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Moore Hall

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE CENTER

  • The Center along with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies collectively form the National Resource Center for Southeast Asian Studies (NRCSEA) at UH, with funding roughly at $1 million every 3 years from Title VI of the federal education programs. The "Philippine Year" component (2001-02) conducted an academic conference and a short-term courses on Mindanao to analyze the roots of the Mindanao crisis, bringing to Hawai'i the recognized experts in the field.
  • The Center serves as the secretariat for the International Philippine Studies Committee and has hosted two out of the six international conferences, each attended by 200 of the best scholars in the field. Two recent conferences are the International Philippine Studies Conference, held in Leiden, Netherlands in June 2004, and the International Conference on the Hawaii Filipino Centennial, held in Honolulu in December 2006.
  • The Center is routinely consulted for information on current Philippine issues, like the May 2004 elections, by international media from as far away as Egypt, Australia and China.
  • Hamilton Library houses an extensive Philippine research collection, which can compete with Cornell, Michigan, and other top universities in the country, as revealed by one survey. Many scholars studying the Philippines from other countries and states use our collection throughout the year.
  • The Center institutionalized the Philippine Studies Newsletter and Pilipinas Journal as outlets for Philippine scholarly writing and current information on the state of Philippine Studies. Nationally, the Center is linked to the Philippine Studies Group of the Association for Asian Studies.
  • The Center has a regular colloquium series, which has hosted at least 450 speakers since its inception, and a publication series, which has published some of the best occasional papers in the field.
  • The Center has undertaken various outreach activities in the large Filipino community over the years. The current director of the Center, Dr. Belinda Aquino, has been named a member of the statewide Filipino Centennial Celebration Commission, which hosted the 100th anniversary of Filipino immigration to Hawai'i in 2006. The Centerlobbied the State Legislature for funding for the Commission which set $150,000 as "seed money." We will ask for more funding next session.
  • The Center maintains an Academic Exchange Program with the University of the Philippines since 1990. The Center has also worked closely with the International Affairs Office and Study Abroad Center on student study tours to the Philippines.
  • The Center has helped to educate at least three generations of students of Filipino ancestry at UH Manoa, who now have a deeper understanding of Philippine culture and their ethnic heritage. The number of students has been increasing every year.
  • The Center has two endowment funds totalling $85,000, named after Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco and Ligaya Fruto. These funds provide scholarships/fellowships for deserving students. Former UH Regent Robin Campaniano has donated an "enrichment fund" of $5,000 to Philippine Studies.
  • Students majoring or minoring in Asian Studies can apply for study tours to Asia up to $7,000/year from the Freeman Grants administered by the Asian Studies Program. About 4 students of Filipino ancestry have been awarded such grants.

PHILIPPINE STUDIES AS A FIELD OF STUDY AT UHM

  • Philippine Studies can be taken as a field of concentration for a B.A. Asian Studies major, or for an M.A. in Asian Studies. Doctoral students can take courses and write their dissertations on the Philippines, but the degree is in the discipline, e.g., Ph.D. in Linguistics, Political Science, Economics, etc.
  • There is another B.A. in Philippine Languages and Literatures in both Filipino and Ilokano offered by the Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures, College of Languages, Literature and Linguistics.
  • Students currently taking their M.A. in Asian Studies can pick up a Graduate Certificate in Philippine Studies after 18 credits. Graduate students in other departments or colleges (e.g. Business Administration, Education, etc.) are also eligible for the Certificate after consultation with the Center.
     

    Inquiries: Center for Philippine Studies
       1890 East-West Road, Moore Hall 416
       Honolulu, HI 96822
    Email: cps@hawaii.edu