laughter: Television Situation Comedy and Liberal Democratic Ideology.