This year UC Berkeley students are fortunate to have the chance to take Southeast Asian Studies 120: Philippine Diaspora Literature, taught by Dr. Joi Barrios (PhD, University of the Philippines at Diliman). This is particularly an exciting year for the Pilipino student community as the students now have never had the opportunity to take such a course before, and will have the pleasure of looking forward to another Philippine Studies course (topic yet to be determined) in the spring semester.

But why does this matter so much?

UC Berkeley, while housing a department in South/Southeast Asian Studies and home to about 900 Pilipino students, continues to lack a serious commitment to Philippine/Pilipino-American Studies. Students in previous years have been able to enroll in Tagalog, Asian American Studies 124: Filipino American History, and Asian American Studies 175: Contemporary Narratives on the Philippines in the United States, but these courses have not always been offered. In fact they exist due to the organizing efforts of Pilipino students at UC Berkeley. Demands made in the late 1980s/early 1990s led to the hiring of a full-time lecturer, Irma Pena, to teach Tagalog as an accredited university language program in 1992.

 In 2004, after 35 years of struggling, Pilipino students welcomed Dr. Catherine Ceniza Choy as the first tenure-tracked professor hired specializing in Pilipino/American history.

 Although Pilipino students have been on the Berkeley campus since the early 1900s, only recently have courses been taught catering to the needs of Pilipino students, as well as recognizing this community's presence and contributions to the United States.

So what is up with the academy? Why are courses relating to the Philippines and Pilipino/Americans continuing to be hard to find at Cal?

For this case in particular, I think it is symptomatic of the larger issues surrounding US colonialism in the Philippines, and the historical amnesia that persists regarding the colonial US-Philippine relationship. Studying the US as an empire does not fit into the traditional disciplines. Furthermore, by excluding certain subject matter from being taught, the academy dictates what is acceptable knowledge and what is not. Ethnic Studies continues to be under attack as many would say it is not a legitimate discipline, emphasizing the traditional programs of sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, etc.

It is quite appalling that UC Berkeley's South/Southeast Asian Studies department lacks a specialist in the Philippines, when it has been a major presence throughout history, whether as a strategic colonial foothold for expansion into Asia, a World Bank funding recipient, a major exporter of human labor and what have you.

Dr. Barrios' appointment this year and the courses she is teaching are significant. Her presence signifies the long-term absence of Philippine Studies, and how it has not been a priority for the department or the campus. Students should be able to benefit from Philippine Studies courses year-round, and not just when there is a visiting scholar.

At the same time, when courses and scholars such as Dr. Barrios come into our lives on this campus, we as students should take these classes and approach them with an eye for serious academic engagement. This is something I will expand in a later post.