2024-25
- September 6, 2024
The Filipinx & Philippine Studies Working Group (FPS) hosted its first meeting for the academic year on September 6, 2024. The group discussed the projected agenda and new directions for the group. The group has committed to support Philippine-based scholars for the academic year. The working group hosted its first dinner of the academic year and recruited three new members across different departments: History of Art, South and Southeast Asian Studies, and Sociology. We discussed the agenda for the semester and compiled a list of texts that the working group members are interested in discussing in the scholarship of Philippine and Filipino diasporic studies.
- September 12, 2024
On September 12, 2024, the group co-sponsored a talk by invited lecturer Patrick Flores, Professor of Art Studies at the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines and Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Singapore. Flores’s talk, “The Labor of Image and the Formation of the Philippine Subject,” which considered representations of migrant laborers as well as the role of private collectors in the Visayas in producing national collections.
- October 25, 2024
On October 25, 2024, the working group workshopped a qualifying exam paper titled “The Myth of Promised Land and the Filipin@ and Filipinx American Dream/Diaspora: A Postcolonial Biblical-Theological Critique of Immigration as Liberation/Exile” by Carmelo Sorita, a graduate student at the Theological Union. At this meeting, Carmelo presented his research thinking through the applicability of “exodus” as a heuristic for understanding immigration, diaspora, and their respective promises. We then talked through potential ways of extending and expanding on his ideas in preparation for his qualifying exams.
- February 6, 2025
On February 6, 2025 the working group gathered to discuss with Prof. Victoria Reyes, Associate Professor in the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies at UC Riverside to discuss her work on navigating academia and the challenges of writing for a public audience. The group discussed with her the potentials and dangers inherent in academic gatekeeping and what it means to the people at the margins.
- February 28, 2025
On February 28, 2025, the working group attended the opening of the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco themed: Paraluman: A tribute to the Indigenous Women of the Philippines. At this event, the group engaged with various artists and indigenous weavers to explore changes and continuities in cultural identity through art and textile production.
- March 20th, 2025
On March 20th, 2025, the working group members attended and collaborated with the Center for Southeast Asia Studies to facilitate the inaugural Andrew Gonzalez lecture, a transnational scholarly exchange in conjunction with the Philippine Consulate in hosting Caroline Hau from Kyoto University. The lecture was entitled, “On (Not) Reading Rizal,” explores Philippine nationalism and identity formations through the legacies of Jose Rizal, arguably one of the most consequential figures in the founding of the Philippine nation. The talk delved into an interdisciplinary discussion that focused along themes of popular culture, politics, and national memory.
- April 2 and 3, 2025
On April 2 and 3, 2025, the group gathered to attend a seminar and talk called, “The Bridge of Earth” by Neferti Tadiar based on her book Remaindered Life, which rethinks the dynamics of a global capitalism maintained through permanent imperial war by drawing on examples between the Philippines and Palestine. Tadiar’s talk explored the relationships between neoliberalism, ongoing projects of military violence, and globalization are inextricably linked processes that dispossess vulnerable populations in the Global South.
- April 4, 2025
On April 4, 2025, the working group sponsored a professionalization event that brought graduate students from our own organization and from UC Davis together to discuss Philippine studies. In this, we not only discussed cross-disciplinary intersections between our various research areas including public health, ethnic studies, art history, and fine arts, but also made preliminary plans for continued collaboration between Philippine studies students across our two campuses.
2023-24
- September 29, 2023
AG Saño gave a talk. He is a muralist, photographer, and environmental activist from the Philippines. He shared his experiences as a muralist with the FPS.
- May 6, 2024
