Geography Webbynar #6 (2020-2021) - Pavithra Vasudevan on environmental racism and racial capitalism

How does race intersect with environmental toxicities? What forms of resistance coalesce in an environment peopled with "unruly natures"? How is nature weaponised for anti-Blackness?

For the second Geography Webbynar (formerly the Geography Brownbag Lecture Series) of the Second Semester A.Y. 2020-2021, the UP Department of Geography welcomes Dr Pavithra Vasudevan who will talk on An Intimate Inventory of Race and Waste on April 28 (Wednesday) 2021 at 9:30 AM Philippine Standard Time (April 27, Tuesday at 8:30 PM Central Time).

Dr Vasudevan sees intimacy as a crucial analytic for understanding racial capitalism as a political and ecological project in multiple spheres including the workplace, the home, the community and the landscape. Using the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) in Badin, North Carolina as case study, she argues that industrial toxicity produces an intimate monstrosity that complicates Black subjects’ relationship to racial oppression.

Dr. Pavithra Vasudevan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies and Center for Women's and Gender Studies. She has a PhD in Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Dr. Vasudevan has received the Glenda Laws Award given by the American Association of Geographers (AAG) in 2021. The annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to geographic research on social issues. She was awarded for her feminist-inspired, participatory action research that is bringing attention to environmental racism among Black communities in North Carolina.

Her latest publication is entitled "The domestic geopolitics of racial capitalism" with Sara Smith (Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space), 2020. She also made a short film on environmental racism called Remembering Kearneytown (2016).

To register, please go to this link: https://bit.ly/3tzls1y

This talk is co-sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society through the PGS Lecture Series.

Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series #6 (2018-2019): Eating for the Gram

Mylene De Guzman is an Assistant Professor of the UP Department of Geography.

Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series #5 (2018-2019): Cracking the "Concrete Jungle"

Pryor Placino is a Ph.D. candidate at the Western Sydney University. Placino is a former faculty member of the UP Department of Geography.

Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series #4 (2018-2019): Mapping of Hand Weaving Communities in the Philippines

By Marion Micah Tinio

Andre Quiray shared the initial findings of their project towards Mapping the Philippine Handwoven Textile Communities. The project, which started in June 2018, is being piloted in Kalibo, Aklan. Kalibo piña weaving is undergoing the nomination process for the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.  

The Project aims to, among other objectives, generate baseline data required for the UNESCO nomination process. Through the pilot study in Kalibo, a methodology will be determined for nationwide mapping and study of Philippine handwoven textile communities.

Andre Quiray introduces the project.

Quiray presented initial results of the study. Outputs presented include thematic maps of distribution and socio-economic profiles of handwoven textile weavers. Quiray also highlighted information from focus group discussions with suppliers, weavers and entrepreneurs regarding their health, experience, competence, mastery and weaving designs.

Andre Quiray is a Senior Lecturer of the Department, teaching courses on rural geography and resource management. 

Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series #3 (2018-2019): Weather Cultures Colonialism, Resistance, and Survivance

Abstract

In this paper, I will consider weather, and the ways diverse knowledges of and about weather have been active in both promulgating and resisting ongoing colonialism in Australia. Indeed, it is not only knowledges of weather, but weather-cultures, diverse cosmologies, and the beings and co-becomings of weather as active agents that work to make and un-make colonialism and support the survivance of plural, nourishing life-worlds within which sun, mist, seasons and other complex weatherings co-constitute people, place and time/s. Agencies of weather are fundamental in shaping who and what belongs to/with/as nations, both Aboriginal nations-as-Country and the settler-colonial state of Australia, even as they help to constitute what these nations are and what they mean. In this paper, I will consider archival material and Indigenous weather-songs that form part of my ongoing collaborative work with Indigenous knowledge authorities in Arnhem Land to attend to weather cultures as making and un-making (settling and unsettling) colonialism, and supporting diverse modes of resistance and survivance.

Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series: Wasted Money? Our Role in Local Solid Waste Management

by Vanessa Joy A. Anacta

The second lecture of the Geography Department’s Brownbag Colloquium series was presented by Assistant Professor Marion Micah R. Tinio on March 7, 2019. The talk was entitled “Wasted Money? Our Role in Local Solid Waste Management.”  This research was part of his Master’s thesis which provides an overview of the situation of the country’s solid waste management program and how the public may contribute to minimize some of the related problems. He presented a model showing the impact of different elements of solid waste management based on different scenarios. He pointed out that there is little research done on this field which is viewed as an important topic concerning all of us. The talk was a good reflection for the attendees by showing consciousness on how to minimize the use of any food-related waste especially right after the presentation.

Jumpstarting the Department of Geography Brown bag Colloquium Series

 

by Emmanuel B. Garcia

The opening salvo of the Department of Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series was held last February 23, 2019 with a lecture given by Prof. Vanessa Joy Anacta, PhD. Dr. Anacta’s talk, “Feeling Lost in Space? Investigating Verbal and Visual Route Descriptions for Effective Wayfinding”, highlighted the results of her research project in Germany which provided a comparative analysis of the traditional verbal and computer-generated instructions to foster effective navigating and wayfinding.

The Department of Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series is initiated by the Research Committee of the Department and aims to publicize the research endeavors of various Filipino geographers and affiliates. 

The lineup of upcoming lectures is as follows:

• Asst. Prof. Marion Micah Tinio, EnP – UP Diliman –  March 7, 2019
• Assoc. Prof. Sarah Wright, PhD – University of Newcastle, Australia – April 3, 2019 (tentative)
• Asst. Prof. Najja Hao – UP Diliman – April 10, 2019 (tentative)
• Asst. Prof. Mylene Hazel T. De Guzman – UP Diliman – April 26, 2019 (4:00-5:30) 
• Pryor Placino – Western Sydney University, Australia – March 28, 2019 
• Adem Yulo – Igdir University, Turkey (May 2019) 
• Dylan Beatty – University of Hawai’i-Manoa, USA (May 2019)

For the first semester of academic year 2019-2020, the following are scheduled to share their research work: Andre Quiray, Emmanuel Garcia, Jake Cadag, Celeste Hermida, Dominique Amorsolo, Yany Lopez, Kristian Saguin, and William Holden.

Visit the Department page for updated schedules.