CWVS celebrates 48th anniversary, hosts lecture of visiting scholar from Hawaii

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The Center for West Visayan Studies (CWVS), as part of its 48th year anniversary, hosted the lecture of Adrian Alarilla, a PhD candidate and scholar from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa at the CWVS Office on June 26, 2023.

Part of its ‘Visiting Scholars Lecture Series,’ Alarilla presented his paper, “Passionate engagements, intimate entrapments: Love, family, war, auto-ethnography, and those caught in between empire and nation.”

The paper looks at the rise of what Alisa Lebow called the “first-person documentary” genre within the Filipinx diaspora.

Alarilla examined three films – Memories of a Forgotten War (2002) by Camilla Benolirao Griggers and Sari Lluch Dalena, War is a Tender Thing (2013) by Adjani Arumpac, and Cane Fire (2020) by Anthony Banua-Simon – as to how these documentaries can talk back to the imperial imaginary by creating a diasporic and archipelagic imaginary that is mindful of the legacies of empire in the island peripheries of both America and the Philippines today.

The lecture was followed by a lively and insightful open forum from the audience.

This was organized as CWVS continues to carry out sustained capacity, knowledge, and information exchange with scholars, researchers, practitioners, government and non-government institutions, and other culture and heritage resource centers in the Philippines and abroad.

The lecture was also a part of the center’s celebration of its 48 years of continued fulfillment of its mandate as a repository, research hub, and catalyst of knowledge and activities geared towards the preservation, promotion, and dissemination of West Visayan historico-cultural heritage.

Past directors of the center – UPV Prof. Emeritus Dr. Alicia Magos (1996-2002), Prof. Melanie Padilla (2002- 2008, 2009- 2013), Prof. Jorge Ebay (2013-2019), and Dr. Randy Madrid (2019-2002) – were present during the activity, where they briefly shared their experiences during their stint as directors.

Retired faculty members Dr. Ma. Luisa Mabunay and Dr. Aurora Fe Bautista joined UPV students, faculty, staff, and researchers during the event.

CWVS is currently headed by Prof. Frances Anthea Redison as Director with Darlene Joy Calsado and Sasha Dioso as University Research Associates, Ophelia Balogo as Scientific Documentation Officer, and Faith Saraza as Administrative Assistant. (Mr. Sasha Dioso, CWVS with Ms. AL Ramirez, IPO)