Directed by Susan Russell, an NIU professor of anthropology, the field school will allow NIU students to establish relationships with Filipinos through many forms of ethnographic research, including participant observation, life histories, interviews and analysis of secondary documents. They tend to be difficult to set up, because you are bringing in strangers to interview people of a different cultural background. The Filipinos were one of the earliest groups to immigrate to Maui, and are thought to be the largest group of Asian Americans immigrants to the United States, Russell said. Students will choose specific topics to study using fieldwork research with Filipino Americans working on the plantation. Some topics already planned include the study of Filipino gender roles, the impact of money sent back to relatives in the Philippines and techniques of teaching AIDS awareness, Russell said.
Enrollment is limited and students of all majors are welcome.
Students will live in a rented house on a volcano, about 20 minutes from the plantation. Students are responsible for their own food, recreation and travel accommodations and should inform NIU of their flight arrangements as soon as possible. Northern is home to one of the nation's premier centers for Southeast Asian studies. The NIU Center for Southeast Asian Studies was established in 1963 and provides leadership, focus, and coordination for Southeast Asian studies at the university and community outreach throughout northern Illinois. In addition to regular graduate teaching assistantships and undergraduate research apprenticeships offered through individual departments, the center awards a large number of Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships with funds provided by the U.S. Department of Education for the study of Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog and Burmese.