Day 1: Monday, December 18, 16:00–18:00 at Seminar Room (213)
1st Presentation:
Speaker: Patricio N. Abinales (Hitotsubashi University)
Title: Duterte and the Crowd: Crime and Comedy in Philippine Politics
Abstract: The high approval that Rodrigo Duterte enjoyed all through his six-year term has never been convincingly explained by scholars, policy analysts and public intellectuals who took up the challenge of analyzing Duterte. The main reason for this is the absence of any social investigation of the role of the vernacular and the vulgar in Duterte’s interaction with Filipinos. This presentation brings in these two linguistic forms which bonded Duterte to the crowd at the same time fused the comedic with the crime.
2nd Presentation:
Speaker: Ronald D. Holmes (De La Salle University)
Title: There Is _ Honor among…: Why the Alliance Broke Too Early
Abstract: Slightly over a year since Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte were catapulted to their positions by a rare majority of Filipino voters, the alliance between the scions of two purported strongmen seems to have been broken, quite early if one looks back at pre- or post-election alliances in post-war Philippine politics. The talk examines the possible factors that produced a fissure and possibly an irreparable wedge between Bongbong Marcos (and his cohorts) and Sara Duterte (and her tribe).
Day 2: Tuesday, December 19, 14:00–16:00 at Tonantei (201)
1st Presentation:
Speaker: Eri Kitada (Rutgers University-New Brunswick)
Title: Work, Life, and Violence in Davao, the Philippines, 1906–1921
Abstract: This presentation examines “Juramentado,” a form of the suicide attack by Moro men against Spaniards, Americans, Christian Filipinos, and other foreign Asian settlers in the Philippines, by tracing the history of Japanese settlements in early twentieth-century Davao Province, Mindanao. It asks why some violence entered the archives as “crimes” while others did not, in addition to how violent incidents happened in and shaped the U.S.-Japanese settler colonial project. The reportage of confrontations and violence among diverse residents—tribal peoples and American, Japanese, Chinese, and Christian Filipino settlers—changed over time in relation to shifting attitudes of the U.S. colonial government towards Japanese settlers. By portraying a labor history of tribal Filipinos and a political history of the colonial Philippines, this feminist project offers alternative ways to understanding Juramentado, “amuk,” “mutiny,” and other colonial uprising in the history of colonialism.
2nd Presentation:
Speaker: Patricio N. Abinales (Hitotsubashi University)
Title: The Two Ferdinands – an Extended Note
Abstract: Ferdinand “Bongets” Marcos Jr. won the presidency vowing that he would duplicate the “Golden Years” of his father’s presidency. Political opponents warned Filipinos that his presidency would bring back the authoritarian practices of yore and warned that “never again” will Filipinos experience the dictatorship. This portrait of Ferdinand II as the 21st edition of his father makes good propaganda but is not analytically useful. This presentation instead suggests that a better way to look at these “Two Ferdinands” is to examine the continuities and discontinuities in the political lineage, the social contexts in which they rose to prominence, and their policies and programs as presidents. While scholars have already extensively explored the causes behind the fall of Ferdinand I, this presentation will explore the possible factors that could bring about Ferdinand II’s political demise.
About the speakers:
Patricio N. Abinales is a Professor at the Department of Asian Studies, University of Hawaii-Manoa. He is presently a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University.
Ronald D. Holmes is a Professor of Political Science and Development Studies at De La Salle University, Manila, and the President of Pulse Asia Research Inc., a major social science research and public opinion polling organization in the Philippines.
Eri Kitada is a lecturer based in Tokyo, Japan, who studies race, gender, sexuality, and modern colonialism in the United States and Asia-Pacific region. Her monograph project, entitled “Intimately Intertwined: Settler and Indigenous Communities, Filipino Women, and U.S.-Japanese Imperial Formations in the Philippines, 1903–1956,” uncovers the little-known history and legacy of Japanese settlements in the U.S. colonial Philippines. It centeres Filipino women and multiple relationships of residents in Davao, Mindanao, at the co-constitutive settler colonial project of the U.S. and Japanese empires. Eri received her doctoral degree from the Department of History at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the United States.