National Conference on Geographical Studies 2018

by Marion Micah Tinio

The National Conference on Geographical Studies was held on November 12 and 13, 2018 at the Palma Hall
University of the Philippines Diliman. The two-day conference was organized by the Philippine Geographical
Society in partnership with the Department of Geography, UP Diliman.

With the theme “Mapping Spaces of Encounter”, the conference consisted of three plenary sessions and
17 panel sessions.

The plenary sessions were the following:

·         Plenary 1: Spaces of Encounter in the Maritime Geographies of the Philippines

o   The plenary session featured Prof. Jay Batongbacal of the UP Institute of Maritime Affairs and
Law of the Sea, and Prof. Laura David of the UP Marine Science Institute.

·         Plenary 2: Mapping Geographies of Development

o   The plenary session featured Mr. Jose Enrique “Sonny” Africa, Executive Director of the
IBON Foundation.

·         Plenary 3: Mapping the Development of Philippine Geography

o   The plenary session featured faculty members of the Department of Geography: Prof. Darlene
Occeña-Gutierrez, Asst. Prof. Yany Lopez, Asst. Prof. Joseph Palis, Asst. Prof. Mylene
De Guzman, and Asst. Prof. Emmanuel Garcia.

The parallel sessions covered the following geographic themes: cinematic geographies, urban mobilities, disaster
risk reduction, public-private partnerships, environmental and resource geographies, countermapping, field
methods, geohumanities, labor geographies, biogeography, and community geographies. A total of 51 paper
presentations composed the parallel sessions.

The conference was also highlighted by two special panel sessions. Panel 4A featured the launch of the book
“Neoliberalizing Spaces in the Philippines:Suburbanization, Transnational Migration, and Disposession” by
Dr. Arnisson Andre Ortega, Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow and former affiliate faculty member
of the Department of Geography. Dr. Ortega is the recipient of the 2018 Award for Best Global Research about
the Philippines, given by the Institute of Philippine Culture of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Panel 4B featured Tara Illenberger, director, and Dalin Sarmiento, actress, both of "High Tide," an award-winning
film about the web of relations between human, environment, governance and cultural politics. “High Tide” won
the top prize of the 2017 To Farm Film Festival.

The conference was supported by the Office of the Chancellor of UP Diliman through the Offices of the Vice
Chancellor for Research and Development and the UP Diliman Office of Extension Coordination.

The NCGS is an annual gathering of scholars, educators, researchers, students, and interested individuals and
institutions with the aim of presenting geographical research and weaving the learning and experiences gained by
the different sectors of our society in relation to certain issues that challenge our country.

Visit the website of the PGS (http://phgeographicalsociety.org/) and the website of the Department of Geography
(http://geog.upd.edu.ph/) for updates on future events and activities.