Precarity And Motherhood In Philippine Trans Cinema,
2022
California State University San Marcos, US
Precarity And Motherhood In Philippine Trans Cinema, Mikee Inton-Campbell
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
In this short essay, I reflect on representations and themes in trans cinema in the Philippines. I examine the emerging and intersecting themes of precarity and motherhood in two recent films –Rod Singh’s Mamu and a Mother too (2018), and Isabel Sandoval’s Lingua Franca (2020). I look at how economic and social precarity tends to pervade the lives of trans women, and how transness itself becomes a form of precarity under the legal system’s lack of accommodation to trans rights. I also examine trans motherhood and make the argument that while it destabilizes biology as the root of motherhood, it …
Lesbian-Essaying Through Textual In(Ter)Ventions In Memoir,
2022
University of the Philippines – Mindanao, Philippines
Lesbian-Essaying Through Textual In(Ter)Ventions In Memoir, Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
In this exegetical essay, I show how I have deployed linguistic and non-linguistic strategies in the writing of my memoir in order to make my lesbian identity as a writer visible on the page without explicitly stating it. Using the theoretical ideas of Teresa de Lauretis and Nicole Brossard, I assert that a non-conventional approach to the writing of memoir is how a lesbian writer can challenge heteronormative writing standards, particularly in the Philippine literary system, within which I had allowed myself to be molded in my past writing practice. Some of these textual in(ter)ventions—both inventions and interventions—are narrative structure, …
Woman, In Parts,
2022
De La Salle University, Philippines
Woman, In Parts, Noelle Leslie Dela Cruz
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
In this essay, the text of a craft lecture presented for the Bienvenido Santos Creative Writing Center, I discuss the interrelationship between gender and poetry. I present a close-reading of “Dreamweavers” by Marjorie Evasco, followed by a recital and critical description of five of my own poems. These are organized around specific body parts, by way of critical engagement with the association between femininity and the body.
Womanunulat: Popular Critical Writing As Performance,
2022
De La Salle College of St. Benilde, Philippines
Womanunulat: Popular Critical Writing As Performance, Katrina Stuart Santiago
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
This essay discusses the exclusionary principles of the literary establishment in the Philippines using the lens of labor, given critical writing as practice, and gender as performance. It maps out a personal and professional history of writing that is intricately tied to the various voices of other women writing, across different forms, and throughout Philippine history, where women have shown that at the heart of this practice, and at the core of this performance, is freedom.
The Writing Of State Of Happiness: Writing The Archipelago,
2022
De La Salle University, Philippines
The Writing Of State Of Happiness: Writing The Archipelago, Clarissa V. Militante
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
A novelist’s main task is to re-imagine and re-present worlds, re-construct time and space, create new novel forms. But there are three things that a novelist resists as much as they can. A novelist would rather not talk about their own work, as it should not be upon them to interpret what they wrote. For this writer, it should be intentions, not meanings, that should matter. Second, to tell the story of how one began and wrote their novel is also something to be avoided if one can, unless as Umberto Eco said it could help enlighten others in terms …
Bi-Phasic Dissonance In Some Pinoy Boys’ Love Series,
2022
Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Bi-Phasic Dissonance In Some Pinoy Boys’ Love Series, Gary C. Devilles
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
The growing fascination with Pinoy Boy’s Love (BL) series, such as Gameboys, Hello Stranger, and Quaranthings can be construed as part of the long struggle of LGBTQI community for more inclusivity as most of its fans were also fans of Thai Boy’s Love series called “lakhon,” according to scholar Thomas Baudinette who studied that Pinoy fan sites actively appropriate or “creatively misread” these series. My paper now would like to follow up on the efficacy of these reparative readings in Pinoy BL series, if the creative misreading in Thai BL series can be carried over to their Pinoy …
Rural Development In Papua New Guinea: Mining, Logging, Agriculture, And Alternatives,
2022
Claremont Colleges
Rural Development In Papua New Guinea: Mining, Logging, Agriculture, And Alternatives, Tj Askew
CMC Senior Theses
This thesis examines multiple approaches to providing rural, indigenous Papuans with improved social services and economic opportunities. Rural Papuans, who make up 80 percent of the population, face below average rates of nutrition, education, disease, crime, and other quality of life indicators. Due to location, land use rights, lack of infrastructure, and minimal access to economic markets, the PNG government has struggled to provide rural communities with basic social services. Historically, the development of resource extraction projects such as mining, logging, and agriculture have been the main strategies used to improve the livelihood of rural Papuans, with limited success. This …
Unraveling Paradise: Colonialism And Disguise In German Language Literature,
2022
Bowdoin College
Unraveling Paradise: Colonialism And Disguise In German Language Literature, Brigita Kant
Honors Projects
For centuries, the Pacific Islands have been disguised by Europeans through the trope of “island paradise." Despite Europe’s role in bringing colonization and racial oppression to Oceania, the dominant narrative has been that Pacific Islanders lead simple lives, untouched from the complicated aspects of the “modern world.” This narrative has enabled White outsiders to fantasize about the Pacific Islands as a place for personal denial of Western social conventions, simultaneously allowing White European men to fetishize and possess Pacific Island culture and identity. My honors project will closely examine three fictional German language texts- Haimotochare (1819), Der Papalagi (1920) …
Representing The Ali'i And Monarchy: Dress, Diplomacy, And Featherwork In Hawai'i,
2022
Claremont Colleges
Representing The Ali'i And Monarchy: Dress, Diplomacy, And Featherwork In Hawai'i, Tess Anderson
Scripps Senior Theses
When Native Hawaiians and haole (foreigners) first met, both participants belonged to fashion systems unknown to the other, composed of different materials, styles, tastes, standards, and construction techniques. As the outside world was introduced to the cultural heritage of Hawaiian hulu manu (featherwork), kūkaulani (chiefly fashion), and European skewed conceptions of Hawaiian indigeneity; the ali‘i (chiefs) and kama‘āina (commoners) received and adapted to incoming materials, technologies, and information. When these encounters transitioned into “prolonged contact” and settlement, dress and adornment proliferated in new ways. Analyzing the case studies of historic pā‘ū, holokū, ‘ahu'ula, and military uniforms shows the significance of …
Lost In Adaptation: Antifidelity And/In Mike De Leon’S Bilanggo Sa Dilim And Bayaning 3rd World,
2021
De La Salle University, Philippines
Lost In Adaptation: Antifidelity And/In Mike De Leon’S Bilanggo Sa Dilim And Bayaning 3rd World, Anne Frances N. Sangil
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
Following the tenets of auteur criticism that proposes a film auteur to have an autonomous, original, and individual voice despite the nature of filmmaking as an art form that follows the Fordist model, this essay looks at how Mike De Leon’s artistic style has become the ordering agent for his two films: Bilanggo sa Dilim and Bayaning 3rd World. This study puts under the lens De Leon’s signature and confronts the difficulty of assigning authorship and originality within a collaborative, institutionalized medium that aims to adapt for the screen one literary and one historical material. De Leon has his …
The Haunting Power Of Sound In Aswang,
2021
Independent Researcher, Edinburgh, UK
The Haunting Power Of Sound In Aswang, Katrina Macapagal
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
This paper examines the audibility of Aswang (2019), the first feature-length documentary that tackles Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. I locate the documentary against the audibility of terror produced by the Duterte regime, accentuated by the primary metaphor of the aswang legend where the documentary initially draws its political charge. Inspired by theories of sound and haptic listening, I argue that Aswang, through its composition of key sound elements such as the voice-over, music, and urban noise, configures an overall audibility that amplifies, rather than reduces, the humanity of the documentary’s subjects.
Institutionally Speaking: Speech Departments And The Making Of A Philippine Eloquent Modernity,
2021
University of Melbourne, Australia; University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines
Institutionally Speaking: Speech Departments And The Making Of A Philippine Eloquent Modernity, Oscar Tantoco Serquina Jr.
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
This essay initiates a historiographical account of speech departments in the University of the Philippines (UP) and Silliman University. Founded in 1959 and 1965, respectively, these academic formations are the two existing bastions for the comprehensive and disciplinary study and practice of speech/speech communication in the country and the rest of Asia. This essay explores a) the use of speech as the organizing principle of scholarly inquiry in the Philippine modern university, b) the pedagogies composing Philippine speech curricula, c) the performances enacted by speech programs in UP and Silliman University, d) the speaking subjects that speech departments seek to …
“Thrilla In Manila”: Troubling Theatricality And Uneasy Spectator Affects Surrounding The Ringside Bar Midget Boxing And Wrestling,
2021
University of Melbourne, Australia; De La Salle University, Philippines
“Thrilla In Manila”: Troubling Theatricality And Uneasy Spectator Affects Surrounding The Ringside Bar Midget Boxing And Wrestling, Neslie Carol Tan
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
This paper illustrates how performance and affect inform disability politics in the case of Filipino Little People wrestlers and boxers at the Ringside Bar along a red-light district in Makati City, Philippines. The archive of the study focuses on the reception of its primarily foreign visitors as manifested online, including the bar’s unofficial Facebook account, review-based websites, and select travel and expatriate blogs/vlogs where reviews of these attractions most actively circulate. First, I map out the troubling theatricality of midget wrestling and boxing, identifying their cast, choreographies, and designs, to reveal traces of freak show traditions. Second, I unpack the …
A Politics And Ethics Of Viewing Photographs Of Duterte’S “Drug War”: Towards Reconceptualizing The Political Community,
2021
Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
A Politics And Ethics Of Viewing Photographs Of Duterte’S “Drug War”: Towards Reconceptualizing The Political Community, Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
This paper proposes a framework for a politics and ethics of viewing photographs of atrocities and suffering through an analysis of photographs of Rodrigo Duterte’s “drug war” in the Philippines and responses to these images. It situates these politics and ethics of viewing in a context of violent othering and Ariella Azoulay’s conceptualization of “regime-made disaster.” This framework is grounded on fellow-feeling and imagined identification as well as on the relationality, powers of mourning, and ethical responsibility that Judith Butler asserts and is operationalized through the “civil contract of photography” called forth by Azoulay. Following Azoulay and Butler, this paper …
Making Patriots Of Pupils: Colonial Education In Micronesia From 1944-1980,
2021
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Making Patriots Of Pupils: Colonial Education In Micronesia From 1944-1980, Julia Taylor
The Forum: Journal of History
This article explores American colonial education in Micronesia from the final months of World War Two to the late 1970s. The primary research question concerns American usage of education to pursue political and military goals, and how this affected multiple dimensions of Indigenous life. Although the dominant narrative at the time blamed Indigenous people for difficulties in implementing American education, the Western values permeating the American consciousness significantly inhibited the possibility of success as Americans defined it. This article details American motivations and efforts to implement an educational system as part of a larger goal of “economic development” and analyzes …
Full Issue,
2021
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Puhi In The Tree And Other Stories: Unlocking The Metaphor In Native And Indigenous Hawaiian Storytelling,
2021
University of North Dakota
Puhi In The Tree And Other Stories: Unlocking The Metaphor In Native And Indigenous Hawaiian Storytelling, Renuka M. De Silva, Joshua E. Hunter
The Qualitative Report
Human beings live and tell stories for many reasons, and it is a way to not only understand one another but to give a time and place to events and experiences. Therefore, a narrational approach within the context of this research offers a frame of reference and a way to reflect during the entire process of gathering data and writing. This study examines the importance of storytelling among Native (Kānaka ‘Ōiwi) and Indigenous (Kānaka Maoli) women of Hawai ̒ i and their interconnectedness to land and spirituality through accessing [k]new knowledge. The main focus of this article is to illustrate …
Refugee Policy In Australia And New Zealand: An Approach For Resettling Environmentally Displaced Persons?,
2021
The University of San Francisco
Refugee Policy In Australia And New Zealand: An Approach For Resettling Environmentally Displaced Persons?, Sedina Sinanovic
Master's Theses
An increase in human mobility as a consequence of climate change induced slow-onset environmental degradation and sudden-onset natural disasters is expected to be a defining feature of the 21st century. Inexorably shifting the global migratory landscape, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) approximates that roughly 250 million people will be forcefully displaced due to adverse climate impacts by 2050. While there is no international consensus on appropriately categorizing such people, this thesis refers to them as "environmentally-displaced persons" (EDPs). Since EDPs do not qualify for "refugee" status, they are not afforded access to assistance under the 1951 Convention …
Sovereignty, Statehood, And Subjugation: Native Hawaiian And Japanese American Discourse Over Hawaiian Statehood,
2021
Chapman University
Sovereignty, Statehood, And Subjugation: Native Hawaiian And Japanese American Discourse Over Hawaiian Statehood, Nicole Saito
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
Although discourse over Hawaiian statehood has increasingly been described by scholars as a racial conflict between Japanese Americans and Native Hawaiians, there existed a broad spectrum of interactions between the two groups. Both communities were forced to confront the prejudices they had against each other while recognizing their shared experiences with discrimination, creating a paradoxical political culture of competition and solidarity up until the conclusion of World War Two. From 1946 to 1950, however, the country’s collective understanding of Japanese American citizenship began to shift with recognition of the community’s military service record and an increased proportion of veterans elected …
The Surviving Sunset Of Manila Bay And The Ethics Of Environmental Justice In Philippine Ecopoetry,
2021
University of British Columbia, Canada
The Surviving Sunset Of Manila Bay And The Ethics Of Environmental Justice In Philippine Ecopoetry, Rina Garcia Chua
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
The Philippines, a country rich with natural resources, has taken steps to preserve its environmental megadiversity through the government’s existing environmental laws. However, reality seems to show a glaring disparity between what is being protected and what is being abused. The question is: what is fair to all? This paper’s primary purpose is to explore the aesthetics of local ecopoetry to discover whether the representation of environmental justice in literature can promote ecological fairness in the Third World. Using Hume’s concept of aesthetics to explore the inconsistency between the environmental laws and the message of the selected ecopoems, this study …
