From Bulosan to Amado Khaya
A New Era in Filipinx Studies
In its 5 years, the Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies has helped to seed numerous projects and initiatives. However, we’ve come to realize that our work can only fully grow and flourish outside of the context of university system. In 2023, Dr. Robyn Rodriguez, Founding Director of the Bulosan Center, retired early as a Professor at UC Davis in order to break the grounds for expansion and have been hard at work with her team at transitioning most of the Bulosan Center’s programs to the Amado Khaya Initiative, the non-profit she established to honor the life and legacy of her late son, Amado Khaya Rodriguez Canham.
If Carlos Bulosan served as a model for Filipino activism in the early 20th century, we believe Amado Khaya serves as a model for Filipinx activist in the 21st. Thus, the Amado Khaya Initiative feels like an especially ideal site to re-plant the seeds cultivated in the Bulosan Center.
It has been 5 years since the launch of the grassroots fundraising campaign that ultimately led to the creation of the Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies at UC Davis in 2018.
Since then, we’ve done incredible work in advancing our mission to produce, preserve, and disseminate knowledge about the Filipinx experience in the United States and the broader diaspora. Our research and education programs have been driven by our close partnerships with community-based organizations, and we’ve focused particularly on the most marginalized, underserved, and vulnerable populations in the Filipino community.