Scholars
Dr. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez
Dr. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez is an Associate Professor of Sociology. Dr. Francisco’s academic interests include: global and transnational sociology, migration and immigration studies, diaspora with a special interest on the Philippine migration, gender and the family, racial and ethnic relations in the U.S., labor, transnational social movements with regard to migrant workers, and international political economy. Her current book project explores the dynamics of gender and technology of care work in Filipino transnational families in the Philippines and the U.S. Through an examination of neoliberal immigration policies and market forces, Francisco contextualizes the shifts in the long-standing transnational family formation in the Philippines. Dr. Francisco research program includes a transnational study of Filipino migrant mothers in New York City and their families left behind in Manila and participatory action research with Filipino immigrants working as caregivers in the U.S. In journals like Critical Sociology, Working USA, The Philippine Sociological Review and International Review of Qualitative Research, Dr. Francisco also writes on the transnational activism that emerges from the social conditions of migration, separation and migrant labor.
Dr. Joy Sales
Joy Sales is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. She studies social movements, migration, labor, race, and diaspora, specifically the history of radical activism in the Filipino American community, including the movement against dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos and the leadership of Filipinos in the United Farm Workers. Her manuscript is tentatively called, We Are Revolution: Empire, Diaspora, and Transnational Filipino/a Activism. Dr. Sales earned her B.A. in History from Grinnell College, where she was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Northwestern University. She has published in Amerasia Journal, Diplomatic History, and the anthologies, Our Voices, Our Histories: Asian American and Pacific Islander Women and Filipino American Transnational Activism: Diasporic Politics among the Second Generation. Dr. Sales’s work is informed by her involvement in GABRIELA, an alliance of progressive organizations in the Philippines and around the world dedicated to the rights and liberation of Filipino women and LGBTQ+ communities.
Dr. Michael Viola
Michael Joseph Viola is Associate Professor at Saint Mary's College of California in the Justice, Community & Leadership (JCL) program and affiliate faculty in the Ethnic Studies program. As an educator and scholar, Dr. Viola has dedicated his professional life to centering the experiences of historically marginalized, extracted, and oppressed communities in this country, a commitment connected to his family’s history as immigrants. Dr. Viola’s parents immigrated to the United States in 1970. They moved to Fresno, Calif., where he grew up. In his research, Dr. Viola explores the consequences when educational curriculums and popular culture often fail to mention or center the historical contributions of Filipino/a/x Americans to social justice struggles in this country. His research contributes to the interdisciplinary fields of critical educational studies (critical pedagogy, critical race theory, popular education); ethnic studies; feminist standpoint theory; and critical globalization studies. Dr. Viola’s scholarship has been published in such journals as Critical Ethnic Studies, Race, Ethnicity and Education, the Journal of Asian American Studies, the Journal of Critical Educational Policy Studies, and Kritika Kultura. His co-edited book on global hip hop titled, Hip-Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop (Peter Lang) received the Critics’ Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association. He is currently working on a book project that examines Filipino/a American activism and solidarities from 1965 to present.
Dr. J. Lorenzo Perillo
Dr. J. Lorenzo Perillo creates spaces for dancing truth to power through a blend of community activism, transnational performance, and interdisciplinary education. He is currently Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. Dr. Perillo is an alumnus of Culture Shock, a non-profit dance organization dedicated to community empowerment and the preservation of hip hop culture, and his research analyzes the role of performance practices in resisting racism, sexism, and colonialism. His first book Choreographing in Color: Filipinos, Hip-hop, and the Cultural Politics of Euphemism (Oxford University Press, 2020) blends archival, ethnographic, and choreographic methods to analyze the role of Hip-hop aesthetic practices in Filipino communities in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In 2014, with co-curator Dr. Johanna F. Almiron, Dr. Perillo curated a virtual exhibit and flashmob for the Center for Art and Thought (CA+T), a web-based arts and education nonprofit organization. Entitled "Storm: A Typhoon Haiyan Recovery Project", the multimedia exhibit features twenty-six dynamic and relevant works by selected artists who commemorate the survivors of the super typhoon that made landfall in November 2013 and proved to be the most destructive storm to hit the Philippines in modern history. Learn more about his book, teaching, and community engagements here: choreographingincolor.com
Kristine Jan Espinoza
Kristine Jan Espinoza is a second-generation Pinay doctoral student in the Ph.D. in Higher Education program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her research interests include race-based higher education policies, focusing on Minority-Serving Institutions (e.g., Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions, Hispanic-Serving Institutions) and racial data equity. Before graduate school, Kristine worked as the Student Affairs Officer in the UCLA Asian American Studies Department. She was part of the later advocacy effort for the Pilipino Studies minor (the first in the University of California system) and coordinated UCLA's 1st and 2nd Ethnic and Indigenous Studies Welcome. Kristine grew up in the South Bay of Los Angeles (Carson, California). She attended Long Beach City College and transferred to the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she earned her B.A. in Biology, B.A. in Anthropology, and M.Ed. in Educational Administration.
Johansen Pico
Johansen Pico (they/them) is a Ph.D. Student in Global Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Johansen’s research constellates transnational Filipinx/a/o futurities, queer and trans studies, and global rhetorics. They received their B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where they developed a critical and interdisciplinary approach to inquiry, research, and teaching. Their master’s thesis illuminated a cyclical relationship between the rhetoric of U.S. empire, ideology, and colonial policy in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. Johansen’s current project, tentatively titled “‘Becoming Human in the World’: Transnational Queer Futurities in the Filipinx Diaspora”, works with and expands on current conversations surrounding the linguistic use of Filipinx and its radical ability to shift visibility to queer, non-binary, and transgender communities within the diaspora. Their work aims to integrate and center Filipinx perspectives to advance a (re)imagining of humanity and the future to come.
Dr. Pau Abustan
Dr. Pau Abustan, Ph.D. (they/siya) is an Assistant Professor of Cal State Los Angeles’ Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. Their research centers queer critical race feminist disability justice worldmaking in youth learning, animated storytelling, and coalitional activisms. They co-facilitated intersectional coalitional activisms in California (Tongva/Chumash lands) and co-founded youth learning support programs and a two spirit, transgender, and queer BIPOC led organization in Washington (Niimiipuu lands). Dr. Abustan is working on their first book reflecting upon their experiences as a queer, gender fluid, and decolonial Pilipinx cripnographer who witnessed youth led disability justice worldmaking. They are an alumni of UC Santa Barbara, CSU Northridge, and Washington State University. They taught at Western Washington University, Highline College, University of Washington, and Washington State University. They are part of the UC Davis Bulosan Center for Critical Filipinx Studies and Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame with the National Disability Mentoring Coalition. https://www.paulinaabustan.com/
Dr. Jude Paul Matias Dizon
Jude Paul Matias Dizon, Ph.D., is a proud first-generation college student and son of Filipino postal service workers. Currently, Jude Paul is an assistant professor of higher education and student affairs in the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University. His research agenda examines the carceral university, or the relationship between the carceral state and higher education with a focus on race, class, and gender inequities. Additional research areas include leadership and organization for equity and inclusion in higher education; cultural engagement and validation; and student activism. Jude Paul holds a Ph.D. in urban education policy from the University of Southern California, a master of education degree in higher education and student affairs administration from the University of Vermont, and became critically conscious as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley.
Jackie Colting-Stol
Jackie Colting-Stol (she/her) a 4th year PhD Candidate in the School of Social Work at McGill University in Tiohtià:ke or Montreal, Quebec. Her dissertation uses Photovoice and Kuwentuhan participatory methods to explore the community-building, advocacy and solidarities of LGBTQ+ Filipino/a/x of the diaspora, especially the relationships between gender identity, sexuality and diasporic experiences. She has worked in a wide range of community and social service roles in immigration, community health and youth sectors, and has been involved in Filipino/a/x youth and migrant justice organizing in the past several years. She is also interested in funding and governance structures of non-profits and grassroots organizations in the area of more sustainable, transformative and decolonial approaches that tie to broader movement-building. In the past few years, she has been engaged with arts and cultural approaches to gathering, re-sharing and archiving stories of community, queerness and migration, alongside her community fam, kapwa and kin. Personally, she's a chosen fam Tita, a newbie kickboxer, and a cycling fan.
Veronica B. Salcedo
Veronica B. Salcedo (she/siya) is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Georgia State University and researches racialized, gendered, and classed experiences of cisgender Pinays, or cis women of partial or full Filipino descent, who are romantically attracted to other women. She utilizes critical race feminism and Peminism/Pinayism to recognize sexually nonconforming (SNC) Pinay cultural contributions as rich sources of knowledge. In her dissertation, Veronica incorporates this knowledge with semi-structured interview data to better understand how SNC Pinays come to recognize their authentic selves and navigate systems of power impacting their families of origin and choice. Veronica earned her M.A. in Sociology at GSU, where she was recognized as an outstanding graduate student instructor. Prior to grad school, she was a distinguished high school educator and community collaborator after earning her B.A. in History at William & Mary. You can find her at local dessert spots, especially if ube is somewhere on the menu.
Dr. Katherine Nasol
Dr. Katherine Nasol earned her doctorate degree at UC Davis in Cultural Studies, finishing up her dissertation in Spring of 2023. Her research focuses on theorizing care and care work as it relates to racial capitalism and critical immigration studies, especially through the lives of immigrant women and women of color who perform paid and unpaid care labor. Beyond her scholarly work, she is a community organizer and educator at heart, organizing around immigrant and housing justice for the past decade. She was the former Director of Policy and Community Engagement at the Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies and currently, she is a Senior Research Coordinator at AAPI Women Lead where she leads national community-led research programs around how Asian and Pacific Islander communities experience & heal from racial and gender based violence. She is also an auntie to two babies, a partner, & an avid lover of all things boba and the outdoors.
Dr. Ilyan Ferrer
Dr. Ilyan Ferrer (MSW, PhD, RSW) is an Assistant Professor in Carleton University’s School of Social Work. His research focuses on aging, im/migration, labour and care within racialized communities in Canada. His work and teaching are informed by oral histories shared by racialized and immigrant communities, and draws from intersectionality, critical race theory, and anti-oppression social work practice.
Dr. Conely de Leon
Dr. Conely de Leon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her current work focuses on the need to hold space for collective grief, collective care, and collective healing in migrant justice work. This work has led her to pursue further training and certification in trauma-informed care, and grief education. Recently, she co-founded the Pahinga Collective with Filipinx-identified graduate students, community organizers, and service providers representing migrant, queer, and feminist grassroots organizations in Tkaronto. The Pahinga Collective's hope is to contribute to more embodied understandings of rest as a form of anti-colonial, anti-capitalist resistance, and healing justice.
Dr. Amanda Solomon Amorao
Dr. Amanda Solomon Amorao is an Associate Teaching Professor and Director of the Dimensions of Culture Program (DOC) at UC San Diego’s Thurgood Marshall College. As DOC Director, she is committed to building and teaching in a program that helps Marshall students sharpen their critical reading, writing, and thinking skills through an investigation of the promises and paradoxes of U.S. culture and society. She received her MA and Ph.D. in Literature from UC San Diego, and her research and teaching interests include U.S. multiethnic literature, Asian American Studies, Filipino/a/x American cultural productions, critical race studies, decolonizing pedagogies, and women of color feminism. Her most recent book project, Closer to Liberation: Pin[a/x]y Activism in Theory and Practice, is a co-edited volume with Dr. DJ Kuttin Kandi and Jen Soriano on Filipina American feminism and activism (Cognella Academic Publishing, 2023). From 2023 to 2025, she will serve as Director of UC San Diego’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies Program.