Daniel Decolongon (BA, Sociology)

Daniel is a second-generation Filipino Canadian who was born and raised on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. He is graduating with a BA in Sociology and a minor in Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies. He tries – with varying degrees of success – to apply lessons from post-colonial studies and critical race theory to the media he consumes & creates. Currently, he is working with Dr. Chris Patterson on adapting his book, Stamped: An Anti-Travel Novel, as a visual novel. 


What is a favourite memory or story you have from ACAM? 

In GRSJ 307, we all had the option to make a short game to wrap up the term. My groupmates and I put together a Twine game about organizing in Chinatown – it was probably the most fun I’ve had working on a group project. 

What connections and ideas were you able to foster through ACAM? 

The BC high school curriculum that I was taught did not do Asian Canadian history the justice it deserves and through ACAM I reshaped my relationship with the histories of Canada, BC, and Vancouver. The program’s focus on storytelling as a core tenet of knowledge production has irreversibly shifted how I understand the relationships between race, the colonial project, and the state. In particular, I’d like to shout out Dr. Renisa Mawani’s SOCI 383 course for supergluing the phrase “reading against the grain” to the inside of my brain – it’s helped me work through a lot of historical narratives that I’ve engaged with.