PGS Lecture Series 2022-12: Felipe Jocano on Filipino martial arts

A Filipino martial arts expert once said that the goal of martial arts is self-growth rather than destroying the enemy. 

In the local context, Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) are a form of self and community protection often taught first through the use of handheld weapons such as the stick, knife and various types of indigenous swords. Their present popularity is partly informed by their practicality and immediate application to everyday instances of unsought violence. 

For the last PGS Lecture Series for 2023, the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS) presents Prof Felipe Jocano from the UP Department of Anthropology who will deliver his presentation entitled Have Sticks, will Travel: Filipino Martial Arts and Mobilities on 5 December 2022 at 5:00PM. Prof Jocano will examine how mobility (across spaces, across cultures, across the internet) has contributed to the shaping of the FMA as they are today. 

Prof Jocano's areas of interest include internet anthropology, economic anthropology with an emphasis on the relationship between values, consumer culture and management, medical anthropology, and the anthropology of martial arts as body practice, with an emphasis on Filipino martial arts. In addition, he also teaches martial arts, focusing on Filipino, Chinese and indigenous (Mindanao) martial arts. 

To participate in the PGS Lecture Series, click this link to register, or just click this link: https://tinyurl.com/58b5swdu

The lecture is co-presented by the UP Department of Geography.

PGS Lecture Series 2022-11: Kerby Alvarez on archival data on Philippine climate

For the 11th PGS Lecture Series of the Philippine Geographical Society for 2022, Associate Professor of History Kerby Alvarez, PhD will share his research on climate studies conducted by the Philippine Weather Bureau (PWB) from 1900-1930s through a historical lens.

The presentation entitled Understanding Tropical Manila: Climatic Studies of the Philippine Weather Bureau, 1900s-1930s happens on Tuesday, 29 November 2022 at 4:00 PM.

This lecture presents a historical analysis of the scientific studies on climate made by the Philippine Weather Bureau (PWB) from 1900 to the 1930s. A two-pronged approach is utilized to understand the objectives, usage, and impact of these climatological studies, particularly on the related elements of heat, temperature, evaporation, and rainfall: on the one hand, it was aimed at expanding the data bank, empirical knowledge, and pioneering researches on Philippine environment, and on the other hand, to aid the American colonial state in supervising the newly-acquired colony in the Pacific. Tornow (1899) points out that for Manila to be an investment-friendly “principal emporium,” it needed to have an urban landscape suitable for comfortable residence. But the archipelago, during the first two decades of the 20th century, was hounded by frequent climatic extremes that hampered its vital sectors dependent on the environment – such as urban development and agriculture. Among these extremes, for example, was the eight-month-long drought from October 1911 to May 1912 that affected major agricultural regions in the archipelago. The reorganized PWB, with its nucleus still intact from the Spanish meteorological agency, the Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila (OMM), advanced field and laboratory projects to further expand the existing knowledge on the climate of the archipelago. The environment of Manila, and other vital regions surrounding the capital city, were the subject of the advanced data-gathering and climatic theory-applying initiatives of the weather bureau.

KERBY C. ALVAREZ, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Department of History, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. He finished a Bachelor of Arts in History degree (2010) and a Master of Arts degree in History (2014) at UP Diliman. He obtained a Doctorat en Histoire, Art, at Archeólogie (HISTAR) degree from the Université de Namur in Belgium (2019). The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) awarded him the Young Historian’s Prize 2015. His research interests include environmental history, history of science, history of hazards and disasters in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, and the local history of his hometown, Malabon.

To listen to the talk, please click this link to register: https://tinyurl.com/PGSLS11

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

Geography Webbynar #1 (2022-2023): Peter Sy talks AI-powered geospatial data

The use of geospatial data in research, planning, policy, and other pursuits is nothing new. What is new is the unprecedented level (and sophistication) of use of massive amounts of geospatial and other data powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

So powerful are AI technologies that governments are scrambling to put together ethics-first, principle-based governance frameworks, providing guardrails for AI development and utilization, including the use of AI in geospatial analysis and applications (GeoAI). These AI governance principles include inclusive growth, sustainable development, and well-being; human-centered values and fairness; robustness, security, and safety; accountability; transparency and explainability; and trust.

For the first Geography Webbynar of the UP Department of Geography for the academic year 2022-2023, Associate Professor Peter Sy from the UP Department of Philosophy is giving a lecture entitled GeoAI and Governance on Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 5:00PM.

Prof Sy chairs the Privacy Experts Group, eHealth of the Department of Health (DOH)/Department of Science and Technology (DOST). He also chairs the UP Diliman Ad Hoc Committee on Open Data, and a Research Fellow in Ethical Issues in International Research at the School of Public Health, Harvard University.

Sponsored by the Media Geographies research cluster of the Department of Geography, this presentation examines the implications of GeoAI principles. Some risks attendant to the development and deployment of AI in general and, in particular, GeoAI will also be explored. These risks include bias leading to discrimination, lack of explainability, failure of consent mechanisms, loss of trust in institutions, lack of transparency, unequal access to services, effects of low data maturity, erosion of privacy, platform and data monopolies, excessive data retention, low ‘human-in-the-loop’, mis/disinformation, loss of trust in AI, undervaluation of public data, low accuracy, undermining of professional judgment.

To participate in this online webinar, please register using this link: https://tinyurl.com/yrmm682e

The following poll was made to asses how you perceive the risks commonly associated with the use of AI. Please take some time to answer this poll whether attending Prof Sy's lecture or not, the findings of which he will incorporate to his talk tomorrow. Participation is completely voluntary. ai-ph.org/risks

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

PGS Lecture Series 2022-09: Robert Badrina on climate-influenced land cover change

As the first law of geography states, everything is connected to everything else. For instance in weather forecasting, the mapping of various spatial and temporal dimensions and relationships is important to model the atmospheric processes. This is a crucial input in weather forecasting, climate modeling, and other forms of numerical weather prediction models. 

For the ninth iteration of the Philippine Geographical Society-Lecture Series (PGS-LS) for 2022, weather specialist Robert Badrina will present his research on the simulated impact of land cover change on Philippine Seasonal Climate and including his current involvement in operational weather forecasting at the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). Entitled Beyond Boundaries: Challenges of Relationships among Various Meteorological Scales, the PGS-LS talk, which is the first for the academic year 2022-2023 happens on Wednesday, 21 September 2022 at 5:00PM.

Mr Badrina is an alumnus of the UP Department of Geography and he currently sits as weather specialist in the Marine Meteorology Services Section of PAGASA DOST Weather Division. He completed his geography and meteorology degrees at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. 

To participate for this talk, please register using this Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/4y4me6ha

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

PGS Lecture Series 2022-06: Russel Andrade on urban biodiversity

The Philippine Geographical Society (PGS) is proud to present the midyear version of the PGS Lecture Series.

UP Department of Geography alumnus Russel James Andrade who currently sits as Biodiversity Focal and Project Assistant and ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability Southeast Asia Secretariat will give a talk entitled CitiesWithNature: The important role of subnational governments in the protection and conservation of urban biodiversity on Thursday, 30 June 2022 at 6:00PM.

For Andrade’s lecture, the important roles of cities in protecting and conserving urban biodiversity will be highlighted. Because local and subnational governments control development processes, mainstreaming biodiversity and incorporating nature-based solutions to local development plans greatly assist in the protection of cities from disasters and other impactful repercussions of climate change.

Russel Andrade is currently leading the implementation of the Developing Plastic Waste-Free Cities in Iloilo City which is also being implemented in two other Southeast Asian Cities and two cities in India. Russel was also part of the Urban Low Emission Development Project, which is a global project co-implemented by UN-Habitat and funded by the European Union, and contributed to the development of the Nationally Determined Contribution Measurement, Reporting, and Verification Plan (NDCMRVP) of the Philippines. He has experience working in various development and research projects of the Philippine Government. He was also engaged in the formulation of policies for adaptation and mitigation programs in the country while he was in the Climate Change Commission.

To participate in this webinar, please click this Zoom link to register. https://tinyurl.com/2x85yh3j

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

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 2022-04: Kathy Ilustre discusses digital geovisualization of data

Goodbye maps, hello apps?

The advent of high speed wireless technologies created a generation of tech-savvy digital navigators. But does this signal the end of the use of maps? Digital maps are entrenched in the social fabric of this generation's milieu in ways too various to specify. How do we make visible geospatial data in ways that are accessible, informative, democratic and compelling?

The Philippine Geographical Society (PGS) presents this semester's third lecture for the PGS Lecture Series entitled Visualizing Geospatial Data in Interactive Maps and Apps. Kathy Ilustre from Geodata Systems will provide a purview for this changed set of relationalities. Ms Ilustre amassed years of experience in project implementation, database design, cartography, and training and technical consulting services. Formerly handling the undergraduate Digital Cartography class at the UP Department of Geography, she has implemented enterprise GIS in numerous organizations, and deployed geospatial solutions that support and improve the customers’ business workflows.

The lecture is on Friday, 22 April 2022 at 4:00PM. To register for this talk, click this link to participate or click this URL https://tinyurl.com/4jwmecxz

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

Geography Webbynar #5 (2021-2022) - Adem Yulu talks about the recreational potential of Mount Ararat

The UP Department of Geography proudly presents the second Geography Webbynar for the second semester 2021-2022, happening on Monday, 28 March 2022 at 4:30PM. Asst Prof Dr Adem Yulu from the Department of Geography at Iğdır Üniversitesi will give a talk entitled Mountain Tourism: The Case of Mount Ararat.

Located in the extreme eastern portion of Turkey, Mount Ararat not only has a Biblical reputation in the Old Testament, it also carries national and cultural significance in neighboring Armenia.

Subsequent to his PhD, Dr Yulu worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Iğdır University. In addition, he served as the provincial representative of a foundation that protects the natural environment which carries out various social responsibility projects in rural areas, including the protection of stray animals. He has many works published in different fields such as the city, urban conservation, and tourism. Dr Yulu recently co-authored an article entitled "Evaluation of the Recreational Potential of Mount Ağrı (Ararat) National Park" from the Ege Coğrafya Dergisi (Aegean Geographical Journal) where he and his colleagues utilised the “Gülez Method" to analyse the recreational potential of Mount Ararat.

To participate in the Geography Webbynar, click this link to register. Or go directly to this site: https://tinyurl.com/2p8z9e84

This colloquium lecture is co-sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society.

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.

Geography Webbynar #4 (2021-2022) - Carlos Ortiz discusses the multilayered ways Japan is imagined

Oscar Wilde once remarked: "The whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people. The Japanese people are simply a mode of style, an exquisite fancy of art."

While Wilde meant that Japan exists in the imagination, what is Japan to people: Myth or reality? Verity or artifice? Object or method?

The UP Department of Geography's Webbynar series presents geography alumnus Carlos Ortiz from The Japan Foundation, Manila, who will give a presentation entitled Japan as an Imagined Landscape and Reality: A Geographer's Checklist for Beginners on Saturday, 12 March 2022 at 2:00PM (GMT +8).

Carlos Ortiz works as the Program Coordinator for Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange. He is in charge of several projects to strengthen ties between Japan and the Philippines through cultural exchange and dialogues.

The Webbynar is co-sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society.

To participate for this lecture, please register at the following link or simply paste this link: https://tinyurl.com/jy6frc74

Geography Webbynar #3 (2021-2022) – Jesus Federico Hernandez on place-based lexicon

How is language entrenched in places and landscapes?

The UP Department of Geography Webbynar Series is proud to present the final lecture for 2021 by Prof Jesus Federico Hernandez from the UP Department of Linguistics. The talk is via Zoom on Saturday, 4 December 2021 at 2:00PM.

The lecture entitled Reconstituting space: Exploring place lexicon in Philippine languages will focus on particular lexical items within the domain of place that are pan-Philippine or are shared across various Philippine ethnolinguistic groups. Lexical cognancy with non-Philippine languages within the Austronesian language family will also be explored. It is hoped that understanding how the concept of place is coded in the lexicon, markers, and affixes will provide insights into our indigenous place-making system.

Jesus Federico C. Hernandez is an Associate Professor of Linguistics and coordinator of the Folklore Studies Program of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy of the University of the Philippines. His research interest includes Philippine languages and culture history, the documentation of endangered languages in the Philippines, and Philippine folklore. He is a board member of the Asian Association for Lexicography and a member of the Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Outside of work, he is a part-time hermit.

To participate in the Geography Webbynar, click this link or paste this URL link to your browser https://bit.ly/3peIuKa

This webinar is co-sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society and the UP Department of Linguistics.

Geography Webbynar #2 (2021-2022) - Lisa Marshall on the ever-evolving nuclear energy landscape

As we enter the second decade of the 21^st century, the nuclear energy landscape is ever evolving. Through technological advancement, and links to such immense projects as climate change mitigation and infrastructure revitalization, the industry is reproducing its space in real and discursive ways. This presentation will map this development and its importance.

For the 9th Geography Webbynar talk for 2021, the UP Department of Geography welcomes Lisa Marshall from North Carolina State University who will give a talk entitled The second modern nuclear renaissance in the making? Positioning nuclear, climate change, and infrastructure this Friday, 26 November at 7:00PM (PHT) | 6:00AM EST.

Lisa Marshall is the inaugural director of the Outreach, Retention & Engagement Program as well as Lecturer and Adviser at the Nuclear Engineering Department at NC State University. She is the chair of the NCSU Association of Women Faculty and the Associate Director of the China Engineering Study Abroad Program. Lisa holds a master’s degree in Geography with a specialization in Energy Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a graduate certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and is completing her PhD in Higher Education specializing in Engineering Education from North Carolina State University. She currently holds executive positions in the American Nuclear Society (ANS), the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) & the American Association of Geographers (AAG). She is the recipient of 2020 ANS Young Members Advancement Award, 2020 NC State Engineering Champion for Women Award, 2019 NC State Outstanding Engagement Award, 2009 ANS Landis Public Communications & Education Award and was inducted into Sigma Xi, a scientific research society. 

The talk is co-sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society. To register and participate in the webinar, click this link: or this https://tinyurl.com/75rmtw7t

PGS Lecture Series 2021-14: Pat Algura on geospatial innovations for safer infrastructures

In what ways can geotechnologies aid in the building and construction of efficient and safer infrastructures? 

For this month’s edition of the PGS Lecture Series, the Philippine Geographical Society is thrilled to welcome geography alumna Patricia Algura who will give a talk on 17 November (Wednesday) at 5:30PM. 

The presentation entitled Geospatial Innovations for Efficient Infrastructures will be covering geospatial innovations in the engineering and construction industry, showing how these industries use Geospatial applications to transform and challenge their usual ways of working. Using ArcGIS and FME tools, organizations were able to analyze and understand the what, where, and why of infrastructures, collaborate across all stakeholders, and make better decisions critical to building efficient and safer infrastructures. See how 3D, spatial analysis, story maps, GIS dashboards, field applications, and automation are transforming engineering and construction industries.

Pat Algura is the Geospatial Consultant at Jacobs under Digital Solutions. A BS Geography graduate of UP Diliman, Pat is a creative and a solutions person who has always been passionate about maps and the vast applications of GIS. She has been involved in various projects in utilities, engineering, local government and national agencies across the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, enabling organizations digitally transform and innovate with Geospatial Solutions.

The PGS Lecture Series is a monthly knowledge-sharing talk and conversation among geography practitioners, alumni, and geography-adjacent allies with grounded work, research and practice focused on the Philippines. This 14th lecture series for 2021 is co-sponsored by the UP Department of Geography.

To register for the talk, click this link, or simply paste this link to your browser: https://tinyurl.com/ymhb7kj8

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.

PGS Lecture Series 2021-12: David Garcia on geospatial ethnography for humanitarian initiatives

The Philippine Geographical Society presents a talk by David Garcia on its 12th PGS Lecture Series for 2021. The Mapmaker as David is widely known will discuss geospatial ethnography and share his journey as a geospatial worker and scholar collaborating with various groups and stakeholders on humanitarian projects, urban design and planning initiatives, and the crowdsourcing communities of practice.

 

Join us on October 20, 2021, Wednesday at 6:00 PM (10:00 AM UTC) via Zoom or through the UP Department of Geography Youtube Channel.

David is a PhD candidate at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand and founder of the Ministry of Mapping, a Philippine-based collective of geospatial workers. 

Click the link to register for the webinar. https://bit.ly/PGSLS12

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

Geography Webbynar #1 (2021-2022) - Marco Lagman on archival advertisements of female subjects from 1880s to 1930s in the Philippines

For the 8th Geography Webbynar for 2021, Dr Marco Stefan Lagman will give a presentation on print geovisualizations of female subjects between 1880s and 1930s in the Philippines. The talk entitled Messages from 'Family Photo Album': Female Stereotypes in Print Advertisements from 1880s to 1930s, is on 9 October (Saturday) at 2:00PM.

Historians and geographers have long utilized written sources and visual records to produce knowledge about people and places at different points in time. Whether in written or visual form, such documents are considered “texts” that provide a window into the relations, behavior, and values of people in past societies and the spaces that served as sites of their everyday lives. Aside from photographs and political cartoons, print advertisements serve as important records from the past. Moreover, such commercials can serve as society’s “family album” that reveals information about its members and how they would like to see themselves. 

Dr Lagman's presentation assesses how Philippine society “saw” its women and their place in Philippine life by classifying Spanish and American era advertisements for products and services that catered to or employed images of women. By reflecting and unpacking heteropatriarchy, this study likewise employs two particular methods for categorizing female stereotypes in print advertisements that may provide a more nuanced understanding of accepted female roles and behavior in Philippine society from the 1880s to the 1930s.

Dr Lagman who is an associate professor at the UP Department of Geography recently received his doctorate degree from Murdoch University where he produced a dissertation entitled, “Property Owners, Workers, and Public Women: Stories and Geographies of the Nineteenth Century Manileña: 1860 to 1896”. His research interests fall in the areas of historical geography, development geography, and disaster risk reduction with a focus on food and livelihood resilience. 

To register for this event, click this link. 

This Geography Webbynar is presented by the UP Department of Geography and co-sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society.

PGS Lecture Series 2021-11: Mark Aimon Pangan on community mapping using open data

For the 11th PGS Lecture Series for 2021, the Philippine Geographical Society presents a talk that reflects on community mapping, open data, and field operations using OpenStreetMap (OSM). 

Mark Aimon Pangan will give the talk entitled Navigating Open Spaces: The Geospatial World through the Lenses of Open Data on Saturday, 25 September 2021 at 2:00PM. OSM is an online platform that creates and makes available an accessible and editable geospatial data of the world. Founded by Steve Coast in 2004, OSM distributed and developed geospatial data for everybody and has since contributed to various scientific research as well as humanitarian undertakings. In the Philippines, OSM has made significant strides in mapping heretofore unmapped regions. 

Mark Aimon Pangan is a graduate of geography at UP Diliman and is an advocate of utilizing open data and open-source software. He has worked on projects in the renewable energy and DRRM sectors. Currently, he is involved in a project associated with OSM as a GIS specialist and OSM volunteer. 

To participate in the webinar, click the following link to register for the event.

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

PGS Lecture Series 2021-10: Jonathan Villasper on mapping birds

In the book Arctic Dreams (1986), written by nature writer Barry Lopez, he observed: “Birds tug at the mind and heart with a strange intensity.” This intense emotional pull of the avian species has, through the years, captivated poets and ornithologists, birdwatchers and cartographers. In ethno-ornithology literature, stories are told and narrated by local inhabitants of bird sightings and what they mean to environment, climate, community, and folklore. A new wave of interest in birds and birdwatching, spurred by availability of robust data and access to map technologies led to a renewed vigor to locate their habitats, migratory patterns and behavior and how these relate to the constantly changing environmental and geocultural landscapes.

 

For the 10^th Philippine Geographical Society Lecture Series (PGS LS) for 2021, geographer and longtime birder Jonathan Villasper will talk and share various mapping geovisualizations of birds in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. The lecture – Mapping Bird Ecology and Conservation – uses cartographic visualizations that tell various bird stories. With a special focus on bird conservation efforts and initiatives, Jon Villasper’s lecture also touches on the identification and delineation of protected areas. Key to mapping efficacy is robust data.

Jon Villasper is a birdwatcher, founder and permanent Executive Committee member of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines. He is also a geographer and a former instructor of Digital Cartography at the UP Dept of Geography where he taught GIS and cartography for several years in both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has used his skills and knowledge on geography, data, and cartography in a variety of fields including urban planning, transportation, reproductive health, conflict and development, education, history, and for the longest time, in biodiversity conservation where he had the opportunity to work on, among other things, the book Threatened Birds of the Philippines - an exhaustive resource listing and discussing Philippine birds that are in danger of disappearing from the country, their distribution, ecology, and threats. He also served as member, president and adviser of the UP Haring Ibon. 

 

The lecture happens on 7 August (Saturday) at 2:00PM. To register, please click this link https://bit.ly/2TOWe2y

 

The lecture is co-sponsored by the UP Department of Geography, Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, The UP Wild, and UP Haring Ibon. 

PGS Lecture Series 2021-08: Juanito Berja on the prospects and potentials of food security in the Philippines

The issue of food security is as old as civil society itself. But is food security viable in the era of COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the Philippines?

Prof. Juanito Berja, Jr. will discuss the feasibility and workability of the food security situation in the Philippines as well as identify key issues and potentials. It will propose a course of action to alter the current food system and map strategies to lessen food insecurity in the country. Of particular interest is the focus on the blending of modern and traditional diets more suited to the Pacific island world.

The talk entitled Prospects and Challenges for Food Security in the Philippines is presented by the Philippine Geographical Society through the PGS-Lecture Series. It will take place on 26 June 2021 at 2:00PM. 

To register, click this link to participate.

Prof. Berja works at the World Food Programme and currently a doctoral student at the UP Public Administration and Governance. He also serves as a senior lecturer at the UP Department of Geography teaching a graduate course on food and agriculture.

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

Geography Webbynar #7 (2020-2021) - Linda Quiquivix on geopolitical mapping of Palestine

How can a group of displaced Palestinians overcome cartographic erasures in their homeland amidst the Israel-Palestine conflict? How can willful and determined mapping aid in the refugees' quest to assert their historical presence onto the disputed land? Finally, how can the geoweb (through Google Earth) serve as a battlefield in the conflict?

For the 7th Geography Webbynar Lecture Series for 2020-2021 academic year, the UP Department of Geography presents a lecture entitled Palestine Mapping by Dr Linda Quiquivix. Based on her dissertation field research in Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Dr Quiquivix will discuss how cartographically placing Israel’s founding and perpetual violence at the fore, as the Palestinian refugees’ counter-cartography does, can help to move forward the refugees’ demands for justice.

Dr Quiquivix obtained her PhD in Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was a postdoc at the Critical Global Humanities at Brown University's Cogut Center, and has a certificate at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Fluent in Arabic, she has given several talks on the Israel-Palestine conflict from the lenses of cartography to critically examine various liberation struggles. Of particular interest are two articles she wrote that frame the role of radical cartography in the Israel-Palestine conflict: Art of War, Art of Resistance: Palestinian Counter-Cartography on Google Earth (Annals of the American Geographers, 2014), and When the Carob Tree Was the Border: On Autonomy and Palestinian Practices of Figuring it Out (Capitalism Nature Socialism, 2013).

This talk is co-sponsored by the graduate seminar class in Cultures of Mapping and Countercartographies (Geography 292), the Geonarratives Mapping Project, and the Philippine Geographical Society through its Lecture Series.

To register for this talk, click this link: https://bit.ly/3gKIE9n