Robert Perkinson received his B.A. in History from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1994 and his Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University in 2001. His teaching and research interests include: crime and punishment, race and politics, U.S. social and political history, globalization, terrorism, and foreign policy.

Perkinson’s current project, titled Texas Tough: The Rise of a Prison Empire, is a history of American punishment with a focus on the country’s most incarcerated and politically influential state, Texas. Examining the dynamics of race, crime, culture, and politics from slavery to the present, it argues that Texas has served as the crucible of a uniquely harsh, racialized, and profit-driven style of punishment that became a template for the nation in the post civil-rights era. Based on archival, legal, cultural, and ethnographic sources, Texas Tough promises not only a richly textured history of the nation’s flagship penal system but critical insights into modern American politics. Charting the enduring influence of slavery and segregation on American life, the book casts new light on the rise of southern conservatism, the collapse of the social welfare state, and carceral elements of the War on Terror. Texas Tough is forthcoming from Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt.
For more information, see www.texastough.com

In addition to his book project, Perkinson has written in both scholarly and popular forums on a broad range of political, social, and cultural topics. His articles have addressed the rise and fall of convict leasing, the effects of supermax incarceration, American foreign policy since September 11, the legacy of the World Bank in Asia, the aftermath of the U.S. air war in Laos, nationalism in northern Ireland, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and Native American environmental activism. As a columnist for the Boulder Weekly and other newspapers, he has commented on a wide range of contemporary issues, from affirmative action to gun control to Abu Ghraib. He has lectured at universities from Seoul to Vienna to Luanda and has appeared on numerous radio and television talk shows.

Student activism originally kindled Perkinson's desire to become a historian, and he remains committed to political engagement beyond the academy. In the 1980s and 1990s, he led student delegations to El Salvador, Cuba, and Angola; established a free HIV-testing program at CU Boulder; organized for graduate student unionization at Yale; and co-founded a criminal justice reform coalition in Connecticut. He has served on the board of the faculty union, the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly, and is currently a board member of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i.

Perkinson's courses at UH Manoa include: Crime and Punishment in American History, American Empire, America & the World, World War II in America and Hawai'i, the American West, and Slavery and Unfree Labor.

When not at work, Perkinson enjoys roughwater swimming, trail running, cooking, carousing, and rabble-rousing. Actually, Perkinson used to engage in these activities. Since having a baby, he enjoys going to the playground and watching “Elmo’s World.”