ASAN 620: Philippine Social and Intellectual History
CRN 89008, Spring 2012
Taught By: Prof. Resil Mojares, Andrews Chair Visiting Professor, & Prof. Vina Lanzona, History and Asian Studies
When: Thursdays, 3-5:30pm
Location: Moore 204

The Philippines has a unique history. Beginning from the 16th century, it became part of the Spanish empire in the Asia/Pacific, a colonial arrangement that lasted for more than 300 years. Towards the end of the 19th century, a series of revolutionary upheavals led to the establishment and then decline of the new Philippine republic. The end of the Philippine-American War paved the way for 50 years of “tutelary” colonialism under the Americans. The promise of independence, disrupted by the Japanese occupation, was finally achieved in 1946 only to be challenged by political turmoil and groups contesting to define the new nation. The postwar period was marked by rebellions, revolutions, and military dictatorships. All these elements constitute the nationalist narrative that traces the emergence of a unified Philippine nation and identity.

Much of Philippine history and historiography focus on this developmental trajectory and centralizing narrative where political developments are prioritized and its capital Manila always appears at the center. But much of the historical movements in the Philippines occur outside of politics and of Manila. Since the 1980s, Philippine scholars working inside and outside the Philippines have been questioning the emphasis on the military and the political, propagating the social history of the archipelago. Simultaneously, new and established scholars, working in fields such as religion, languages, and literatures, defined the cultural and intellectual history of the Philippines. The rise of social, cultural and intellectual history led to new ways of inquiry, in effect redefining the field of Philippine studies.

This course will look at seminal and new works in Philippine social, cultural and intellectual history. By focusing on writings that challenge the conventional boundaries of the historical discipline, this course interrogates issues such as culture and colonialism, science and education, nationalism, race, class, morality and gender as well as trace the intellectual movements in Philippine studies. Moreover, students in this course will have an opportunity to read and discuss primary sources and illustrative texts produced by Filipinos. Students will gain an understanding of the developments and uses of Philippine social and intellectual history through an understanding of both general and particular historical and historiographical trends, discussion of critical issues in intellectual production, and analysis of texts and books in shaping popular knowledge and the national scholarship on the Philippines. This exploration would hopefully present not a unified vision of Philippine history but one that’s nuanced, complex, always intriguing and constantly changing.

Course Code: CRN 89008
For more information, please contact The Center for Philippine Studies at cpsdir@hawaii.edu.

Resil B. Mojares has a doctorate in literature from the University of the Philippines and is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, Philippines. His interests range through various topics in Philippine social and cultural history, and his books have consistently been honored in the National Book Awards of the Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development of the Philippines. He has served as visiting fellow at Kyoto University, the National University of Singapore, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of California-Los Angeles.

Vina A. Lanzona is an associate professor in the Department of History, and currently the Director of the Center for Philippine Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her first book Amazons of the Huk Rebellion: Gender, Sex and Revolution in the Philippines (2009) won the Kenneth Baldridge Prize as the Best History Book in Hawaii (2008-2011) and demonstrate her twin passions for studying revolutions and women in political change. Her interests include Philippine social history, revolutions and collective action, women, gender and sexuality and comparative colonialisms.

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) is proud to announce the 2010 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships competition. The CSEAS administers the FLAS program, which provides funds for academic year and summer fellowships to assist graduate students in acquiring competencies in Southeast Asian languages. Applicants must meet eligibility criteria established by the Department of Education in order to receive fellowships.

The deadline for Summer 2010 and Academic Year 2010-2011 is 1 February 2010. Please see the applications below for further information:

UPDATE: There is a one-semester Southeast Asia FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) fellowship still available for Spring 2010 only. The deadline for this Spring 2010 is Thursday, 28 January 2010.

NEW – Spring 2010 Application | Undergraduate FLAS Application | Graduate FLAS Application | FLAS Homepage

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown
25 – 28 March 2010

The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Program Committee has prepared the following list of 282 panels and roundtables for the 2010 Meeting in Philadelphia. Titles may change slightly, but the hourly schedule will remain constant. For your convenience, we’ve listed SEA-related panels below:

4. Banishing Acts: Exile, Identity and Connectivity across Colonial South and Southeast Asia (Penny Edwards, University of California, Berkeley)
10. Roundtable: Some Effective Approaches to Teaching and Analyzing Poetry – Sponsored by the Committee on Teaching Southeast Asian Languages (Robert J. Bickner, University of Wisconsin, Madison)
11. Red, White, and Green? Islam in Indonesian National Politics and Political Culture (James B. Hoesterey, Stanford University)

31. Inner Flows and Fusions: Mapping Musical Dynamism in East and Southeast Asia (Eun-Young Jung, University of California, San Diego)
37. Democracy and Identity in Southeast Asia (Jacques Bertrand, University of Toronto)
38. Transgendering and Transgressive Meanings in South East Asia (Mark Johnson, University of Hull)
39. Center for Lao Studies’ New Research on Contemporary Laos (Vinya Sysamouth, Center for Lao Studies)
40. Roundtable: The GMA Presidency and Its Legacy (David Timberman, USAID)
61. Local and National in Contemporary Policymaking in Southeast Asia: Environment and Energy Policy, Natural Resources Husbandry, Journalistic Norms, and Economic Management (Alasdair Bowie, George Washington University)
62. Who’s Who? Rethinking Marginal Intellectuals in Late Colonial Vietnam (Martina T. Nguyen, University of California, Berkeley)
63. Buddhist Approaches to Violence: Narratives, Texts, and Doctrine (Jeffrey Samuels, Western Kentucky University)
64. Center for Lao Studies’ New Research on Contemporary Laos II (Vinya Sysamouth, Center for Lao Studies)
79. Is Rule Change Real Change? Political Reforms in Southeast Asian Democracies (Dan Slater, University of Chicago)
88. New Perspectives on Southeast Asian Islam and the Middle East (Francis R. Bradley, University of Wisconsin, Madison)
89. Perspectives on Catholic Culture in Viet Nam, 1600-2009 (Nhung Tuyet Tran, University of Toronto)
113. Citizenship and Identity Issues in Contemporary Singapore: Political, Educational, Spatial, and Societal Perspectives (Yeow Tong Chia, University of Toronto)
114. Bringing Literature into the Study of Twentieth-Century Thai History (Michael J. Montesano, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies)
115. From Peace to Justice in Cambodia: Reconciliation and the Khmer Rouge Trials – Sponsored by the Southeast Asia Council (Caitlin N. Reiger, International Center for Transitional Justice)

140. Islam, Culture and Politics in Southeast Asia – Sponsored by the Indonesian and East Timor Studies Committee and the Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Group (Timothy P. Daniels, Hofstra University)
141. Dangerous Histories in Southeast Asia: Disquieting Past – Sponsored by the Southeast Asia Council (Thongchai Winichakul, University of Wisconsin, Madison)
167. Dangerous Histories in Southeast Asia: Discomforting Narratives (Thongchai Winichakul, University of Wisconsin, Madison)
183. Presidential Roundtable: After Reformasi: Trends in Southeast Asian Muslim Politics and Culture (Robert W. Hefner, Boston University)
193. The Colonial City in a War of Decolonization: Socio-Cultural Approaches for a History of Saigon and Hanoi during the Indochina Conflict (1945-54) (Christopher E. Goscha, University of Quebec at Montreal)
194. Gendered Narratives of Islam in Indonesia: Performing Piety, Aurality, and Representation – Sponsored by the Indonesia and East Timor Studies Committee (Laurie M. Ross, University of California, Berkeley)
217. The Weave of Death: Funerary Cloths in Art and Ritual in Southeast Asian Buddhism – Sponsored by Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Studies (Erik W. Davis, Macalester College)
218. Political Islam and Electoral Behavior: Indonesia in Comparison (Jennifer L. Epley, University of Michigan)
219. Roundtable: United States Policy Toward Southeast Asia: Opportunities and Obstacles for the Obama Administration (Ann Marie Murphy, Seton Hall University)
220. Domestic Political Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam During the Late 1950s (Peter Zinoman, University of California, Berkeley)

243. Comparing Across Southeast Asia: Regional Patterns of Politics (Mark R. Thompson, University of Erlangen)
244. Roundtable: Ha Noi: A Thousand Years in the Embrace of the Red River – Sponsored by the Vietnam Studies Group (C. Michele Thompson, Southern Connecticut State University)
245. Roundtable: Burma/Myanmar: The 2010 Elections, the Constitution, Law, and Issues of the Distribution of Power and Legitimacy – Sponsored by the Burma Studies Group (David I. Steinberg, Georgetown University)
267. Dissecting Law, Sovereignty, and Citizenship in the Thai Polity (Eli A. Elinoff, University of California, San Diego)
268. Hidden Histories and Submerged Stories from Northwest Vietnam (Christian C. Lentz, Cornell University)
269. Individual Papers: Reflections on Contemporary Indonesian Studies (Justin T. McDaniel, University of Pennsylvania)

full schedule