Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez

b. 1973

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I was born in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, in the Philippines and moved to settle in upstate New York with my family in 1983, to the soundtrack of Michael Jackson's Thriller. I attended Princeton University, where, after dutifully considering a pre-med-friendly major, I ended up immersed in English literature, dance, and African American Studies, while fielding questions of "what will you do with that degree?" With the benefit of close faculty mentorship, I ended up in the University of California, Berkeley's Ethnic Studies program, which nurtured my interests in race, gender, and US cultural politics and history. My first book, Securing Paradise (2013), which looks at US militarism and tourism in Hawai'i and the Philippines, was the result of that journey. I am currently working on a couple more experimental projects: the first is a mixed-genre narrative of the life of Isabel Rosario Cooper, infamously known as Douglas MacArthur's mistress. The other is a co-edited decolonial guide to Hawai'i. In these projects, I pursue what it means to unsettle power from the position of the margins.

"Headhunter Itineraries: The Philippines as America’s Dream Jungle"

Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez

2009 Criticism 28 pages Courtesy of The Global South Indiana University Press

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Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez

b. 1973

I was born in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, in the Philippines and moved to settle in upstate New York with my family in 1983, to the soundtrack of Michael Jackson's Thriller. I attended Princeton University, where, after dutifully considering a pre-med-friendly major, I ended up immersed in English literature, dance, and African American Studies, while fielding questions of "what will you do with that degree?" With the benefit of close faculty mentorship, I ended up in the University of California, Berkeley's Ethnic Studies program, which nurtured my interests in race, gender, and US cultural politics and history. My first book, Securing Paradise (2013), which looks at US militarism and tourism in Hawai'i and the Philippines, was the result of that journey. I am currently working on a couple more experimental projects: the first is a mixed-genre narrative of the life of Isabel Rosario Cooper, infamously known as Douglas MacArthur's mistress. The other is a co-edited decolonial guide to Hawai'i. In these projects, I pursue what it means to unsettle power from the position of the margins.

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  • Born: Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines
  • Based: Honolulu, HI, USA

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