Identity & History: Reflecting on Fil Am History Month

October is Filipinx American HIstory month. Bayan Scholars investigated various historical topics, themes they had rarely explored, if at all,  prior to joining the Bayan Learning Community. 

This blog entry is the second installment of student responses to Pilipinx American History Month activities at Southwestern college as well as coursework in our Bayan classes. These responses tended to be more about internal, psychological issues as opposed to the more historically inflected responses from the first installment, Reclaiming History. 

These particular responses demonstrate the complicated relationship between history and psychology. They begin to uncover the nuanced and often hidden ways material history can condition one's sense of self. While Bayan scholars (students and faculty alike!) recognize that identity is not reducible to history and material conditions, we are beginning to appreciate the complex connection between the past and personality.

Moreover, you can see from several posts that these scholars are making connections between their personal lives and the curriculum. They use their academic identity to explore their personal identity, which is in line with the project of humanizing their education (see see entries "Summer Retreat Part I, Part II and Part III for background on how "rehumanizing our education" fits into Bayan's project). 

To collect student reflections, we used the online bulletin board application Padlet. To magnify an entry, float your cursor over the upper right-hand corner of a particular post and click on "expand post".  We welcome your comments!