Roderick Labrador

Name
Roderick Labrador
Candidate statement
I am a 1.5-generation immigrant—born in the Philippines and moved to San Diego during elementary school. I did my Bachelor’s in Religion at the University of Rochester, Master’s in Asian Studies (specialization in Philippine Studies) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and PhD in Anthropology at UCLA. For 18 years, I was director of the UCLA Hawai‘i Travel Study Program. I am currently associate professor of Ethnic Studies at UH-Mānoa. Before this position, I was the director of a college access program serving a low-income, urban Honolulu community composed mainly of Filipinos, Samoans, Micronesians, and Native Hawaiians.

I attended my first AAAS conference in 1995 when I was a graduate student and since then, I have presented at numerous conferences and served on various program and planning committees as well as a board member. Even though I am academically trained in Anthropology, I have always found AAAS to be open, welcoming, and my academic home. There have been various changes, challenges, and growth in the association since my first conference. One of my goals as a board member would be to help the association continue to grow, focusing on our founding principles of intersectionality and interdisciplinary engagement.