Finally taking root: 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

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, April 3, 2008 by Lydia Lum

UIUC hired Manalansan in 1999. A year later came Espiritu, who also has researched Filipino intellectuals and writers born in the early 1900s.

More recently, two junior faculty have joined them. Dr. Lisa Cacho, an interdisciplinary scholar, researches the cultural and literary interface between Filipino and Mexican Americans. An assistant professor, she works in Latina/o studies, Asian American studies, gender and women's studies and the English department. Dr. Jose Capino, assistant professor of English and cinema studies, examines film as a vehicle for the histories and cultures of U.S. colonialism, Filipino postcoloniality and immigration.

As the Filipino faculty core has grown and evolved, the number of graduate students studying diaspora applying to UIUC has increased too.

"We're a product of later ascendancy and blooming, but we're coming into our own" Manalansan says.

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