KPFA-FM, APEX EXPRESS (BERKELEY) -- Tonight, we dedicate the whole show to Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, a beloved academic at San Francisco State University. In addition to being a scholar, she was an activist who loved her hometown of Stockton, her Giants and her Warriors. The Filipino Women’s Network named her one of the 100 Most Influential Filipinas in the world in 2013. Dawn passed away unexpectedly on August 10 this year and the impact of our community’s loss is still being felt.
“I’ve been so privileged to become a professor at San Francisco State and work with thousands of students over the last 13 years I’ve been a professor,” says Mabalon, who taught in the History Department. “In my lectures, bringing the story of Filipinos into the larger narrative of how I teach American history. But what we need is books to do that. I need to reach audiences that are beyond my classroom. And I especially want to reach young people. We need to get them interested and see themselves in American history at a very young age.”