My research examines how an authoritarian regime neutralized opposition politics without resorting to outright and open coercive means. I look at the efforts of the Marcos dictatorship to neutralize a center of radical politics – the University of the Philippines – by fashioning an atmosphere where a combination of “new” technocratic thinking, the introduction of alternative ways of “looking” at the political world and education “reforms” aimed to depoliticize and divert student interests away from agitating against the dictatorship. I will look at rules and regulations, the setting up of new policies and research centers, and how curricula were being revised and rendered politically “safe.”

The research also looks at everyday forms of resistance against the dictatorship within the administrative structures of the University. The literature on civil society resistance against dictatorship also focuses on street protests or urban or rural armed resistance. This research looks at everyday resistance within the institution. How did people “inside” the university oppose or slow down these authoritarian measures? How successful were these efforts to push back? The research, in short, takes a (second) look at the University as an arena of struggle between authoritarianism and democracy.