Contact Information
309 Gregory Hall
810 S Wright
M/C 466
Urbana, IL 61801
Biography
Three cities in the Philippines special to me -- Manila, my birthplace; Jaen, Nueva Ecija, my father's hometown; and Imus, Cavite, that of my mother. As a child, I immigrated to the United States with my family, grew up in Inglewood, California, and attended the Jesuit Loyola High School near downtown Los Angeles. I attended UCLA as an undergraduate, master's, and doctoral student in history and Asian American studies. I joined the History Department and the Department of Asian American Studies in Illinois, serving as head of the Department of Asian American Studies from 2012 to 2014. I have maintained a full agenda of research and teaching as well as a busy travel itinerary, which included sailing around the world for 100 days as instructional faculty for Semester at Sea and research stints in Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
Biografía en español
Nací en Manila, Filipinas y con el resto de mi familia nos trasladamos a Los Ángeles donde estudié en el Colegio de Loyola y la Universidad de California en Los Ángeles (UCLA). Obtuve mi maestría en estudios asiático-americanos (Asian American Studies) y mi doctorado en historia en UCLA. Soy profesor asociado y un miembro de la Facultad de Historia y el Departamento de Estudios Asiático-Americanos y también tengo una afiliación con el Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Caribeños. Enseño cursos en la historia de Estados Unidos, especialmente en la historia del imperio norteamericano en Asia, el Pacífico, y las Américas. Enseño también cursos en migración, transnacionalismo, raza y etnía.
Research Interests
American Empire, Transnationalism, Hispanism, Asian and Caribbean Intellectual History
Research Description
My research focuses on the intellectual history of American empire, and on the subjects of migration, nationalism, and transnationalism. My current book project, “In Defense of Spain: Resistance to American Empire in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in the Twentieth Century,” is a comparative work that examines how intellectuals articulated nationalist ideals with"Hispanism" (also known as hispanismo, hispanidad, or hispanoamericanismo) – a type of solidarity based on a putatively shared "Spanish" identity – as a mode of questioning, resisting, or accommodating to U.S. colonialism and Americanization. The work also reflects on how this resistant discourse generated its own exclusions and theoretical blind spots, especially in relation to gender, race, and social class. The intellectual figures I study include the Cubans Ramón Grau San Martín, Jorge Mañach, and Mirta Aguirre; the Puerto Ricans Pedro Albizu Campos, Antonio Pedreira, and Margot Arce; and the Filipinos, Claro Mayo Recto, Nicomedes (Nick) Joaquin, and Encarnacion Alzona.
Investigación: Me enfoco en la historia intelectual del imperio norteamericano y en los temas de migración, nacionalismo y transnacionalismo. Mi proyecto actual es un libro titulado, “En defensa de España: La resistencia al imperio norteamericano en Cuba, Puerto Rico y Filipinas durante el siglo veinte.” “En defensa de España” es una obra comparativa que se enfoca en la vinculación de ideales nacionalistas con hispanismo o hispanidad, la ideología que asume una solidaridad entre los que poseen herencia cultural española, como una moda de interrogar, resistir o adaptarse al colonialismo norteamericano y la americanización. La obra también critica las exclusiones y ceguedades teóricas de hispanismo, en especial las relacionadas a género, raza y clase. Las figuras que estudio en mi indagación incluyen los cubanos Ramón Grau San Martín, Jorge Mañach y Mirta Aguirre; los puertorriqueños Pedro Albizu Campos, Antonio Pedreira y Margot Arce; y los filipinos Claro Mayo Recto, Nicomedes (Nick) Joaquin y Encarnacion Alzona.
Education
B.A., History; M.A., Asian American Studies; Ph.D, History, UCLA
Grants
Hewlett International Research Grant
Amy Ling Memorial Research Grant
Ford Foundation, Conference and Travel Grant
Awards and Honors
Arnold O. Beckman Award
Associate Fellow, Center for Advanced Study
Outstanding Asian American Faculty/Staff Award
UCLA Pilipino Alumni Association Royal Morales Community Achievement Award
Mellon Faculty Fellowship
University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship
Fulbright Research Fellowship
Courses Taught
Constructing Race in America AFRO/AAS/AIS/HIST/LLS 281
Intro to Asian American Studies AAS 100
Asian American History AAS/HIST 283
Immigrant America HIST 472
Transnationalism and Empire HIST 572
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Head, Asian American Studies
Associate Professor, Asian American Studies
Associate Professor, History
Associate Professor, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies
Associate Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Recent Publications
Espiritu, A. F. (2017). Foreword. In R. Cruz, C. Domingo, & B. Occena (Eds.), A Time to Rise: Memoirs of the Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP) (Union of Democratic Filipinos) (pp. 2-12). University of Washington Press.
Espiritu, A. F. (2017). Inter-Imperial Relations, the Pacific, and Asian American History. In L. Kurashige (Ed.), Pacific America: Histories of Transoceanic Crossings (pp. 178-191). University of Hawaii Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824855796-013
Manalansan, M. F., & Espiritu, A. F. (Eds.) (2016). Filipino studies: Palimpsests of nation and diaspora. New York University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18040v1
Manalansan, M. F., & Espiritu, A. F. (2016). The field: Dialogues, visions, tensions, and aspirations. In Filipino Studies: Palimpsests of Nation and Diaspora (pp. 1-11). New York University Press.
Espiritu, A. F. (2015). Philippines. In J. Stone, D. M. Rutledge, A. D. Smith, P. S. Rizova, & X. Hou (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663202.wberen589