Geography Webbynar #6 (2021-2022) - Mylene T. De Guzman discusses how materialities expose unequal geographies during the pandemic

How can material implements during COVID-19 show unequal geographies through class, access to healthcare, and cultural responses to the pandemic? 

For the third Geography Webbynar this 2nd semester (and sixth for the 2021-2022 academic year) sponsored by the UP Department of Geography, Prof Mylene T. De Guzman will present Living in a Material (Covid-19) World on Friday, 6 May 2022 at 6:00PM. This presentation is based on a joint research undertaken during the height of the 2021 lockdown that focuses on the intersection of epidemiology, governance, structural violence and cultural response to Covid-19. In this context, material culture is defined as the various materialities engendered by the global response to the pandemic. The presentation also employs storying as mapping various personal assemblages to both individualise and situate narratives of researchers who participated in this research.

Prof De Guzman is assistant professor at the UP Department of Geography who specialises in health, gender, labor, emotional geographies, and in the curation of digital geographies that interface image, cultural politics, and relationalities.

To participate for this talk, register by using this link: https://tinyurl.com/ybb63j93 

This webinar is co-sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society.

PGS Lecture Series 2021-13: TJ Cipriano on policy shift in more effective COVID-19 governance

The COVID-19 pandemic, like any disaster, is at a critical juncture that opens an opportunity to shift policy aimed to reduce disaster risks. The presence of the Delta variant necessitated this policy shift in pandemic response efforts given its high transmissibility compared to the previously reported COVID-19 variants. With the Philippine government admitting that widespread and sweeping lockdown measures do not work in this context, will the shift towards targeted curbs be effective in bringing down infections?

For the 13th lecture series organised by the Philippine Geographical Society, MS Geography student Timothy James Cipriano attempts to make sense of this policy shift and bring several points of reflection regarding its implementation in Metro Manila in relation to the bigger question on space and disaster governance. It underscores how the framing of public health crisis by the State is shaping its pandemic response, and whether it perpetuates everyday conditions of communities with a higher intensity.

TJ Cipriano currently works as a research assistant for a flood research project funded by the Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously worked as a researcher at the UP Resilience Institute and NOAH Center. Mr Cipriano's research interests relate to hazards and disasters, environmental studies, and disease geographies. He is also a member of the Advocates for Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM) and the Alliance of STEM Graduate Students and Workers – UP Diliman.

The talk is on Friday, 29 October 2021 at 5:30PM. To participate, register using this link.

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

Geography Webbynar #5 (2020-2021) - Reidan Pawilen on cycling and safe spaces in the era of Covid19

For the first Geography Webbynar (formerly the Geography Brownbag Lecture Series) of the second semester 2020-2021, the UP Department of Geography welcomes back Reidan Pawilen who will give a lecture entitled Pedalling through the Pandemic: Rethinking Safe Spaces for the Cycling Community in the New Normal on March 24 (Wednesday) 2021 at 5:00PM.

Reidan Pawilen is an assistant professor at the Department of Social Sciences at UP-Los Baños. Trained in history and geography, his talk centers on his own experience as an individual cyclist and as part of a cycling collective in search of safe spaces in the era of the Covid19 pandemic. 

To register, go to this link, or click https://bit.ly/3cySWWr

This talk is co-sponsored and part of the Philippine Geographical Society through the PGS Lecture Series. 

Call for Virtual Volunteers

A greater understanding of the relationship between the built environment and public health can help us improve our current systems to be more resilient against future disease outbreaks.

The UP Diliman Department of Geography has created a collection of articles, books, and research materials on spatial and geographic studies on infectious diseases to raise awareness on the problems and solutions related to planning and public health. Other recommended articles are included in the README file of the gdrive. Please follow the link below:

https://tinyurl.com/GeogStudiesInfectiousDiseases

Feel free to email the Phil-DIS (Philippine Disaster Information System) team at phildisasterinformationsystem@gmail.com for further inquiries.

CSSP Guidelines in time of Covid19

The Department of Geography is on skeletal force due to coronavirus

Due to the directive for a Metro Manila-wide community quarantine from Covid19, the Department of Geography is on skeletal force until further notice.