Social Sciences

Chair: Hien Duc Do (hienddo@email.sjsu.edu)
Committee members: Mia Tuan, Mary K.Y. Danico

Winner:

Home Bound: Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities, and Countries by Yen Le Espiritu

Starting with the title, Homebound, Espiritu takes the reader on an imaginative and thoughtful journey into the lives of Filipino women and men as they engage in home making, "the processes by which diverse subjects imagine and make themselves at home in various geographic locations." The tale she tells is nuanced and rich, both theoretically and empirically. She astutely utilizes the first person narratives of Filipino immigrants to examine how contemporary Filipino diasporic communities are affected by the tension and conflict among race, gender, and colonial legacies. She is able to capture how home is the intersection of community, generational relations, gender politics and dynamics, and transnational ties.