Dr. Belinda Aquino further cements her place in Filipino academic history.
The first-ever awardee of the prestigious Dr. Jose Rizal Award for Peace and receiver of the University of the Philippines (UP) Alumni Association Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award, Aquino is one of the most distinguished and renowned Filipino academics and experts of her time.
Aquino is a professor and director of the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii-Manoa (UHM) and recently established the Belinda A. Aquino International Philippine Studies endowment.
The fund, according to a statement from UHM, will promote and enhance academic and professional studies at UHM on the Philippines and Filipinos from an international, comparative, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective.
“Through this endowment, I hope to perpetuate an intellectual tradition of acquiring a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Philippines as a strategic country in the Asia-Pacific region and a vibrant member of the international community,” said Aquino.
“This endowment will support efforts to energize and strengthen the Philippine homeland itself, by supporting initiatives such as scholarships, fellowships, research and publications, library materials, exchange programs, visiting scholars, conferences, workshops, websites, educational travel and other opportunities aimed at achieving sustained academic and professional interest in Philippine Studies for the benefit of future generations of Filipinos as democratic, progressive, participating, vital and productive members of society, both internally and internationally,” she added.
Education and career
Aquino is one of the most respected academics in the US and the Philippines. A UP graduate in English, before receiving an MA in political science from the University of Hawaii, Aquino has also studied behavioral science at the University of Michigan and attended Cornell University as a Ford Foundation Fellow receiving a Ph.D.in comparative politics and Southeast Asian studies.
According to her bio, she’s been a professor at UHM since 1975. Throughout her more than 40 years of life in academia, she has lectured and served as a visiting professor across Asia. In l986, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and lectured in four universities in Indonesia.
She has also served as a professor or visiting scholar at the University of the Philippines; Kansai University, in Osaka; Tokyo University; Sophia University in Tokyo, and at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies in Kyoto.
From 1989 to 1991 she served as Vice President for Public Affairs of the University of the Philippines and taught in the Department of Political Science and the College of Public Administration, read her bio on the UHM website.
At UHM, she has focused on contemporary Philippine politics with particular reference to presidential leadership, US-Philippine relations, development and local autonomy, women and cultural minorities, and the politics of corruption during the Marcos dictatorship.
Another interest Aquino has is the search for the Marcos “hidden wealth” and the development of the Philippine middle-class, and Filipino issues in America.
In 2008 UHM awarded Aquino the Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation Award for Faculty Service to the Community for her work “significant contributions that strengthen ties between the community and university.”
On the endowment, Edward J. Shultz, dean, School of Pacific & Asian Studies said: “The endowment will encourage and support the study of diasporic and global issues affecting Philippine society and culture, and Filipino communities overseas,” he said. “Filipinos are playing an increasingly important role in the state of Hawai’i and in other parts of the world. Demography tells us this role will only grow more important. We need our students and community to be at the cutting edge of this new wave and certainly the Aquino endowment will move us in this direction.”
