OVERVIEW
It is no secret that Philippine, Filipino diasporic, and Filipino American studies have burgeoned with the arrival of Filipino and Filipina scholars into academia. While it might be too early to claim that we have reached "critical mass," given the welcome addition of tenured professors, new junior faculty, and emerging doctoral students into the ranks, we can no longer discount the large numbers of Filipino studies scholars who have graced various conferences, including the Association of Asian American Studies, Asian Studies, American Studies, and various by-discipline symposia. Needless to say, there is a tremendous potential for scholarly production, intellectual growth, and networking among scholars that remains untapped.It is thus with a view towards providing a venue for such exchanges that we at the University of Illinois have organized a conference called "Philippine Palimpsests: Filipino Studies in the 21st Century," scheduled for March 7-8, 2008 at the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This conference will bring together around 28 prominent and emerging U.S.-based Filipino American scholars to exchange ideas and create a strong network of support and scholarly contact. According to the OED, the term "palimpsest" connotes "a parchment or other surface on which writing has been applied over earlier writing which has been erased" and "something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form." Indeed, we seek to assess the state of Filipino studies and anticipate its rhizomatous extensions into the 21st century but, as the word palimpsest implies, with a profound awareness of the "hybridity," "heterogeneity" and "multiplicity" of our Philippine pasts, as well as a non-essentialist acknowledgment of the indelible traces of capital, empire, and labor upon our present.
