Border crossing subjectivities and research: through the prism of feminists of color

Abstract

Drawing on my research experiences as a Filipino American historian, this article explores what Michel Foucault calls ‘subjectification’, the dialectial process of self‐making and being‐made, within the context of ethnic identities and transnational projects. Engaging the work of feminists of color in particular, it outlines three types of subject formations – compartmental, intersectional and constitutive – that foreground the tensions between how I identified myself and how others perceived me. It also explores the dilemma of belonging as an insider/outsider researcher in communities that one affiliates with as well as my emerging recognition of homelessness as a liminal and productive space for self‐construction. Ultimately it links and gives voice to three issues that are often treated separately: first, the ways in which subjectivities are shaped by self and others; second, the ways in which race and ethnicity are linked to other axes of difference; and, third, the analytical and methodological insights of undertaking research in communities that one calls home.

Keywords:

• feminists of color
• insider/outsider
• Philippines
• subjectivity
• transnational research

Notes

1. The research trip to the Philippines was supported by an American Educational Research Association – Spencer Foundation Pre‐Dissertation Fellowship and a research grant from The Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Security Studies.

2. Other germane volumes with a central focus on race and research methodology include Race and ethnicity in research methods (Stanfield and Dennis 1993), Race is, race isn't (Parker, Deyhle and Villenas 1999), Interrogating racism in qualitative research (López and Parker 2003), Researching ‘race’ and ethnicity: Methods, knowledge and power (Gunaratnam 2003), Researching race and racism (Bulmer and Solomos 2004), and Critical issues in anti‐racist research methodologies (Dei and Johal 2005).

3. CNN special on the ‘Terror in the Philippines’. Retrieved on February 5, 2007, from: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/abusayyaf/.

4. The forced incarceration of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II is a prime example of how mainstream USA discourses of Asians as perpetual foreigners manifested in government‐sanctioned discrimination. Out of the 120,00 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were removed from their homes and communities, two‐thirds were US citizens by birth. For an incisive historical treatment of US immigration laws and practices in relation to people of Asian descent, see Mae M. Ngai's Impossible subjects (2004).

5. In an archipelago with over 7100 islands, a population of over 80 million people, and over 100 distinct languages and dialects, Filipino (mostly based on Tagalog) is considered the national language and English the international language (Smolicz and Illuminado 1997). As an illustration of the ongoing linguistic tensions undergirding national identity, the first college in the Philippines to be given a Filipino name (instead of Spanish or English), Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (University of the City of Manila) instituted a policy in 2004 that required students and faculty to use the English language exclusively on campus. The only exceptions were the cafeteria and restrooms that were designated as ‘free zones’. A Philippine newspaper editorial noted that this decision signaled the continuation of the colonial mentality among Filipinos (Overland 2004).

6. In April 2002, Kimberlé Crenshaw gave a lecture at The Ohio State University where she used both metaphors in order ‘to forward a provisional framework to identify various forms of subordination that reflect the intersection of race and gender discrimination’. Retrieved on February 10, 2007, from http://womensplace.osu.edu/Archives/crenshaw.pdf.

7. This insight came from my discussions with the Lakeside Collective in Summer 2004. Innumerable debts of gratitude go to Stephanie Daza, Jeong‐eun Rhee, Binaya Subedi, and Sharon Subreenduth for their intellectual and personal generosity.

8. Philippine Overseas Employment Administration's Statistics on Landbased Deployment by Destination and OFW Remittances (1997–2006). Retrieved on February 10, 2007, from http://www.poea.gov.ph/html/statistics.html.

9. National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)'s 2003 Final Provincial Poverty Estimates. Retrieved on February 10, 2007, from http://www.nscb.gov.ph/poverty/2004/pov_th2.asp.

10. NSCB Statistics on Labor and Employment (1995–2006). Retrieved on February 10, 2007, from http://www.nscb.gov.ph/secstat/d_labor.asp.

11. On the impact of OFW remittances to the Philippines' gross national product, see NSCB report on Per Capita GNP. Retrieved on February 10, 2007, from http://www.nscb.gov.ph/sna/2003/1q‐2003/2003per1.asp.

12. Department of Labor and Employment's Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics. Retrieved on February 15, 2007, from http://www.bles.dole.gov.ph/download/vol10_26.pdf.