Lorenzo Perillo
دانشیار · Indigenous Dance and Performance Studies
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoaمعرفی
Dr. Lorenzo Perillo serves as Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance and Co-Director of the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He maintains affiliations with the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, and is a core hui member for the Ahahui Noiʻi Noʻeau ʻŌiwi (ANNO): Research Institute of Indigenous Performance.
His educational background includes:
- PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA
Dr. Perillo's research critically examines Indigenous dance and performance through lenses of race, migration, and transnational identity formation. His work interrogates how Filipinx communities navigate cultural politics via hip hop and popular performance, while exploring intersections of gender, sexuality, and postcolonial resistance in diasporic contexts. This scholarship bridges ethnographic rigor with choreographic practice to challenge dominant narratives of cultural representation.
His publications reveal consistent focus on decolonial performance methodologies, with recent work analyzing euphemism as a cultural survival strategy. The book Choreographing in Color establishes foundational frameworks for understanding hip hop as transnational Filipinx expressive culture, while journal contributions advance methodological innovations in dance ethnography and Southeast Asian American studies.
Dr. Perillo's scholarly recognition includes:
- Fulbright Scholarship for ethnographic research on Hip Hop in Asia
His academic mentorship spans institutions including UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Cornell University, with research funding primarily through the Fulbright program supporting cross-cultural performance studies. Current projects emphasize indigenous knowledge systems in contemporary dance practices.
He actively shapes research agendas through leadership in the Center for Philippine Studies and ANNO institute, fostering collaborative projects on indigenous Pacific performance and diasporic cultural resilience.
