As scholars try to get university administrators across the country to understand how distinct Filipino American studies are, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign program continues to expand.
Dr. Martin Manalansan IV once found himself wondering aloud to a West Coast colleague why Filipino diaspora scholars were flooding him with requests to review their papers or join their committees. The colleague reminded Manalansan that he was tenured, while most of the soliciting scholars weren’t. As one of a handful of tenured faculty in Filipino American studies nationally, he was automatically regarded as a mentor.
“Just as there is an old boys network to say certain things are important, we as Filipinos need to help each other by supporting each other’s research,” says Manalansan, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “People such as myself need to settle into these senior roles and explain why Filipino studies is important.”
UIUC is considered one of the major hubs nationally for Filipino American studies. But the fact that its core consists of only four tenured and tenure-track faculty members, including Manalansan, illustrates a historical disparity that exists among Asian Pacific Americans at U.S. colleges. Despite the diversity in this country’s Asian Pacific American population in general, the majority of university faculty hires are of East Asian descent.
“Japanese and Chinese are often a standin for Asian and Asian Pacific American,” says Manalansan, who’s also acting director of Asian American studies at UIUC.
His UIUC colleague, Dr. Augusto Espiritu, says Filipinos are often stereotyped and even nicknamed “Black Asians.”
“We’re perceived as good dancers, that we’ve got rhythm and throw good parties,” says Espiritu, an associate professor of history. “When I was in college, many Filipinos got involved in student politics and affirmative action issues. But we got more attention for our parties, our dancing. It’s a flattering stereotype, yet a negative one for Filipinos as well as Blacks.”
