Robert Diaz

Dr. Robert Diaz is Assistant Professor of transnational feminisms, globalization, and sexuality studies at the Women and Gender Studies Institute.  His research, teaching, and community work focus on the intersections of Asian diasporic, postcolonial, and queer studies. Diaz pays particular attention to Filipino/a cultural practices as these are affected by and affect histories of empire. In Canada, Diaz has taught at OCAD University and Wilfrid Laurier University. In the United States, he has taught at Wayne State University, USC, UCLA, and Scripps College. In the Philippines, he has taught at De La Salle University.  His research has appeared in numerous academic journals, including TSQ, Journal of Asian American Studies, Signs, Asian Diasporic Visual Culture and the Americas, GLQ, Women and Performance, and Plaridel, as well as foundational collections such as Philippine Palimpsests: Essays for the 21st Century (NYU Press) and Global Asian Popular Culture (NYU Press). Diaz is also the co-editor of Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginaries (Northwestern University Press), a groundbreaking book that brings together artists, scholars, and community members to discusses the contributions of LGBTQ Filipinos/as to Canadian culture and society. His book, Reparative Acts: Redressive Nationalisms in Queer Filipino Lives is under contract with Temple University Press. This work examines Filipino popular culture from the 1970’s onwards in order to chart the links between nationalisms, redress, and queer acts of resistance.  Diaz has been awarded Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships at UCLA and at USC.

Diaz is equally committed to equity and social justice. He was named “Educator of the Year” by the Balangay Awards, through a search for exemplary Filipino Canadians, and has received the “Activist-Scholar Award” from the Filipino Caucus of the Asian American Studies Association. He has worked with many community organizations in the greater Toronto area that seek to better the lives of people of color, queer, Indigenous, and differently abled communities. He has collaborated with Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS), UKPC/FCYA, Magkaisa Centre and Kapisanan Centre. Diaz is open to mentoring and supervising students working in the following fields: Postcolonial Studies, Transnational and Globalization Studies, Queer Studies, Asian Diasporic Studies, and Filipino Studies.

SINGLE AUTHORED BOOK
Reparative Acts: Redressive Nationalisms and Queer Filipino Lives. (Under Contract: Temple University Press).

CO-EDITED BOOK

Diaz, Robert, Marissa Largo & Fritz Pino. Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos/as and Canadian Imaginaries. Northwestern University Press, November 2017. 376 pgs.

EDITED VOLUMES

Diaz, Robert, Dai Kojima & John Paul Catungal. 2017. “Queer/Asian/Canadian”. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 38 (1). March 2018.

Diaz, Robert & Joshua Chambers-Letson. “Performing Reparation: Practice, Methodology,Process.” Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 16, no. 2 (2006):169-339.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Diaz, Robert. “Biyuti from Below: Contemporary Philippine Cinema and the Transing of Kabaklaan.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 5 (3). August 2018. 404-424

Diaz, Robert.  “The Ruse of Respectability: Familial Attachments and Queer Filipino Canadian Critique.” Asian Diasporic Visual Culture and the Americas 4(1-2). 2018. 114-136.

Diaz, Robert, Dai Kojima, and John Paul Catungal.  “Introduction: Feeling Queer, Feeling Asian, Feeling Canadian.” Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 38. 2018. 69-80.

Diaz, Robert. “Queer Unsettlements: Diasporic Filipinos in Canada’s World Pride” Journal of Asian American Studies 15(3). 2016. 327- 350.

Diaz, Robert. “The Limits of Bakla and Gay: My Husband’s Lover, Vice Ganda, and Charice Pempengco.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 40(3). 2015. 721-745.

Diaz, Robert. “Queer Love and Urban Intimacies in Martial Law Manila.” Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society 9 (2). 2012.  1-20.

Diaz, Robert, “Melancholic Maladies: Paranoid Ethics, Reparative Envy, and Asian American Critique.” Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 16(2). 2006. 201-219

BOOK CHAPTERS:

Diaz, Robert, Marissa Largo, and Fritz Pino. “Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos/as and Canadian Imaginaries” in Queering Urban Justice: Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto. Ed. Jin Haritaworn, Ghaida Moussa, and Syrus Marcus Ware, with Río Rodríguez. University of Toronto Press, 2018. 84-99

Diaz, Robert. “Introduction: The ‘Stuff’ of Queer Horizons and Other Utopic Pursuits.” Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginaries. Ed. Robert Diaz, Marissa Largo, and Fritz Pino. Northwestern University Press, 2017. xv-xxxvi.

Diaz, Robert. “Redressive Nationalisms, Filipina Victimhood, and Japanese Duress.” Filipino Studies:Palimpsests of Nation and Diaspora. Ed. Martin Manalansan and Augusto F. Espiritu. New York University Press, 2016. 197-226.

Diaz, Robert. “Queer Returns and the Modern Balikbayan.” Global Asian America Popular Cultures. Ed. Shilpa Dave, Leilani Nishime and Tasha Oren. New York: New York University Press, 2016. 335-350.

Diaz, Robert. “Sexuality.” The Routledge Companion to Asian American and Pacific Islander Literature. Ed. Rachel Lee. New York: Routledge Press, 2014. 175-188