Kale B Fajardo

Kale B. Fajardo is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Fajardo's academic training is in cultural anthropology, Philippine Studies, Asian American Studies, and feminist/gender/queer studies. He completed his MA and PhD (both in cultural anthropology) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His Bachelor's degree is from Cornell University (Human Development Studies major; SE Asian Studies and Feminist Studies concentrations.) Fajardo's first book, Filipino Crosscurrents: Oceanographies of Seafaring, Masculinities and Globalization (University of Minnesota Press, 2011, reprinted by University of the Philippines Press, 2013) is an interdisciplinary ethnography that analyzes and documents the cultural politics of Filipino migrant and maritime masculinities in the local/global shipping industry, in the context of local/global neoliberal capitalism (1998-2001). Professor Fajardo uses postcolonial theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and feminist theory to analyze the aforementioned phenomena and issues. In particular, Fajardo's book is concerned with how the Philippine state used Filipino seamen or Overseas Filipino workers (or the figure of the Filipino seaman and OFW) to promote neoliberal and neocolonial economic policies and development projects in Manila and the broader context of the Philippines at the end of the 20th Century. His book is also concerned with how Filipino seamen articulate or enact alternative and resistant masculinities (compared to dominant state sanctioned and created masculinities.) Filipino Crosscurrents is based on fieldwork that Fajardo conducted in Manila, Oakland, as well as on board an industrial container ship that traveled from Oakland to Hong Kong (via Osaka, Tokyo, and Kiaoshung.) Fajardo's recent publications include "Queering and Transing the Great Lakes: Filipino/a Tomboy Masculinities and Manhoods Across Waters" (published in GLQ, 2014) and "Decolonizing Manila-Men and St. Malo, Louisiana: A Queer Post-colonial Asian American Critique" (published in Filipino Studiies: Palimpsests of Filipino Studies edited by Martin F. Manalansan and Augusto Espiritu, NYU Press, 2016.) Fajardo is currently working on two book projects: Chasing Carlos: Filipino Migrant Masculinities – From Magellan’s Circumnavigation to Contemporary Global Shipping and Rivers, Canoes, and the Sea: Re-imagining Malolos (Bulacan, Philippines) in the Contexts of Nationalism, Tourism, and Climate Change.