Heo/Geo Lecture Series 2024-12: Jake Cadag on DRR depoliticisation

In the Philippines, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) address disaster risk through disaster prevention and humanitarian response. NGOs, however, are subjected to political persecution and violence because of their critical stance on social issues and government policies and actions that contribute to disaster risk. They face a dilemma: Commit to their stance and be subjected to persecution and violence or depoliticise approach and be able to continue their services.

For the final talk in the Heo/Geo Lecture Series for 2024 and jointly presented by the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS) and the UP Department of Geography, Dr Jake Rom Cadag analyses the political persecution and violence among NGOs engaged in disaster prevention and humanitarian response in the country through 24 key-informant interviews and a review of secondary sources. Entitled Depoliticisation is disaster risk creation: insights on non-government organisations’ disaster prevention and humanitarian response in the Philippines, the lecture happens on Friday, 6 December 2024 at 5:30PM via Zoom. 

In Dr Cadag's research, the study finds that NGOs depoliticise their approach by focusing on hazard-centric programs, habitually forsaking humanitarian principles, and self-censoring and toning down public engagement. This study argues that depoliticisation is denying society safeguards against disasters associated with natural and social hazards, which lead to persistence and creation of disaster risks.

Jake Rom D. Cadag is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of the Philippines Diliman. His professional and research interests include disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, rural and urban studies, and participatory mapping. He is skilled in community work and the use of participatory methods and tools involving various stakeholders, including marginalized groups.  

The Heo/Geo lecture is part of the ongoing 40th anniversary celebration of the UP Department of Geography (1983-2023) which simultaneously serves and provides a space where practical, discursive and embodied discussions and performativities from academic geographers, practitioners and civil society can come together and thrive. This talk is sponsored by the Geographies of Disasters and Hazards (G-DASH) research group of the UP Department of Geography in line with the sustainable development goals #10 (Reduced inequalities), #11 (Sustainable cities and communities), and #13 (Climate action). 

To participate in the Zoom lecture, please click this link or just copy and paste this link in your browser: https://tinyurl.com/3948am3m

Heo/Geo Lecture Series 2024-11: Naomi Irapta self-reflexively situates the middlegrounds in geography

What does it entail to be multidisciplinary?

The geographer, whose training spans the breadth of physical and human geographies, may find themselves in the middle ground of the natural and social science disciplines. Those who stay in this middleground may feel like “outsiders” in both disciplines, yet holistic and collaborative work needs us to “come out of our boxes” and meet in these middlegrounds.

On Friday, the 29th of November 2024 at 5:30PM PHT / 10:30AM CET, Naomi Paula Irapta from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary will deliver a paper via Zoom entitled Unboxing: Multidisciplinary engagements of an earth scientist. For the 11th edition of the Heo/Geo Lecture Series, the lecture is jointly sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS) and the UP Department of Geography. 

Drawing from her experiences of being in this ‘middleground’, Naomi presents various avenues to experiment, explore, and expound earth science knowledge in different ways: as a teacher, as a collaborator in art projects, and through professional engagements as a geoscientist. We “unpack” these examples to show how the concepts of ‘geodiversity’ and ‘human-landscape interactions’ and ‘risk’ are presented in various contexts, integrated into different spaces to foster meaningful discussions and contribute to projects with distinct objectives. Naomi Irapta's role, as a multidisciplinary researcher, is that of a translator of concepts and ideas that make them “usable” in specific contexts and finding that it’s these translating and weaving “knowledges” that is integral in meaningful interdisciplinary work.

Naomi works at the interface between natural and social sciences to explore landscape and its associated risk, abiotic nature conservation, and public geoeducation. She is a licensed Geologist in the Philippines, she has a masters in “Magmas and Volcanoes” from Université Clermont Auvergne. She also gained her training in the social sciences by completing the core courses for the MS Geography program at UP Department of Geography. She is currently a PhD student of Physical Geography at Eötvös Loránd University, working on volcano geoheritage. Her professional work experience spans a wide range of fields from local volcanic DRR consultations to reviewing scientific significance of geoheritage sites for the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Geoheritage Commission, as well as university-level teaching at the University of the Philippines (College of Science and the College of Social Sciences & Philosophy). She is also part of the UNESCO IGCP 692 “Geoheritage for Resilience” Project. On the side, she works in collaboration with community art initiatives to make geo-education accessible, focusing on the interconnection of abiotic nature conservation and social justice.

To participate in the lecture, register by clicking this Zoom link https://tinyurl.com/yk5fv69a

The Heo/Geo Lecture Series is a monthly lecture and resource talk where academic geographers, geography-adjacent scholars, practitioners working in geospatial industries, and in communities share their research findings, pedagogical practices, and field-based experiences. Jointly presented by PGS and the UP Geography, the speakers of Heo/Geo are faculty members, alumni and scholars based locally and abroad. This year's Heo/Geo Lecture Series is a continuation of the 40th anniversary celebration (1983-2023) of the Department and facilitated by three research groups at the UP Department of Geography: Geographies of Disasters and Hazards (G-DASH), Human Geography (HUG) and Media, Literary Geographies, and Geohumanities (MELANGE), and in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals #4 (Quality Education), #15 (Life on Land), and #17 (Global Partnership for Sustainable Development). 

ICGS 2024: Final programme now available

The final programme for the International Conference on Geographical Studies 2024 with a theme: Situated-in-Practice: Geographical Praxis, Mapping and Doing is now available.

Go to https://sites.google.com/up.edu.ph/icgs2024/home

The ICGS runs from 15-16 November 2024 via remote/Zoom. The ICGS is jointly sponsored by the UP Department of Geography and the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS). 

Contact icgs.ph@gmail.com if you have questions.