Education
He received his Bachelor of Arts in history and philosophy from Ateneo de Manila University in 1977 and his Doctor of Philosophy in history at Cornell University in 1984.
He received his Bachelor of Arts in history and philosophy from Ateneo de Manila University in 1977 and his Doctor of Philosophy in history at Cornell University in 1984.
Prior to teaching at the University of Washington, Rafael taught at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Currently, he sits on advisory boards of Cultural Anthropology, Public Culture, and positions. Though a historian, he has also focused on the related fields of cultural anthropology and literary studies and pursued topics ranging from language and power, translation and religious conversion, technology and humanity, and the politics and poetics of representation.
Rafael has researched and taught on Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, comparative colonialism, particularly of Spain and the United States, and comparative nationalism.