Screening of Reclaiming Humanity: Saving Seattle’s First Filipinx American US History Course

Join us in celebrating Filipino American History Month with a screening of Reclaiming Humanity: Saving Seattle's First Filipinx American US History Course on Thursday, October 23 at 12pm in MLR 212.

In 2022, the first Filipinx American US History course in Seattle Public Schools (SPS) was approved. That same year, the district threatened to cut it.

Filmmakers and College of Education (CoE) community members Dr. Edmundo Aguilar, Assistant Teaching Professor, and Tianna Mae Andresen, ECO alum and instructor of Filipinx American US History in SPS, bring us the story of “the students, teachers, and community members in their fight to preserve cross community liberatory ethnic studies and watch them reclaim their humanity along the way.”

The screening will be followed by a brief Q&A with Dr. Aguilar and discussion about how we can protect the gains that educators, students, and communities have made in bringing culturally relevant curriculum to schools in a time of regression when these hard-fought wins are being clawed back.

Date: Thursday, October 23, 2025
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PDT
Location: Miller Hall, MLR 212
Film Runtime: 31 minutes
Target audience: Free and open to UW students, staff, and faculty

Dr. Edmundo Aguilar (He/Him) is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the College of Education at the University of Washington. Edmundo earned his Ph.D. in the Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education program at Washington State University. His non-traditional dissertation includes a documentary grounded in decolonial Chicana Feminism titled, Between Worlds: A Personal Journey of Self Reflection while on the Path of Conocimiento. Before joining UW, he received the 2019/2020 Eastern Washington University College of Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Award.

Tianna Mae Andresen (she/they) is a queer filipinx american academic, artist/fashion designer, liberatory educator, and new documentarian. Tianna is originally from Duwamish Land (Seattle, WA) but currently resides on Ohlone Land (San Francisco, CA). A lot of their work focuses on community based ethnic studies, queer stories, and archival histories. Tianna was the first teacher for the Filipinx American US History Course and is also a member of the Filipino American National Historical Society.

For questions, please contact rhaxton@uw.edu