University of Chicago. Philippine Studies Program

The University of Chicago Philippine Studies Program was established in 1953 with Fred Eggan as Director and Evett D. Hester as Associate Director. The Program was supported by an initial five year grant of $75,000 in March 1953 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Carnegie Corporation furnished a terminal grant of $25,000 in December 1957. Funding for specific projects was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Asia Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. After the Program merged with the University of Chicago Committee on Southern Asian Studies in 1959-1960, funds were allocated through the committee and provided by the Non-Western Area Program of the Ford Foundation.

The purpose of the Philippine Studies Program was to help “provide the necessary scientific foundation for an adequate understanding of Philippine society and culture, and ... assess the role played by the United States in its development.” The project coordinated the staff and resources of the University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology, the Newberry Library, and the Field Museum of Natural History (then called the Chicago Natural History Museum). This philosophy of cooperation soon extended to include other American or Philippine universities, museums, and libraries. Cooperation between Chicago institutions included the cataloging and publication of a Calendar of Philippine Documents in the Ayer Collection of the Newberry Library by Paul Lietz, and the installation of the Pacific Research Laboratory at the Field Museum of Natural History completed in 1957-1958 with the guidance of Evett D. Hester.

Fred Eggan was the Director of the Program from 1953 until 1977. Eggan was responsible for the management of the Program, organizing conferences, overseeing fieldwork, and conducting his own research on the Sagada Igorot in partnerships with Alfredo Pacyaya and William Henry Scott. Evett D. Hester, the Associate Director, provided daily supervision, participated in conferences, and monitored the field studies in the Philippines. Hestor’s own work in connection with the Program involved him in the Pacific Research Laboratory at the Field Museum of Natural History and the H. Otley Beyer Collection of manuscripts and artifacts in the Philippines.

During the initial period of the Program, a research library for students and post-doctoral fellows was established. This collection included monographs, serials, unpublished papers, and research materials gathered by Fred Eggan throughout his career. Also during this period, a subcontract was initiated with Human Resources Area Files, Inc. to produce the four-volume Area Handbook of the Philippines. Research for the Handbook prompted the Philippine Studies Program to advocate more field work in the Southern and Central Philippines to fill in gaps of knowledge found wanting at the completion of the HRAF publication. Many who worked on the Handbook continued to do this field work and publish their findings. These researchers included Robert B. Fox, Melvin Mednick, Francis X. Lynch, S. J., and Jacques Amyot, S.J.

Another major project undertaken by the Program was the search for and the translation of Alzina's "Historia de Visayas..." (1668). This was a project initially begun in partnership with the Newberry Library, in conjunction with Filipino scholars. The Newberry furnished facilities for Paul Lietz, a Loyola University historian, who began translating the work. Many hands went into an effort to translate and publish this important manuscript, including Paul Lietz, E. D. Hester, Fred Eggan, Felipe Landa Jocano, and Victor Baltazar, among others.

From the time of its founding, the Philippine Studies Program concentrated on firmer ties with institutions and scholars in the Philippines. While sending many people from the United States to the Philippines to do field work, the Program also helped to bring Filipino social scientists to the University of Chicago. Some received their Ph.D.'s. there and others came for a year of study, among them Alfredo Pacyaya, E. Arsenio Manuel, F. Landa Jocano, Alfred Evangelista, and William Henry Scott. Many of these individuals held prominent posts in government, cultural institutions, and universities in the Philippines.

In the academic year of 1959-1960, the Philippine Studies Program was incorporated within the Committee on Southern Asian Studies. In 1961, Clifford Geertz came to the University and was highly instrumental in further developing a South and Southeast Asia program at the University. As the University of Chicago broadened its scope of studies in the South Asia region, the Philippine Studies Program received less emphasis. Interest in the Program declined further with the death and retirement of three of the Program's most important advocates. Finally, with the retirement of its Director Fred Eggan, in 1977, the Philippine Studies Program ceased to function.