Adrian De Leon is an award-winning writer and scholar, and an Assistant Professor of US History at New York University.

He is completing a trilogy of works on the Filipino diaspora that rethink some axiomatic concepts about migration and the nation-state. The first, barangay: an offshore poem (2021), the first, was cited as one of 2021’s Best Canadian Poetry Collections by CBC Books. The second, Bundok: A Hinterland History of Filipino America (2023), was awarded the 2024 Sally and Ken Owens Award from the Western History Association, and received honorable mentions for both the John Hope Franklin and Lora Romero Prizes from the American Studies Association. The third, Balikbayan: The Invention of the FIlipino Homeland, is forthcoming with the Critical Filipinx Studies series at the University of Washington Press.

He was a writer and co-host for A People’s History of Asian America (2021) and Historian’s Take (2022) on PBS Digital Studios. His recent commentary has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, PBS NewsHour, ABC Nightline, The Los Angeles Times, and more.

He received his PhD in the History of Empires, Colonialisms, and Indigeneity at the University of Toronto in 2019. He was the 2023-2024 Jack and Nancy Farley Distinguished Visiting Scholar in History at Simon Fraser University, and, from 2019 to 2024, an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

He is represented by Johanna Castillo at the Writers House Literary Agency.