anthropology x participatory design x
disaster and climate resilience
TALKS
WORKSHOPS
ADVOCACIES
#NONATURALDISASTERS CONFERENCE 2022
Presentation Title: The Material Registers of Disaster Injustice within Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction
Thrilled to make the cut for micro presentations at the #NoNaturalDisasters Conference, a hybrid conference run from London. This is a snapshot of research our team completed through our seed grant from Brown University for our study, "When Houses Talk: Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction as Discourse." We're developing this into a full-length article which will hopefully be out by mid-2023.
Strengthening Science and Political Literacy in Coastal Communities
As part of a panel on integrated nature-based solutions for flood risk management, the talk "Strengthening Science and Political Literacy in Coastal Communities" contributes to the understanding of non-structural ways of addressing flooding risk. The discussion emphasises the need to understand cultural considerations relating to class, religion, and gender as a starting point for conceptualising a forum for science and political literacy in communities affected by the 5-meter storm surges of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). The forum is a joint project between Soroptimist International (Malaysia) and the Malaysia Water Partnership.
A FORUM ON DISASTER, KNOWLEDGE, AND VULNERABILITY
This online forum was organised out of South Asia by the amazing members of Youth for Resilience. I spoke about women's knowledge and practice of architectural improvisations as their way of negotiating institutional power in post-disaster resettlement sites. I was delighted to "meet" Ganesh again, who was the same Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Humanitarianism programme I attended at Brown.
OPENING KEYNOTE FOR THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL DESIGN CONFERENCE
I co-presented this opening keynote (time stamp 24:00 with my Curiosity co-founder and UPOU FICS Dean Diego Maranan for the International Design Conference organised by the Design Center of the Philippines - Department of Trade and Industry. Diego and I discussed 5 ways to reframe "design" within the Philippine context towards the direction of just futures. We expounded on how the global scale of contemporary ecological crises, including climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, have prompted a global rethinking of contemporary practices that have caused wide-scale and long-lasting harm and inequality across the planet. Design has been at the heart of this conversation - as both a contributor to crises and as fertile ground for developing ways of thinking, creating, and behaving that centres care for the planet and the various forms of life that inhabit it. Drawing from a broad range of examples from the Philippines and elsewhere, this talk identifies five ideas for reframing design in the direction of creating just and equitable futures.
INTRODUCING NATURE-BASED FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS TO ARCHITECTS
This forum was a collaboration between the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) and the Environment and Disaster Management Program at the World Wildlife Fund USA headquarters in Washington, DC. WWF colleague Dr. Missaka Hettiarachchi spoke about the need to diversify flood risk management solutions to include approaches that center the protection of watersheds while I discussed the signficance of Monitoring and Evaluation throughout all stages of nature-based flood risk management. A lively Q&A followed and we appreciated UAP's openness to dialogue across disciplines!
BOOK LAUNCH - DISASTER ARCHIPELAGO: VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE IN THE PHILIPPINES
November 12, 2019
This was the launch of our book 'Disaster Archipelago: Vulnerability and Resilience in the Philippines' at the 2019 International Research Forum on the Philippines in Melbourne. With Will Smith (editor, La Trobe University) and Sarah Webb (co-author, University of Queensland)
DESIGNING FOR HUMANITY
September 12, 2020
This forum was hosted by the United Architects of the Philippines - Makati Chapter as part of the annual induction of its new members.
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY IN THE AGE OF COVID-19
May 1, 2020
This is the first online forum of the Cities and Environments Network (CERN), a gathering of Filipino postgraduate and postdoctoral academics in Australia.
I discussed the spatalities of citizenship amidst the securitised Covid-19 response of the Philippine government.
AT GOOGLE'S WOMEN TECHMAKERS: EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH TECHNOLOGY - GRASSROOTS PERSPECTIVES
One of the things I like about being invited to do public talks is that thinking through the presentation forces me to examine my research and other activities with a critical eye: confronting - often uncomfortably - what worked, what didn't, and how to move on. I was thrilled to be one of the speakers tomorrow afternoon at Google's Women Techmakers 2016, on the subject 'Empowering Women Through Technology: Grassroots Perspectives' to a crowd of 1000 women innovators, entrepreneurs, and scientists. Will be representing 4 organisations close to my heart: Curiosity, WeDpro, Roots of Health, and the Anthropological Association of the Philippines (UGAT).
19 March 2016. 330pm Yuchengco Auditorium La Salle Taft.
USER EXPERIENCE CONFERENCE 2014
Featured as a Design Role Model at the 2014 User Experience Conference in Manila. I discussed our disaster management research at Curiosity, highlighting user challenges in disaster that are specific to women.
ARKITEKTURO: A FORUM ON DISASTERS
A talk for a crowd of architects the GT Toyota Center in UP Diliman. Topic: The challenges that arise when post-disaster housing initiatives fail to address the social and cultural realities of the residents affected. Sponsored by the University of the Philippines Office for Initiatives in Cultural Affairs and BluPrint.
LOCAL PRACTICES IN WAYFINDING
A presentation on the cultural aspects of wayfinding as part of MAYNILA: The First MNL Urban Design Week + Festival. Co presented with fellow anthropologist and mentor Professor Eufracio C. Abaya of the University of the Philippines
MENTORING SOUTHEAST ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN
TechCamp Jakarta is a technology camp and public diplomacy programme jointly organised by the US State Department and the Community of Democracies, an organisation of countries committed to upholding the principles of the Warsaw Declaration. Here I mentored activists representing women, LGBT groups, indigenous groups, and the youth in the basics of human-centered design.