This volume celebrates the life and career of Mary Racelis—scholar, teacher, development advocate, and activist. Mary has long championed scholarship grounded in the lives and experiences of ordinary Filipinos, from her early ethnographies of urban and provincial life with the Institute of Philippine Culture through her advocacy work with urban poor community organizations and their partner NGOs, her development work with UNICEF and the Ford Foundation, and her “legendary years” teaching at the Ateneo and University of the Philippines. In The Scholar as Activist, thirty-three distinguished scholars from all around the world reflect on her influence on their lives and work and on the country at large. Altogether these pieces document the life of a remarkable woman against the backdrop of a postcolonial society struggling to realize itself.
Published in 2026.