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[PAST EVENT] APIA Studies: "Religion, Identity, and the Filipino American Diaspora" by Dr. Aprilfaye Manalang
How does religion shape the Filipino diaspora?s
connection to the public sphere?
Despite constituting the second largest Asian-American group, ?Filipino Americans remain a remarkably understudied and overlooked group in both the U.S. culture and in academic research? (Espiritu & Wolf, 2001). Focusing on Filipino-Americans? stories and utilizing a humanistically-oriented sociological approach, Dr. Manalang researched the Filipino-American community in Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads?one of the most highly populated Filipino areas on the East coast to explore: 1) How does religion shape immigrants' understanding of American citizenship? 2) How do immigrants constitute a sense of empowered citizenship via the civic and religious institutions they navigate? 3) Does religion act as a preserving force of traditional Filipino culture within American society? 4) To what extent does religion foster unique transnational ties to the homeland?
Dr. Aprilfaye Manalang is Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Norfolk State University. Dr. Manalang earned the Master of Arts in Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. Recipient of the Outstanding Teaching and Distinguished Dissertation award, Dr. Manalang completed a doctoral fellowship in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, with a specialization in Politics and Religion, Globalization, and Race and Ethnicity. She served as an invited scholar at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and Kalinga Industrial Institute for Technology University, Orissa, India. Furthermore, the United States Embassy, in collaboration with Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg & Magdeburg University, selected and trained Dr. Manalang in an internationally competitive seminar, in the areas of Religion in American Politics and Culture. Funded by the Volkswagon Foundation and in collaboration with the Center for International Studies and Research Paris (CERI); University of Manchester; Lancaster University; University of Leipzig, and European University Viadrina, she also honed her expertise in the areas of ?Religion and Modernity: The Societal Determination of Religion and its Cultural Potential. Most recently, based on her ongoing research on religion and race/ethnicity, NSU has nominated her for the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Bridging Cultures Grant. She is also a recipient of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) grant.
Contact
APIA Studies Program Director: [[fjtang, Francis Tanglao-Aguas]], 221-2684