Interview with Giselle Cunanan

Interview with Giselle Cunanan

4/16/21

Creative Commons Attribution—NonCommercial

English

2006-2021

Alejandra Torres; Caitlin Shorten

Giselle Cunanan

Zoom interview

Zoom

0:00:19-0:00:57 Caitlin reads intro script.
0:00:58-0:01:40 Giselle talks about her background.
0:01:40-0:4:03 Giselle talks about Unity House, the concept of being a student of color, and the culture of student activism
0:4:03-0:6:37 Gisele talks about coming into activism and a need for change.
0:6:56-0:9:15 Giselle talks about complaints and traumas of GU and the toxic campus climate.
0:9:30-0:11:09 Giselle talks about cultural clubs as a resource.
0:11:10-0:12:14 Giselle talks about university resources.
0:12:15-0:14:02 Giselle speaks on her intentions as a student including sustainable support.
0:14:03-0:16:45 Giselle talks about her path to ethnic studies work.
0:16:46-0:20:27 Giselle talks about her work at Unity House/UMEC post-graduation.
0:20:43-023:26 Giselle talks about the PSAs and graduate school.
00:23:27-0:28:30 Giselle speaks about her experience on the panel responsible for the creation of the CRES department.
0:28:32-0:32:35 Giselle recalls specific points of the panel, including the idea that Ethnic Studies is “more than a syllabus.”
0:32:36-0:36:43 Giselle talks about issues that arose during discussions of CRES.
00:33:29: Teach In Discussion
0:37:18-0:42:56 Giselle talks about her emotions and the day after the panel.
0:43:01-0:47:46 Giselle speaks on her dreams for Ethnic Studies.
0:47:47-0:49:20 Giselle shares advice for students.
0:49:24- 0:51:45 End remarks

Giselle Dejamco Cunanan is a PhD candidate in the Department of American Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. She is completing her dissertation "Ethnic Studies Now: Racial Labor in a Multicultural Moment" which examines the labor of political critique and activism for organizers who work to transform schools. The project aims to understand the conditions that underwrite ethnic studies' issue capture by the neoliberal state, and the nuanced practices of care work that transcend the temporal and ideological limits set by educational institutions. Giselle earned her Master’s in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State where she also taught for Pinay Educational Partnerships, a service-learning organization that implements transformative decolonizing curriculum and pedagogy in the classroom. Giselle’s broader research interests explore the afterlives of empire as it relates to U.S.-based Filipinos.

In this interview, Alejandra Torres and Caitlin Shorten interview Gonzaga alum and PhD candidate Giselle Cunanan about her involvement with the formation of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at Gonzaga University. Cunanan graduated from Gonzaga in 2010. When asked about her time at GU, Cunanan recalls the community built at Unity House among the cultural clubs. Unity House was what is now known as UMEC. She recalls how older students cared for younger students and passed down wisdom. Then, Cunanan recounts the lack of support for students of color and various incidents on campus. The major concern of her and her peers was leaving a sustainable support system for students of color at Gonzaga. This need for a support system led her do research for the PSAs while working at UMEC. She eventually attends graduate school at San Francisco State for Ethnic Studies (this is the birthplace of Ethnic Studies). Torres then asks about Cunanan’s time on the student/alumni panel that was brought together to create CRES. She recalls how monumental the panel was. Her best friend and classmates were in the audience and went off about the free labor the university was still having them do. She remembers they spoke “truth to power”. Later, she remembers how well-meaning faculty asked her for her syllabus. This was a frustrating moment because “Ethnic Studies is more than a reading list” as Cunanan puts it. There are teach-ins with faculty and staff to discuss the mechanics of CRES. Towards the end of these teach-ins, Cunanan had a moment where she realized the consequences that could come from this panel. There is fear the university will see this department as a tool to appease students of color. She recalls the best of times during this entire process were when students and alumni could build relationships. Finally, she wraps up with hopes for the program and advice for students. She reminds student activists to care for themselves as they do this work.