15 March 2022

PGS Lecture Series 2022-03: Maria Carinnes Alejandria illuminates foods capes in estuarial ecosystems

Chronic food insecurity has defined the lived experiences of undocumented communities along the intersection of Manila Bay and Pasig River. Malnutrition primarily affects two vulnerable sectors—children and older adults—leading to other complicating diseases and missed life opportunities.

For the second Philippine Geographical Society Lecture Series for 2022, Dr Maria Carinnes Alejandria will give a presentation Charting subaltern foodscapes: situating hunger in an estuarial community on 18 March (Friday) at 5:00PM. She will draw from her ethnographic work in Baseco Compound, an estuarial community in Manila City, to discourse on the structural forms of marginalization that have defined the relationship of its residents with their environment as they extract food from it. More specifically, the presentation locates the food systems and networks that they have created to address the gap in food sources within their households. Dr Alejandria interrogates established definitions on food security vis-a-vis local measures.


Dr Alejandria is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology of the University of Santo Tomas where she also serves as the head of the Social Health Studies unit of the Research Center for Social Sciences and Education. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Health, a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the University of Santo Tomas. She received her PhD in Anthropology from University of the Philippines where she explored food insecurity among older adults in a subaltern community. As a feminist anthropologist of health and disaster, she has been collaboratively working with urban informal settlers in negotiating with social institutions for inclusive development towards health and climate justice. As a current Global Fellow of Brown University Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, she is engaged in multi-country research projects exploring humanitarian coordination during periods of disaster. In 2019, she served as the principal investigator for a Philippine government funded project which explored the culture of production and consumption of Balut in 8 provinces in the country. Her most recent publications include the edited volumes Aging in the Global South: Opportunities and Challenges, and Disaster Archipelago: Locating Vulnerability and Resilience in the Philippines; and journal articles exploring food and culture, intergenerational vulnerability to food insecurity, communicable diseases, and the intersection between health and climate change.

To participate in the lecture series, click this link to register. https://tinyurl.com/2s4m7y2b

This lecture series is co-sponsored by the UP Department of Geography.

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