SOAS Annual Philippine Studies Conference 2021

Kaagi: Tracing Visayan Identities in Cultural Texts

Tracing Visayan Identities is a transdisciplinary conference that will explore the various ways the Visayan Region and its peoples are constructed through cultural texts. Taking its cue from the Cebuano word for history - “Kaagi” is interested in the ways in which texts, objects and performances negotiate, mediate and translate the “Bisaya” as a collective identifier of culture, language and artistic practice.

How are the Visayans represented in photography, music, literature, the visual arts, and performance,? What is the place of the Visayas in the art and literary histories of the nation? What are its self-identifying markers for selfhood and belonging? What are the contestations involved in inter-regional wranglings between geography and identity? What are its local histories and how are these embodied in Visayan art, performance and literature?

This conference aims to bring together academics in the fields of the humanities and the social sciences, as well as artists, writers and performers that are based in the Visayas. The objective of the conference is to bring together key people in Visayan scholarship and cultural production and develop a body of discourse on Visayan cultural practices.

Recordings

All the conference talks were recorded and can be found on the Philippine Studies at SOAS website .

The Kaagi: Tracing Visayan Identities Through Cultural Texts (virtual exhibition) is now live on the Brunei Gallery website .

Call for Abstracts (Now Closed)

Topics may include:

• Material and cultural practices that contribute to an understanding of the Visayas as a living cultural landscape
• Decolonial readings of Visayan history and ethnography using cultural texts
• Local histories of the Visayan region read through its cultural practices
• Intersections of ritual and religion in Visayan culural practices
• Trans-national identity constructions of the Visaya
• Trans-regional treatments of the Visayas in relation to Soutth East Asia

Proposals for presentations should include a title, an abstract (300 words), institutional affiliation, a bio sketch (100 words).

Call for Exhibitions (Now Closed)

Are you a filmmaker, writer, photographer, performer, or visual artist with work on and/or based in the Visayas? Send a sample or preview of your work with a 300 word description and a bio sketch (max. 100 words) if you are interested in sharing your work at the conference. There will also be exhibit stalls available for book launchings, displays, and workshops.

Full Programme and Book of Abstracts

A draft programme and book of abstract is available on the Philippine Studies Conference 2021 site. Please refer to this website for further details.

Organiser: Philippine Studies at SOAS and University of the Philippines Cebu

Contact email: philippinestudies@soas.ac.uk