Research Bio
Vernadette Gonzalez is a cultural studies and ethnic studies scholar whose research explores militarism, tourism, and empire in the Pacific. She is best known for her books Securing Paradise: Tourism and Militarism in Hawai‘i and the Philippines and Empire’s Mistress, Starring Isabel Rosario Cooper, which examine how race, Indigeneity, gender, and sexuality intersect and operate, sometimes together and sometimes in opposition, in the cultural terrains of empire. Gonzalez’s scholarship integrates cultural theory, feminist studies, and postcolonial critique to understand how empire operates through and in a register of intimacy, particularly through the production of consent and hospitality upon which it relies. Her research contributes to transpacific, decolonial, and feminist scholarship.
She is Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Her work has been published in journals including American Quarterly, Radical History Review, and Critical Ethnic Studies and edited collections on empire and the Pacific. She is co-editor of Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai‘i and Bangtan Remixed: A Critical BTS Reader, the former of which anchors a decolonial guide series at Duke University Press. At Berkeley, she teaches courses on empire, militarism/demilitarization, Filipinx narratives of empire, and Asian American cultural studies.
Research Expertise and Interest
Asian American literacy and cultural studies, culture of U.S. Imperialism, gender and sexuality, Philippine and Filipino American studies, transnational American studies
In the News
Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Graduate Program
Teaching
Asian Pacific American Theme Program Seminar [ASAMST 194B]
Asian Pacific American Theme Program Seminar [ASAMST 194B]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Supervised Group Study [ASAMST 198]
Supervised Group Study [ASAMST 198]
Research Seminar: Selected Issues and Topics [ETHSTD 250]
Directed Dissertation Research [ETHSTD 296]
Directed Reading [ETHSTD 299]
Individual Study for Doctoral Students [ETHSTD 602]
Senior Honors Thesis for Ethnic Studies Majors [ETHSTD H196B]
Contemporary Narratives on the Philippines and the United States [ASAMST 175]
Asian Pacific American Theme Program Seminar [ASAMST 194A]
Asian Pacific American Theme Program Seminar [ASAMST 194A]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Supervised Group Study [ASAMST 198]
Supervised Group Study [ASAMST 198]
Supervised Independent Study and Research [ASAMST 199]
Directed Dissertation Research [ETHSTD 296]
Professional Orientation [ETHSTD 302]
Individual Study for Doctoral Students [ETHSTD 602]
Asian Pacific American Theme Program Seminar [ASAMST 194B]
Asian Pacific American Theme Program Seminar [ASAMST 194B]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies [ASAMST 197]
Supervised Group Study [ASAMST 198]
Supervised Independent Study and Research [ASAMST 199]
Directed Dissertation Research [ETHSTD 296]
Directed Reading [ETHSTD 299]
Individual Study for Doctoral Students [ETHSTD 602]
Senior Honors Thesis for Ethnic Studies Majors [ETHSTD H196B]