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298. The Philippines as Field: Diverse Positionalities and the Production of Knowledge. Sponsored by York Centre for Asian Research

Sat, March 18, 5:15 to 7:15pm, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Floor: 2nd Floor, Dominion Ballroom North

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Qualitative social science research in/on the Philippines is being produced by individuals who have diverse relationships with their object of study. Researchers based at institutions in the Philippines are joined by overseas Filipinos who work at universities around the world. Equally, non-Filipino scholars conducting research on the Philippines work alongside second generation Filipino researchers who have been raised in diasporic communities. These subjectivities shape the relationship between the researcher and the Philippines, and they create distinct field experiences, forms of knowledge production, styles of representation and political/ethical engagements.

For this roundtable discussion we bring together researchers who occupy a range of positionalities in relation to their work in/on geographies which define the ‘Philippines’ as field. Panelists will compare and contrast their specific experiences of: 1) access during fieldwork; 2) political and ethical engagements through research and/or transnational solidarity; 3) innovative data gathering and representational styles.

Christopher Chanco will discuss his experiences conducting research alongside political organisations in Manila and Mindanao as a graduate student at the University of the Philippines, reflecting on the ways that organisational ties inform research in different contexts. Kenneth Cardenas is a Filipino international student studying in Canada, whose work on the new dynamics of accumulation in the Philippines raise questions about access to elites and corporate disclosures. Chaya Go will also reflect on her position as a transnational Filipina scholar, conducting ethnographies of resurgence and survivance in disaster contexts in the Eastern Visayas, and seeking transnational forms of solidarity. Conely de Leon is a second generation Filipina-Canadian whose work has used story-telling, or kuwentuhan, methodologies to examine transnational care networks between families in Canada and the Philippines. Lynne Milgram is a white North American anthropology professor whose ethnographic work on legal and extra-legal transnational economic practices in the Northern Philippines raises questions of trust, ethics and representation.

The panelists represent a range of institutional settings, disciplinary backgrounds and career stages. Together they will seek to advance a reflexive understanding of how researcher subjectivity shapes the experience of fieldwork, the ethics and politics of knowledge production, and the presentation of research findings.

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