James R. Brandon

An authority on kabuki theater, James Rodger Brandon received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1955, Brandon joined the Foreign Service for six years, working in Java and Japan. Upon his return to the United States in 1961 Brandon taught Asian theater at the University of Michigan's Department of Speech and Comparative Literature, where he directed his first two Kabuki productions in English. In 1968 Brandon joined the staff at the University of Hawai'i in Manoa, where he taught until his retirement in 2000.