Robyn Magalit Rodriguez is an Filipina American professor, author, and activist. She is currently a professor and chair of the Department of Asian American Studies at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. In 2018, Rodriguez founded the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies; which is noted to be the first Filipino Studies center in the United States. She is a former associate professor at

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

Biography

Rodriguez received her BA at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

in 1996, and her MA (1999) and PhD (2005) from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

all in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

. Before coming to UC Davis in 2010, she was a visiting lecturer at

Ateneo de Manila University , mottoeng = Light in the Lord , type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution , established = December 10, 1859 , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuits) , academic_aff ...

, visiting professor at

University of Kassel The University of Kassel (german: link=no, Universität Kassel) is a university founded in 1971 located in Kassel, Hessen, in central Germany. As of February 2022 it had about 25,000 students and about 3300 staff, including more than 300 prof ...

, and associate professor at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

from 2005-2010. Rodriguez has been an ongoing proponent of implementing

Ethnic studies Ethnic studies, in the United States, is the interdisciplinary study of difference—chiefly race, ethnicity, and nation, but also sexuality, gender, and other such markings—and power, as expressed by the state, by civil society, and by indivi ...

as a California high school requirement. In response to recent criticisms of the proposed curriculum being non-representative of all groups, Rodriguez responded stating, "Ethnic studies as a name is kind of a misnomer. What we’re really contending with is race, the various kinds of inequality and exploitation for non-white people of color." In 2018, Rodriguez founded the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, named after the Filipino-American author

Carlos Bulosan Carlos Sampayan Bulosan (November 24, 1913 – September 11, 1956) was an English-language Filipino novelist and poet who immigrated to America on July 1, 1930. He never returned to the Philippines and he spent most of his life in the United St ...

, best known for his book ''

America Is in the Heart ''America Is in the Heart'', sometimes subtitled ''A Personal History'', is a 1946 semi-autobiographical novel written by Filipino American immigrant poet, fiction writer, short story teller, and activist, Carlos Bulosan.

.'' In October 2019, the foundation obtained $1,000,000 from the State of California with primary support from Representative

Rob Bonta Robert Andres Bonta (born September 22, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Attorney General of California, attorney general of California since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he pr ...

. In a press conference, Bonta expressed hopes that the sum be a "down payment" for ongoing funding. The funding is intended to contribute to graduate student fellowships and ongoing and upcoming research initiatives. The center hosts an annual research conference every May.

Research

The "Welga! Digital Archive" is an ongoing project documenting and preserving the contributions of Filipino-Americans, including

Philip Vera Cruz Philip Villamin Vera Cruz (December 25, 1904 – June 12, 1994) was a Filipino American labor leader, farmworker, and leader in the Asian American movement. He helped found the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), which later mer ...

, in the

Delano grape strike The Delano grape strike was a labor strike organized by the United Farm Workers, Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a predominantly Filipino and AFL-CIO-sponsored labor organization, against table grape growers in Delano, Califo ...

. The center is planning to conduct a national survey on Filipino-American health and well-being.

Bibliography

* ''In Lady Liberty's Shadow The Politics of Race and Immigration in New Jersey'' (2017), Rutgers University Press. * ''Asian-America: Sociological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives'' (2014), UK Polity Press. * ''Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World'' (2010), University of Minnesota Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Robyn Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American filipinologists University of California, Davis faculty Rutgers University faculty University of California, Santa Barbara alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Women orientalists American women academics 21st-century American women