Joseph Scalice

Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University

At the heart of my scholarship is a transnational approach to revolutionary movements and authoritarianism in Southeast Asia, grounded in the postwar political history of the Philippines. I received my Ph.D in South and Southeast Asian Studies from UC Berkeley in July 2018.

My book, The Drama of Dictatorship: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines (Cornell University Press, 2023), analyzes the period leading up to the declaration of martial law by Ferdinand Marcos in 1972 and uncovers the prominent role played by two Communist Parties, the PKP and the CPP, in these events. Using the previously unexamined contemporary written record produced by these organizations, I demonstrate that the rival parties allied with rival factions of the elite who were engaged in a furious struggle to be in power prior to the imposition of military rule. The Drama of Dictatorship is the first scholarly account of the social explosions on the eve of martial law and the political machinations that culminated in the death of democracy.

My research interests include Tagalog literature, the Sino-Soviet split in Southeast Asia, global Maoism, and recovering the forgotten struggles of the working class and peasantry in the Philippines.

The most recent version of my CV is available here.

Contact
email: jscalice {at} berkeley {dot} edu.
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