2022-23 Graduate Student Liaison
About
Bio: Robert Diaz is a doctoral student who specializes in STS and subaltern studies within the field of the United States in the world. Currently, his work examines how Filipino/a youths interpreted and played varied roles in the American colonial project in the Philippines between 1899 and 1920, along with the ways that ontologies and epistemologies of childhood shaped American colonial policy and Filipino/a responses to it. In 2021-2022, Diaz was an Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies graduate student research fellow. He is also a graduate student research assistant with ReConnect/ReCollect: Reparative Connections to Philippines Collections at the University of Michigan.
Research Plan: Framing his research around a selection of over 100 essays written by Filipino/a youths between 1901 and 1905, Diaz will explore the early years of the American colonial project, when these youths witnessed the violent transformation from Spanish rule to American rule, and Filipino nationalist struggles for independence.
