In Loving Memory of Dr. Linda España-Maram
With deep sadness and gratitude, the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the Program of American Studies and APIN remember Dr. Linda España-Maram, Professor Emerita of Asian American Studies and American Studies at California State University, Long Beach, who passed away peacefully on Saturday, August 8, 2026.
The wider community of students, friends, and colleagues is invited to a Celebration of Life at CSULB, 1-2 pm, Friday, October 30, 2026, at the Karl E. Anatol Center with a reception to follow. Please RSVP here (for guest parking, please RSVP by October 16).
An award-winning author, Fulbright Scholar, and winner of numerous grants and fellowships, as well as a beloved friend, colleague, and mentor, Dr. Maram joined AAAS in 1997 and influenced generations of students and scholars during her long tenure at CSULB. She earned her B.A. and M.A. at California State University, Fullerton, and her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles, focusing on Filipinx American Studies, cultural productions, Labor Studies, and Latin American Studies.
Dr. Maram contributed critical leadership and service to her AAAS and AMST colleagues and played a pivotal role in establishing, strengthening, and advancing Ethnic Studies and American Studies at the CSU and in California. At CSULB, she helped AAAS establish an Asian American Studies major in 2004 and shape the Asian Studies MA program as a long-time graduate advisor. Dr. Maram was elected by CSU Ethnic Studies faculty to the Steering Committee of the Ethnic Studies Council in 2014 and co-authored the July 2016 Report on the status of Ethnic Studies as a member of the CSU Task Force on the Advancement of Ethnic Studies. The report and recommendations of the CSU Task Force contributed to the August 2020 passage of California Assembly Bill 1460 (Weber) that requires all CSU undergraduate students to complete a 3-unit Ethnic Studies course.
Dr. Maram was also a vital contributor to the American Studies Program during and after its reactivation in the early 2000s. She served on the program’s advisory board and helped plan events including faculty reading groups and guest lectures. She taught several American Studies courses, including the introductory course, senior seminar, and the California culture courses required of all majors. Dr. Maram also developed popular and relevant new courses on sports in American culture and foodways in American culture. She also worked with colleagues from Long Beach, Fullerton, and across the state to help plan California American Studies Association (CASA) conferences and events. Her friendship, collegiality, and intellectual incisiveness both inside and outside the classroom were crucial to the growth, vibrancy, and impact of our interdisciplinary American Studies program.
As a doctoral student, Dr. Maram decided to write her dissertation on the discrimination that Filipino manongs experienced as immigrant laborers and men of color in 1920s-1950s Los Angeles. However, in one session after another, her interviewees reminisced about the time of their lives as young single men who danced, played sports, sang, and pursued leisure activities; so, she listened. The resulting hallmark work, Creating Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila: Working-Class Filipinos and Popular Culture, 1920s-1950s (Columbia University Press, 2006) offers a critical account of how working-class immigrant Filipino men created communal spaces of support through masculinity-making, leisure, and pleasure, and engaged in the politics of resistance in the face of labor exploitation, white supremacy, and U.S. colonialism. Creating Masculinity was honored by the Association for Asian American Studies with the 2007 Best Book Award in History and continues to be a pathbreaking work demonstrating how to pair the cultural and material questions together.
Dr. Maram regularly bridged academics, community, and the arts, and most recently was featured in PBS’ “Lost LA: Historic Filipinotown.” She helped get CSULB students involved in the community outside the classroom and develop as young professionals by organizing panels of alumni and faculty, field trips to community organizations, and visits from activists and entrepreneurs. Her former students include alumni who have made their mark at organizations with localized and national reach, like the Filipino Migrant Center and Visual Communications. For many of her peers, junior and senior, “Linda is the kind of teacher scholar that we came to the university to be.”
Dr. Constancio Arnaldo, CSULB alumnus and Associate Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, shared:
Beyond her scholarship and service, Professor España-Maram’s commitment to mentorship was immeasurable. She was a fierce advocate for first-generation, working-class students of color, continued to cultivate relationships with her mentees, and mentored us throughout graduate school. She wrote letters of recommendation and introduced us to key scholars in the fields of Asian American Studies, History, American Studies, and Anthropology. She read our book proposals, offered critical and generative feedback, and most importantly, reminded us that our scholarship, ideas, voices, and histories mattered… She will not only be remembered for her scholarship and mentorship, but for her vibrant spirit, generosity, kindness, and labor of love.
Known affectionately as “Momz” to generations of Filipinx American and other students whom she advised at and beyond CSULB, Dr. Maram loved traveling and spending time with loved ones over good food, good wine, and films. She was sharp, witty, stylish, funny, fearless, devoted, and generous. She is survived and missed by a wide, beloved extended network of family, friends, students, alumni, and colleagues.
In lieu of flowers and gifts, the family asks guests to make a donation to the following organizations in her memory: Visual Communications, the Asian & Asian American Studies Scholarships at CSULB, People for the Ethical Treatments of Animals (PETA), and/or the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation.
Please contact Dr. Barbara Kim with any questions.
