Speaker Bionotes

Keynote Address

Mary Racelis is a professorial lecturer of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University. She has honorary doctorates from De La Salle University and the Ateneo de Manila University and sits or has sat on the boards of over a dozen foundations and NGOs. She is the author of a classic work in Philippine sociology, Reciprocity in the Lowland Philippines, and numerous articles on poverty and community organizing. She is co-editor (with Geronima T. Pecson) of Tales of the American Teachers in the Philippines, published in 1959, and (with Judy Celine Ick) of Bearers of Benevolence: The Thomasites and Public Education in the Philippines, in 2001.

Panel 1: Dynamics of Religion / Clash of Spirits

Joseph B. Johnson is an American canonist, resident in the Philippines since 2014. In addition to teaching undergraduate theology at Ateneo de Manila University, Mr. Johnson also practices remotely as a canonical advocate and defender of the bond for American dioceses. Currently pursuing a Doctorate of Canon Law (J.C.D.) at the University of Santo Tomas, Mr. Johnson received his Licentiate of Canon Law (J.C.L.) from KU Leuven in 2021. His licentiate thesis compared the role of the diocesan bishop in Roman Catholic and Aglipayan canon law. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Canon Law Society of America and the Canon Law Society of the Philippines.

Antonio F. B. de Castro was born in Jolo, Sulu on 13 June 1960.  He went through basic education at Notre Dame of Jolo.  He then went to the Ateneo de Manila University where he procured the A. B. in Philosophy.  He entered the Society of Jesus in 1981.  He enrolled in some courses on Islam at the Institute of Islamic Studies, University of the Philippines.  In 1991 he obtained the degree Bachelor in Sacred Theology (S. T. B.).  Ordained to the priesthood in March 1992, he was granted both the M. A. in Theology (Ateneo de Manila University) and the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (Fujen Catholic University, Taipei).  He was then sent to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome to do a licentiate and doctorate in Church History.  He was Associate Professor of Church History at the Loyola School of Theology for almost twenty years.  During that time, he also taught courses in Philosophy, Theology and History at the Ateneo de Manila University. He was series editor of the Mindanao Studies publications of the Ateneo de Manila University Press and has been a member of its Editorial Board for the past four or five years.  He has contributed chapters to books such as Theology, Conflict and Peacebuilding (2019) and Philippine Local Churches After the Spanish Regime: Quae Mari Sinico and Beyond (2015) and, most recently, Transfiguring Mindanao: A Mindanao Reader (2022).  He has published several articles as well in journals such as Landas: Journal of Loyola School of Theology, Kinaadman (Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City), Tambara (Ateneo de Davao University, Davao City), and Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints (Ateneo de Manila University).  The past three years he was Associate Professor of History at the School of Liberal Arts, Ateneo de Zamboanga University.  He has been recalled to the Ateneo de Manila University as a member of the Faculty of the History Department of the School of Social Sciences.

Panel 2: The Uses of English

Isabel Pefianco Martin is Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Management of the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. Dr Martin is a leading figure in English language studies in the country, having published in various internationally recognized publications on topics ranging from Philippine English, English language education, English sociolinguistics, and forensic/legal linguistics. She is currently the President of the International Association for World Englishes (IAWE) and Managing Editor of Asian Englishes, a Scopus-indexed journal.

Cyan Abad-Jugo is a writer of books for children and young adults. She currently works as a part-time lecturer at Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila University, teaching Effective Reading and Writing to Jesuit Brothers in their Juniorate.

Kingsley Bolton is Professor Emeritus at the University of Stockholm. He has published widely on English across the Asian region. His publications include The Handbook of Asian Englishes (Wiley Blackwell, 2020) and The Routledge Handbook of English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education (2024). He is Co-Editor of the journals Educational Studies (Routledge) and World Englishes (Wiley-Blackwell), Series Editor of the Routledge book series Multilingual Asia, and Chief Editor of The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. He has also researched aspects of English in the Philippines and, with Professor Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista, has co-edited a volume on Philippine English: Linguistic and Literary Perspectives (Hong Kong University Press, 2008).

Panel 3: American (Mis)education and Colonial Logics

Rowena “Rowie” Azada-Palacios is an assistant professor of philosophy at Ateneo de Manila University and a postdoctoral research fellow for the “Reversing the Gaze” project at the University of Edinburgh. Rowie’s research is at the intersection of education and critical political philosophy. Her monograph, Postcolonial Education and National Identity, based on her doctoral research at University College London, will be released in November 2024 by Bloomsbury Academic. She is on the editorial board of the journal Ethics and Education, and she is an associate editor of the Brill series on philosophy of education. She is the founding chair of the Philippine Society of Education and Philosophy (PhilSEP) and a founding member of Women Doing Philosophy.

Kelly Louise Rexzy Agra is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Philippines Baguio. She recently earned her doctorate at the University College Dublin, where she also served as a teaching fellow for a semester. Her PhD research, which falls within the intersection of Critical Theory and Social Epistemology is entitled: “Epistemic Paralysis and Non-recognition: The Case of (Mis)education”. Kelly is specializing in decolonial and feminist critiques of knowledge and society. She is a founding member of Critical Political Epistemology Network (CPEN), Women Doing Philosophy (Philippines), and Minorities and Philosophy UCD Chapter. Kelly has published works on epistemic injustice and social philosophy.

Pamela Joy (PJ) Mariano Capistrano, faculty of the Department of Philosophy, Ateneo de Manila University, recently earned her PhD from the Université de Namur in Belgium. Her PhD thesis, “Between Structure and Agency: Structural Injustice in the Capability Approach, its Applications, and in Genetically-modified Corn Farming in Bukidnon, Philippines,” weaves together her interests in the capability approach, critical social theory, development praxis, and the work of Amartya Sen and Iris Marion Young. She is also, in no particular order: a mother to a 10 year-old, married to an economist, and a recent recipient of the Ul Haq Early Career Scholarship from the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) and the United Nations Development Program Human Development Report Office (UNDP-HDRO).

Keynote Address

Felice Prudente Sta. Maria is an internationally awarded author of non-fiction and has been a cultural worker for over five decades.  Her work in Philippine culinary history and culture has resulted in, among other books, The Governor-General's Kitchen: Philippine Culinary Vignettes and Period Recipes, 1521–1935 and The Foods of Jose Rizal.  She was a commissioner on the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Philippine Centennial Commission, and the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines. In 2001, she received the first NCCA Dangal ng Haraya lifetime achievement award and the prestigious SEA Write Award.  She is a member of the Ayala Museum Board of Advisers.

PANEL 4: Food, Hygiene, and the Environment

Nicolo Paolo P. Ludovice is Research Assistant Professor at the Division of Public Policy, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He completed his PhD in History at the University of Hong Kong (2021) and MA in History at the Ateneo de Manila University (2015). His doctoral project investigated the history of animals in medicine and health in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Philippines. His research interests broadly cover global histories of environmental health and animal history, the history of science, technology, and medicine (with a focus on biomedicine, public health, and zoonoses), food history, and health-environmental humanities, with the Philippines as his geographical focus. He is the recipient of the Wang Gungwu Prize for Research Postgraduate Students by the University of Hong Kong (2022) and the prestigious Young Historian’s Prize 2022 by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Republic of the Philippines.

Erik Akpedonu (Dipl.-Ing. FH) teaches Art Appreciation and Philippine Colonial Art and Architecture at the Department of Fine Arts of the Ateneo de Manila University. He studied Architecture at the Lippe University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Working in architectural bureaus in Germany, Ghana, and Malaysia, he participated in various construction projects in those countries and the Middle East, involving restoration and renovation, adaptive re-use, and new construction in historic contexts. As Research Associate of the Ateneo’s Institute of Philippine Culture, Erik Akpedonu has been conducting extensive surveys of historic Filipino architecture, first in Bohol, and later in Metro Manila as Project Manager of the Architectural Heritage of Manila Project. As an Expert Heritage Consultant for the NCCA and the Intramuros Administration, he has been advising government agencies, NGOs, and private companies in the Philippines on matters of heritage preservation, history, reconstruction, and urbanism. Erik Akpedonu has published extensively on heritage, culture, urbanism, architecture, and related topics, and is co-author (with Czarina Saloma) of Casa Boholana: Vintage Houses of Bohol (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2011) and (with Fernando Zialcita) of Endangered Splendor: Manila`s Architectural Heritage, 1571-1960, Volume 1 (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2021; winner of the National Book Award in 2021), with further volumes currently in press. As a former member of the Board of Trustees of ICOMOS Philippines and its former financial officer, he actively advocates the appreciation and preservation of the Philippines’s rich built heritage.

Dr. Roberto Martin N. Galang is the Dean of the John Gokongwei School of Management in Ateneo de Manila University.  Robby was formerly a Senior Private Sector Specialist for the World Bank Group.  At the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, his responsibilities revolved around projects to foster competition, enhance productivity, improve business regulations, facilitate trade and promote innovation in support of private sector development in countries like the Philippines, Timor Leste, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.  Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Robby was an assistant professor of business strategy at Ateneo de Manila University and the Asian Institute of Management where he conducted research on the impact of government institutional inefficiencies on firm performance.  His work has been published in the Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, Journal of International Business Studies and Business & Society.  He completed his PhD in Management from the IESE Business School, his MSc in Development Economics from Oxford University, and his AB in Communications from Ateneo de Manila University.  He used to teach Philippine history and communications research at Ateneo de Manila University.

PANEL 5: Mobility and Transportation

Patricia Irene Dacudao is chair and assistant professor at the Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University. Her recent publication Abaca Frontier: The Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformation of Davao, 1898-1941 (Ateneo de Manila University Press,  2023) received the Outstanding Scholarly Work Award in the School of Social Sciences in 2024.

Meynardo P. Mendoza is a faculty member of the Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University. He is the former Director of the Ateneo Martial Law Museum as well as the Ateneo Center for Asian Studies. Among his research interests are the Marcos period, transitional justice and reparations, human rights, social movements, agrarian reform and aviation history. His latest publications include chapters in The Marcos Era: A Reader and History of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines. 

Michael D. Pante is an associate professor at the Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University, and chief editor of Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints. He is the author of A Capital City at the Margins: Quezon City and Urbanization in the Twentieth-Century Philippines (Ateneo de Manila University Press; Kyoto University Press, 2019).

Panel 6: Bureaucratic Perceptions of the Environment and their Dangers in American Colonial Philippines

Greg Bankoff is a historical geographer who focuses on the way societies interrelate with their environments over time, especially the way people adapt to frequent hazards. He is a Research Fellow at Ateneo de Manila University and Professor Emeritus at the University of Hull. His most recent publication is a co-edited volume, Why Vulnerability Still Matters: The Politics of Disaster Risk Creation (2022).

Brian Paul Giron is a staff member of the Department of History of the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. He is currently in the final stages of finishing his PhD studies at Murdoch University in Australia where he is affiliated with the Indo-Pacific Research Centre. His research interests lie in the history of science, particularly in the histories of science in contexts of empires and colonies. His thesis studies the history of American ichthyology in the US colony in the Philippines.

Bianca Angelien Aban Claveria is a PhD candidate at the Institute for History, Leiden University. She is currently part of an ERC-funded research project: “Human Subject Research and Medical Ethics in Colonial Southeast Asia.” She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in History from Ateneo de Manila University.  Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she was an Instructor at the Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University, and an Editorial Assistant of the Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints journal. In 2023, she won the Young Historian’s Prize (YHP), granted by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), for her manuscript “Warnings from the Weather Watchers: The Manila Observatory, the Royal Observatory Hongkong, and Early 20th Century Networks of Meteorological Communications.”

Diego Rebato is a part-time faculty member of the Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University. He currently teaches a course on the history of disasters in the Philippines.

PANEL 7: Special Collections of the Rizal Library

Hilario Serviano Balderas, Jr., PhD, is a registered librarian. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering at the Technological Institute of the Philippines and completed his Master’s in Library Science degree at Centro Escolar University, where he was a FAPE scholar. He recently completed his Doctorate degree in School Leadership and Management at St. Dominic Savio College. Larry started his career as a reference librarian at the Ateneo Professional Schools Library in Rockwell, Makati. He transferred to Rizal Library - Loyola in 2023 as an Indexer assigned at the Microform and Digital Resources Center. Currently, he is the Head of the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings.

Bernadette Mariano Garilao is a registered librarian with over 25 years of experience at the Rizal Library. She earned her Bachelor of Secondary Education, major in Library Science, at the University of Santo Tomas in 1999 and completed her Master’s in Library and Information Science at the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 2005. Throughout her career, she has gained valuable experience working in various sections of the Library, including the Circulation and Reserve Section, Reference and Foreign Periodicals Section, and Indexing Pool Section. She currently serves as the Head of the Filipiniana and Indexing Pool Section, where she began her career as an Indexer.

Russel Narvasa-Castro has been a registered librarian since 2013. She graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. She also completed her master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the same school. She started her career as a Head Librarian at a college in Quezon City. She then transferred to Rizal Library where she worked as a Reference Librarian for 3 years and currently serves as the Section Head of the American Historical Collection.

During her 15-year tenure at the Ateneo de Manila, Rosalyn Santos Diño has supervised various sections within the Special Collections Cluster of the Rizal Library, including the American Historical Collection, the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings, and the Microform and Digital Resources Center. Her expertise extends to academic libraries, as she spent over a decade at the Angeles University Foundation, holding positions such as Head of the Reference Section, High School Library, and Computer and Multimedia Services. She currently serves as the head of the Pardo de Tavera Library and Special Collections (PDTLSC) at the Rizal Library. Her educational background includes a BSE in Library Science from the University of Santo Tomas (1997) and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of the Philippines-Diliman (2006), where she was a FAPE scholar.

Tommy Mendoza Dela Cruz is a registered librarian. He is the Head of the Microform and Digital Resources Center and concurrently serves as the Officer-in-Charge of Photoduplication Services. With 27 years of experience at the Rizal Library, he has been instrumental in preserving and managing the library’s rare and special collections. Tommy earned his bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in 1997 and completed his Master’s in the same field at the University of the Philippines in 2018. His focus is on digital preservation and the management of both microfilm and digital collections, ensuring that valuable archival materials are converted into digital formats for future access.

PANEL 8: The Cold War in the Philippines 

Meynardo P. Mendoza is a faculty member of the Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University. He is the former Director of the Ateneo Martial Law Museum as well as the Ateneo Center for Asian Studies. Among his research interests are the Marcos period, transitional justice and reparations, human rights, social movements, agrarian reform and aviation history. His latest publications include chapters in The Marcos Era: A Reader and History of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines.

Francis C. Sollano is an instructor in the Literary and Cultural Studies Program, Ateneo de Manila University. He is also a PhD student at La Trobe University, where he is doing a dissertation project on the role of the press in the making of the 1987 Philippine constitution. His research interests include interdisciplinarity, law and literature, and Philippine literature in English.

Nikki B. Carsi Cruz obtained her Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore. Her dissertation “From War Dance to Theater of War: Moro-Moro Performances in the Philippines” won the Wang Gung Wu Prize for Best Thesis in the Arts and Social Sciences. She is currently Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in the School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University.

PANEL 9: Issues of Health and Nutrition in the Early American Period

Alvin D. Cabalquinto (he/him) is a Lecturer at the Department of History, School of Social Sciences, and the Health Sciences Program, School of Sciences and Engineering. He graduated with a BS in Health Sciences degree with a minor in History and finished his MA in History at Ateneo de Manila University. He is also an editorial assistant of Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints and a senior fellow of the Ateneo Martial Law Museum and Library. His research interests include the history of public health and medicine, gender studies, sexuality and women’s history, cultural history, and cultural heritage.

Dr. David O. Lozada III is a former Chair of the Department of History of the Ateneo de Manila University and a former Executive Council Member of the National Commission for Historical Research (NCHR).  He obtained his PhD from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. His research interests include Military History, the Philippine-American War, and the History of Public Health and Medicine in the Philippines. He has taught courses on Military History, European History, the History of the United States, the History of Spain, and the survey course on Rizal and the Philippine Revolution in both graduate and undergraduate levels.

Felice Noelle Rodriguez is the Director of El Kaban de Zamboanga, Center for Local History and Culture, Universidad de Zamboanga. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.  She holds masters and doctoral degrees in History from the University of the Philippines. She has published historical works on raiding, warfare, Christian discourses, nationalism, and Zamboanga, as well as an English translation of Felix Laureano’s 1895 Recuerdos de Filipinas. She has curated exhibits tracing diverse historical concerns: La Solidaridad, Philippine postcards, and the history of Zamboanga. She continues her research on the Malay world, global trade systems, warfare, and interconnections. With Michael Price, she is currently working on an American Period Photo history of Zamboanga. And, she is awaiting the publication of her book on Zamboanga written for the University of Southeastern Philippines under the BARMM project.

Olivia Anne M. Habana, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Department of History, School of Social Sciences, at the Ateneo de Manila University. She is a former Chair of the Department of History and has held various administrative and committee positions in the university. She has also been active with the National Committee on Historical Research (NCHR), Technical Working Groups in the Committee on Higher Education (CHED), and the National Historical Institute (NHI). She finished her Ph.D. in Philippine Studies at the University of the Philippines in 2009. She has co-authored a series of textbooks in English and Filipino on Philippine, Asian, and World History for the High School Level (Lupang Hinirang [2000, 2003], Asia: History, Civilization, and Culture [2007], World History for Filipinos [2011], and Our Beloved Country [2012]). Other publications include “American Schoolbooks in Philippine Classrooms, 1900-1912” in Huck, Christian, Bauerschmidt, & Stefan (eds.), Travelling Goods/Travelling Moods: Varieties of Cultural Appropriation, 1850-1950 (Frankfurt am Mein: Campus Verlag Gmbh [2012]) and Rebuilding Democracy: The Ateneo de Manila University in the 1980’s (2010). Current research interests are the history of colonial childhood and the history of education in the Philippines.

Sarah Jessica Wong is currently taking her MA in History at the Ateneo de Manila University. Her research interests are chiefly in gender and food during the American colonial period. She currently serves as the Manuscript Editor of Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints.

Keynote Address

Marian Pastor-Roces is a curator and art historian exploring the intersection of politics, cultural traditions, and the production and consumption of art. She is the author of the pioneering study Sinaunang Habi: Philippine Ancestral Weave and of Gathering: Political Writing on Art and Culture, a collection of her essays. She was the founding director of the Museo ng Kalinangang Pilipino and the founder of TAO Inc., a corporation which develops exhibitions.  She has curated numerous exhibitions here and abroad, including the Philippine Pavilions at the World Expos of 2006, 2008, and 2010. With Cristina Juan, she co-edits the Mapping Philippine Material Culture website, one of the digital humanities projects of Philippine Studies at SOAS.

PANEL 10: Literary Contact Zones of US-Philippine Relations

A poet, curator, and intellectual historian, Charlie Samuya Veric is the Leo A Cullum SJ Professorial Chair in the Humanities and the founding director of the Literary and Cultural Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University. He is the author of five poetry collections, the most recent of which is Songs from Manunggul. He is completing a book manuscript, titled Forging the Postcolony: Cultural Cold War and Filipino Decolonization, which builds on his earlier book, titled Children of the Postcolony: Filipino Intellectuals and Decolonization. A former fellow of the Johannesburg and Stellenbosch Institutes for Advanced Study, he holds a doctorate in American Studies from Yale University.

Luisa L. Gomez is an instructor in the Literary and Cultural Studies Program at Ateneo de Manila University. She is a PhD Candidate in English Studies: Anglo-American Literatures at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her research interests include comparative literature, authorial studies, and canon formation.

Maria Gabriela Martin is an Instructor at the Department of English and the Literary and Cultural Studies Program, Ateneo de Manila University, where she finished her BA in Humanities and MA in Literary and Cultural Studies. Among the courses she handles are Global Voices and Encounters, Western Literature, Literary and Cultural Theory, and Methods in Literary and Cultural Research and Practices. Her research interests include literary history, Philippine literature, and cultural sociology. Her articles have been published in Kritika Kultura, Unitas, Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia, and Rupkatha. She is a co-author of Beyond Borders: Reading Literature in the 21st Century, a Senior High School textbook, and a managing editor of Kritika Kultura.

PANEL 11: Philippine Fiction in English and Cultural Knowledge

Nathan Timothy Y. Chan is an alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila University. He holds a bachelor's degree in literature and a minor degree in philosophy. A poet and a researcher, he writes on topics concerning literature, philosophy, and theology. His creative works have appeared in Heights, Ekstasis Magazine, and Agape Journal; his paper on the theopoetics of Jose Garcia Villa is forthcoming in Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia. In his free time, he likes to ferment food, drink coffee, and photograph scenes.

Stanley Guevarra is currently a research student at the Department of Area Studies at the University of Tokyo. He graduated summa cum laude and with a degree in literature from Ateneo de Manila University, where he was also the recipient of the 2023 Program Award for English and the valedictorian of the Japanese Studies Program of Batch 2023. While in college, he founded PLUME, the official student arm of the Literary and Cultural Studies Program, and served as the editor-in-chief of HEIGHTS Ateneo, the official literary and artistic publication and organization of the university. He was also a fellow of the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop for screenplay, the 26th Ateneo HEIGHTS Writers Workshop for fiction in English, and the 4th Cavite Young Writers Workshop for poetry in Filipino. He is published in Acta Sociologica, The GUIDON, HEIGHTS, and elsewhere.

Stephen Zagala is currently a 5th year student in the Ateneo de Manila University finishing his degree in English Literature and minor in Education. His current research interests are urban studies, Philippine poetry in English, and music studies. Outside of the academe, Stephen works with ATLAST, a production house based primarily in Taft, and enjoys going to gigs in the local indie scene, reading more local literature, and going on evening runs. He dreams to soon publish his very first collection of poetry.

PANEL 12: Literature in Spanish

Rocío Ortuño Casanova is a professor of Spanish-language literature at UNED (Spanish Open University) and director of the Laboratory of Innovation in Digital Humanities at the same university, based in Madrid, Spain. She has worked at the Universiteit Antwerpen in Belgium, the University of the Philippines in Diliman, and several universities in the United Kingdom, including the University of Manchester, where she obtained her PhD. Her main line of research focuses on the study of literary and cultural contacts between the Philippines and the global Hispanophone between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On this topic, she has co-coordinated three books: El desafío de la modernidad en la literatura hispanofilipina (1885-1935) (Brill 2022); Transnational Philippines: Cultural Encounters in Philippine Literature in Spanish (University of Michigan Press, 2024); and Introducción a la literatura hispanofilipina (Routledge 2024). She has also co-edited a princeps bilingual edition of La aventura de Limahong by Antonio Abad, which is in press at Vibal Foundation. She has been the Principal Investigator of the PhilPeriodicals project, which facilitated the digitization of the University of the Philippines' historical newspaper repository and its research using digital methodologies, and the DigiPhiLit project, which gathered several universities, including Ateneo de Manila, in a network to work on Philippine Literature, Digital Humanities, and Distance Learning. She currently co-coordinates the project “Postcolonial Narratives in Spanish-Language Newspapers from Asia, Spain, and the Caribbean” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Wystan de la Peña is a professor of Spanish at the University of the Philippines-Diliman where he handles classes on Hispanic literature and select topics on contemporary Europe. His research work has centered on Philippine literature in Spanish and he has published and presented several conference papers on the topic. In 2016, his annotated translation into English of Spanish poet Jaime Gil de Biema’s memoirs, Retrato de un artista en 1956 [Portrait of an Artist in 1956], appeared in the bilingual Jaime Gil de Biedma in the Philippines: Prose and Poetry/ Jaime Gil de Biedma en Filipinas: Prosa y Poesía released by Vibal Foundation. This year, the Ateneo de Manila University Press published his Filipino version of the nineteenth-century novel Doña Perfecta (1876) by Spanish writer Benito Pérez Galdós.

Irene Villaescusa Illán is Assistant Professor in the Literary and Cultural Analysis Program (LCA) of the University of Amsterdam. She has been working at the UvA since 2015. Prior to the Netherlans she was a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include peripheral or border Hispanic literatures (with an specialization on Philippine literature written in Spanish) with an emphasis on gender, eco/feminism and transculturation. She is the author of the book Transcultural Nationalism in Hispanofilipino Literature.

Panel 13: The Soundscape of the Commonwealth

Michael M. Coroza, Ph.D. is a Full Professor and former Chair of the Department of Filipino, School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University. He teaches Filipino Literature, Creative Writing (Poetry), and Literary Translation at the graduate and undergraduate levels. A multi-awarded poet, essayist, and literary translator, he received the SEA Write Award (Southeast Asian Writers Award) from the Royalty of Thailand in 2007. In 2019, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) distinguished him as “Kampeon ng Wika” in Literature and Translation. Together with premier Filipino poets Teo T. Antonio and Victor Emmanuel Carmelo D. Nadera Jr., he has performed the Balagtasan, Philippine traditional poetic joust, in significant cultural events in the Philippines and in cities abroad like Singapore, Honolulu, San Francisco, Union City, and New York. He staunchly advocates the preservation of the kundiman and other traditional and classic Philippine song forms such as the balitaw and dansa. He has produced and hosted “Harana ng Puso with the Mabuhay Singers,” which aired over DWBR 104.3 FM from 2006 to 2017, Radyo Pilipinas Dos 918 Khz from 2017 to 2020, and now on YouTube since March 2021. He has also produced and hosted PLAKA (Pamana ng Lahi, Arte, Kultura, Atbp), featuring vintage Filipino songs of the 40s, 50s, and 60s on 78 rpm and vinyl records, which aired over Radyo Pilipinas Dos 918 Khz from 2016 to 2020. It has been live streaming on YouTube since August 2020, and Prof. Felipe M. de Leon Jr., Sonia Roco, and Jeanette Job Coroza have joined him as the show’s co-hosts.

Nikki B. Carsi Cruz obtained her Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore. Her dissertation “From War Dance to Theater of War: Moro-Moro Performances in the Philippines” won the Wang Gung Wu Prize for Best Thesis in the Arts and Social Sciences. She is currently Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in the School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University.

Antonio "Toma" Cayabyab graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication degree.  He followed this up with a Bachelor of Music Degree, Major in Choral Conducting, from the University of the Philippines.  He teaches Rudiments of Music, Filipino Film and Society, and Music Research and Criticism with the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University. He is an award-winning composer as well as lead vocalist and head of Debonair District, a unique jazz sextet that adapts various Filipino folk, kundiman, and OPM music into jazz. 

Panel 14: The Visual Arts

Jovino de Guzman Miroy obtained his Doctorate from the Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium). He is author of Tracing Nicholas of Cusa's Early Development: The Relationship between De concordantia catholica and De docta ignorantia, Philosophes médiévaux 49 (Louvain: Éditions Peeters, 2009). He is a member of the American Cusanus Society. He teaches Philosophy of Religion and Medieval Philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila University. He is a contributing writer for the Manila Times (Build and Design; Green Industries). His plays have been staged locally and abroad, including a recent one, entitled “Marcelo Pasyong Dapat Ipag-alab ng Puso,” written under the auspices of the UP-OICA. He is co-anchor and producer of the radio program “Lundagin mo baby!” and other podcasts with Radyo Katipunan. He has a practice in cultural diplomacy and people-to-people relations.

Midori Yamamura, Ph.D. (The CUNY Graduate Center), Associate Professor of Art History at the CUNY Kingsborough, an Alcaly/Bodian Distinguished Scholar, The CUNY Graduate Center. The author of Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (MIT Press: 2015), Yamamura specializes in feminism and global contemporary art, focusing on Asia and its diaspora. She was a contributor to Kusama’s Tate Modern retrospective (2012) and the author of the Museum of Modern Art, New York’s “1 on One” series on Kusama’s Accumulation No. 1 (forthcoming, 2025). Among various distinctions, Yamamura received Smithsonian American Art Museum predoctoral and JSPS postdoctoral fellowships. Between 2007–08, she was a fellow at David Harvey’s Center for Place, Culture, and Politics. She is a current fellow of the CUNY Climate Hub and the SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asian Studies Initiative. Her latest research and writing involve neoliberalism’s impact on climate change and how indigenous knowledge brought through contemporary art could suggest possible remedies by looking at arts that emerged in rural areas. In Fall 2025, Yamamura will be a fellow at the Cordillera Studies Center, UPB, studying the impact of indigenous knowledge on Baguio Arts Guild’s four founding artists.

PANEL 15: Literary Traditions and Identity

Christoffer Mitch C. Cerda is an Assistant Professor at the Filipino Department, School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University where he teaches Philippine literature, popular culture, and creative writing. He obtained the degree of PhD in Philippine Studies from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. His current research is focused on the Filipino historical novel, digital humanities, and Filipino video games.

Beatriz Alvarez-Tardio, currently Associate Professor at the University Rey Juan Carlos (Spain), taught before at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines, and was Visiting Scholar at De La Salle University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Philippine Literature in Spanish from the University of the Philippines. Her endeavours for the preservation of Philippine Literature in Spanish brought forth her books on Adelina Gurrea, Writing Athwart: Life and Works (2009), the edition of Gurrea’s Cuentos de Juana (2009), and Enrique K. Laygo’s Relatos (2015). She authored several articles and chapters on Philippine Literature in Spanish. Coordinator of the MOOC “Literatura hispanofilipina” (2024), output of the Erasmus project DigiPhiLit, link: https://literaturahispanofilipina.urjcx.urjc.es

Luis H. Francia is a poet, playwright, and nonfiction writer. His first play, The Strange Case of Citizen de la Cruz, had its world premiere at the Bindlestiff Theater, San Francisco, in 2012 and was staged in New York by the Atlantic Pacific Theatre Group in 2022. In 2021, his Black Henry, on Ferdinand Magellan’s 1521 ill-fated landfall in the Philippines, was virtually staged, also by the Atlantic Pacific Theatre Group, and produced by NYU’s King Juan Carlos Center and Sulo: Philippine Studies Initiative. His poetry collections include The Sahara of I (2023), Thorn Grass (2021), Tattered Boat (2015), The Beauty of Ghosts (2010), and Museum of Absences (2002). His nonfiction works include the memoir Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago, winner of both the 2002 PEN Open Book Award and the 2002 Asian American Writers Workshop Award, and A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos. He is in the Library of America’s Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing. He has taught writing workshops at the Iowa Writers Workshop, Yale, City University of Hong Kong, and Ateneo de Manila University. He teaches Filipino language and culture at New York University’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.

Oscar V. Campomanes is Associate Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies (ret.) and holds the Rev. James F. Donelan SJ Endowed Professorial Chair in the Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University. He was an ASEAN University Network (AUN) Distinguished Visiting Professor in American Studies at Vietnam National University-Hanoi in 2001–02 and a Visiting Scholar in the Division of Cultural Studies, Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, in 2020, Term 2. Recent publications include the essay on Filipino visual arts for SANGHAYA: Philippine Culture and the Arts Yearbook 2020 (Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2021) and an extended essay on the Filipino-American Marxist writer Carlos Bulosan in Mari Jo Buhle et al., eds., Encyclopedia of the American Left (Verso UK, forthcoming). The book he co-edited with the Filipinist economic historian Yoshiko Nagano and anthropologist Nobutaka Suzuki, Colonialism and Modernity: Re-Mapping Philippine Histories, was published by Ateneo de Naga University Press in 2022 and was a finalist for the category of History in the 2023 National Book Awards (Philippines).