Since 1991, Theo Gonzalves has taught in the field of Filipino/American studies in California, Hawai'i, the Philippines, Spain, and Maryland, where he is currently an Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His publications include: Stage Presence: Conversations with Filipino American Performing Artists (2007), The Day the Dancers Stayed: Performing in the Filipino/American Diaspora (2009), Carlos Villa and the Integrity of Spaces (2011), and Filipinos in Hawai'i (with Roderick N. Labrador, 2011). Theo's research brought him to the Philippines in 2005 as a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar, the Library of Congress as a Moeson Fellow, and to Europe, as a resident faculty director at the International College of Seville.
Rod Labrador is a 1.5-generation Filipino American—he was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the U.S. during elementary school. He is a graduate of the University of Rochester (BA), University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (MA), and earned his doctorate in anthropology from UCLA. Prior to his current position as an assistant professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, he worked for nearly a decade as the director of a Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) at UH-Mānoa, a university-based college access program that worked with the Farrington School Complex in Kalihi, O'ahu. He has lived and worked in Honolulu for nearly the past 20 years. From 1999-2004, he was the co-director (with Erin Kahunawaika’ala Wright) of the UCLA Hawai‘i Travel Study Program and he has been been the sole director of the summer program since 2005. His research and community work focuses on race, ethnicity, class, culture, language, migration, education, hip hop, and cultural production in Hawai‘i, the US, and the Philippines.
David A.M. Goldberg is an accomplished Hawai‘i based writer, teacher, programmer and media developer who has used a lifelong interest in art, culture and technology to transform the means by which people access, assess and organize knowledge. A San Francisco native, David came of age in the 1980’s and split his time between practicing different elements of Hip-hop and exploring cyberspace at 300 baud with a Commodore 64. A fundamental cultural compatibility between Hip-hop and hacking would define the trajectory of his professional and creative life, taking him through Howard University’s School of Engineering while Hip-hop’s “golden era” inspired his generation’s popular culture and political perspective. Currently he writes art and culture pieces for the Honolulu Star Advertiser and the Honolulu Weekly, programs and manages local and mainland web development projects, teaches in the department of American Studies at the University of Hawai‘i, and independently develops curriculum.