Today on the Radio Activist, Suzanne LaGrande discusses how higher education has changed in the last thirty years with Herb Childress and Henry A. Giroux. Herb Childress is author of The Adjunct Underclass: How America's Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students, and Their Mission. Over the past few decades, the job of college professor has been utterly transformed—for the worse. As many as seventy percent of American professors are working course-to-course, with few benefits, little to no security, and extremely low pay. Drawing on his own firsthand experience and that of other adjuncts to show the damage that is wrought by contingency, not only on the adjunct faculty themselves, but also on students, the permanent faculty and administration, and the nation. How can we say that we value higher education when we treat educators like desperate day laborers? For more about his work, visit Herbchildress.com
Next, Suzanne talks with writer and cultural critic Henry A. Giroux about how corporate values have changed the nature of higher education and the connections between the dismantling of public education and the rise of fascism in the U.S. Henry A Giroux is well-known for his groundbreaking work in critical pedagogy and has just published The Terror of The Unforseen, a searing takedown of the populist authoritarian vision of America. The book examines the resurgence of fascism in the age of Donald Trump’s presidency. the language of hatred, state-sanctioned racism, casino capitalism, and fear-mongering at federal and local levels. For more about his work, visit HenryAGiroux.com
- KBOO