J.A. "JoJo" Ruanto-Ramirez
Associate Professor, Southwestern College
San Diego, California, United States
Actions
Joseph Allen "JoJo" Ruanto-Ramirez is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies - American Studies at Claremont Graduate University. He currently is an Assoc. Professor of Ethnic Studies, Coordinator of Asian American & Pasifika Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies, and faculty for Bayan-FilAm Learning Community & Sangam-AANHPI Learning Community at Southwestern College. He currently serves as the County of San Diego's Commissioner for Asian & Pacific Islander Relations.
Links
Area of Expertise
Topics
“Itetem:" Conversations on Igorot American Returns and Homemaking in Philippine-America”
In 2020, PBS aired a 5-series documentary titled “Asian American” featuring scholars addressing the history of Asians in the United States. The series started with a conversation with Mia Abeya, the granddaughter of Cabrera Antero, one of the 1100 individuals from the Philippines who were shipped to the St. Louis World’s Fair for display in 1904, as she explained her grandfather's story and the history of Igorot peoples in the Philippines and in the United States. This plenary brings Manang Mia in discussion with three Igorot American scholars and students addressing the complex relationships between indigeneity and national identity, cultures and story-telling in diaspora, and how Igorots, both in the Philippines and in diaspora, navigate “Filipinoness” at an age of hyperdigital presence and community pushback against the perpetual view of Igorots, Moros, and other Indigenous Peoples as atemporal and aspatial communities. The epistemological changes in addressing indigeneity, ethnic and religious minorities, and the critique of the nation-building project that occurs, even within Ethnic Studies, are being challenged by those who are seen as "minorities" in the "homeland" and invisible in diaspora.
Resistance & Self-Determination: Ethnic Studies Across Different Types of Institutions of Higher
Challenging the prevailing influence of whiteness in higher education curriculum, student activists across the United States have consistently demanded more offerings in African American, Chicanx, Asian, and Native American studies, dating at least back to the late 1960s. Conceptualizing the university as being founded on racial and settler logics, these Ethnic Studies courses envision education as a vehicle for collective transformation that is anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, and anti-racist. However, Ethnic Studies programs have consistently come under attack in higher education institutions. Following the 2024 election, Donald Trump and his administration have issued a series of executive orders attacking ethnic studies in an effort to censor teachings on race and systemic injustice. In response to this polarized political climate, our panel offers examples of how ethnic studies students and instructors have consistently responded to the attacks on ethnic studies, including Asian American Studies, by insisting on a more liberatory education. Our panel addresses the need for Ethnic Studies as a tool of resistance and self-determination at three different types of institutions of higher education: community colleges, Jesuit liberal arts colleges, and research universities.
Complicating Returns: California Community Colleges' Philippines Programs
This panel is geared for current community or undergraduate students. Student participants in a Philippine Program with their respective community colleges will share their experiences, their project, and how their "returns" complicated their mis/understandings of "home" and "homeland."
AAAS Annual Conference 2026 Sessionize Event
J.A. "JoJo" Ruanto-Ramirez
Associate Professor, Southwestern College
San Diego, California, United States
Links
Actions
Please note that Sessionize is not responsible for the accuracy or validity of the data provided by speakers. If you suspect this profile to be fake or spam, please let us know.
Jump to top