Tricky Contracts in Precarious Times: Filipino Teachers in China

Abstract: China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” has the internationalization of education through the English language as its strong agenda. In December 2018, the Department of Labor and Employment of the Philippines released the official guidelines for deploying Filipino teachers to China. News sources indicate that about 2,000 Filipino teachers will be recruited to work in …

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My Book Shelf

This year, I am committed to documenting the books that I am reading. I will also be posting my notes and brief commentaries on the books here. I will provide links to their worldcat entries and to download links if they are open access. So these days, I am currently reading: Two Lenins: A Brief …

Anthropologifs @ Mabini Projects (April 6-May 5, 2018)

Some pieces from my Anthropologifs series are appearing at a group show curated by Kristofer Ardeña. The exhibit opens tomorrow at the Mabini Gallery in Manila. Text from the Gallery: /Conversations/Positions/ is a series of exhibitions guest-curated by artist-curators: artists who curate. MABINI PROJECTS invites artist-curators who are also part of collectives, artist-run- spaces, transitory spaces and …

Wasting Time: Anthropology of the Hometown

Presented at the American Anthropological Association Meetings 2017, Washington, D.C., for the panel Writing Home: Unpacking Experiences of Distance and Displacement.   My fieldsite and hometown, Nabua, is nestled in the central riverine basin of the Bicol Peninsula in the southeast of Luzon Island, Philippines. Nabua’s moniker is linked to the historical events of 1901, when, …

Affected by Encounters

Today and yesterday, I had the pleasure of conversing with a very mobile man who has moved around a lot, but who considers himself as remaining to be rooted in Palestine, and who qualifies himself as “half-Gazan, half-West Bank.” He said that many of his family members had perished in Gaza. He is safe here …