Filipino American History

Catalog description

This course surveys the history of Filipino immigrants and Filipino Americans in the United States, highlighting intersections of U.S. empire, Philippine diasporas, and systemic racism and resistance in the United States. Focusing on the last century and a half to the present, students will examine the Philippine-American War (1899-1913) and subsequent U.S.-Philippine relations as foundational to Filipino migration, and will explore diverse Filipino American experiences across the United States from Hawaii to New York and from Alaska to Louisiana. The class will investigate the lives of Filipino migrants as non-citizen U.S. "nationals" who both navigated and challenged labor exploitation, racial segregation, anti-miscegenation laws, racial violence, and other forms of institutionalized racism, and will study the experiences of Filipino Americans who have faced unequal access to rights and resources despite their birthright U.S. citizenship. Students will analyze how Filipino immigrants and/or Filipino Americans have asserted their agency as agricultural laborers in multiracial coalitions striking for better work conditions; as U.S. military enlistees seeking a stable income and family life; as Filipina immigrant nurses and other professionals sending remittances to the Philippines; and as activists in the Asian American Movement protesting gentrification in the United States and the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. Furthermore, the class will assess how undocumented Filipinos expose contested interpretations of citizenship and immigration law, and how U.S. born Filipino Americans grapple with issues of identity, community, and generational divides. The latter includes college students performing in Philippine Cultural Nights, second generation Filipino Americans attending study abroad programs in the Philippines, and individuals identifying as mixed race. Students will learn how to critically analyze primary sources (such as political cartoons, laws, court cases, and personal accounts) and secondary sources, including scholarship connecting studies on U.S. empire with Asian American studies.