Speaker: Sharon M. Quinsaat, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Grinnell College

Sociologist Sharon M. Quinsaat sheds new light on the formation of diasporic connections through transnational protests. Her book talk, Insurgent Communities, will explore how people form diasporas upon migration into new communities. Quinsaat looks to Filipinos in the United States and the Netherlands – examining their resistance against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, their mobilization for migrants’ rights, and the construction of a collective memory of the Marcos regime – to argue that diasporas emerge through political activism. 

In Las Vegas, Filipinos are the largest AAPI group and the largest-growing minority population in Nevada. Quinsaat’s research can illuminate how the Filipino migrants’ diverse experiences and relationships with their homeland impacts politics in countries of resettlement. A significant contribution to the interdisciplinary field of migration and social movements studies, Insurgent Communities demonstrates how people develop collective identities in times of social upheaval.