Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies receives $1M in state funding
Funding to support wide-scale Filipino research survey, media justice lab, advocacy, education efforts
By Graschelle Fariñas Hipolito for The California Aggie on November 21, 2019
"The Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies at UC Davis received a $1 million allocation in state funding to expand its work in Filipino research studies, advocacy and education.
Dr. Robyn Rodriguez, professor and chair of the Department of Asian American Studies, launched the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies initiative in 2018. With Filipino Americans being one of the largest and fastest growing Asian American groups, Rodriguez saw the need to create a center for Filipino studies.
The center builds on the work of the Welga Project – an initiative led by Rodriguez and Director of Archives and Public History Jason Sarmiento – that focused on documenting and preserving the history of Filipino Americans’ contribution to the farmworker movement in California, such as with the Delano Grape Strike.
With its inception as a grassroots community effort, the Bulosan Center developed into the first and only research center focused on the Filipino American diasporic experience based at a major research university in the country.
A team of undergraduate interns and leaders, including UC Davis doctoral students and scholar-activists, continue to contribute to the field of critical Filipino studies on a local and national scale and maintain their pillars of research, advocacy, and education through the Bulosan Center."