PNHS holds 40th national confab on national and local history, honors Samuel K. Tan

This is a press release from the Philippine National Historical Society.

The Philippine National Historical Society (PNHS), the oldest professional organization of historians and practitioners of history in the Philippines is holding the 40th National Conference on Local and National History at the National Museum of Fine Arts Auditorium on October 24 to 26, 2019.

Co-sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts – Committee on Historical Research (NCCA-CHR), the National Museum, and the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC), this year’s theme is “History, Culture, Heritage” with the aim of looking at neglected areas of historical research and providing vibrant exchanges from interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives. 

Scholars will present studies and methodologies on tangible and intangible cultural heritage reflecting the complex history of the Philippines, using indigenous knowledge systems/practices and documentary heritage that would give coherence to the “collective destinies and splendid variety” of Philippine history and culture.

The speakers are the following:

• Food historian Felice Prudente Sta. Maria
• Food Literacy in Adult Education of the Philippine Commonwealth
• Ligaya S.P. Lacsina from National Museum
• “Southeast Asian Boat Construction in the Philippines at the End of the First Millennium: The Butuan Boats”
• Allan Alvarez from National Museum
• “Hibla ng Lahing Pilipino: A Peek on the Socio-Cultural Identity of the Filipino People”
• Anthony D. Medrano from Yale-NUS College, Singapore
• “History from Below: The Economic Life of Philippine Pearls, 1870-1940”
• Jomar G. Encila from the Office of Historical Research, Taguig City
• “Reviving and Promoting a Town’s Local History Through Kwentong Bayan: The Experience of Taguig City”
• Jose S. Buenconsejo from University of the Philippines Diliman
• “Filipino Heritage in the Popular: Examples from Villame’s Rhyming Songs to Max Surban’s ‘Kuradang'”
• George Emmanuel R. Borrinaga from University of San Carlos, Cebu City
• “Jose Rizal in the Emotional Landscape of the 20th Century Samar and Leyte”
• Maria Nela B. Florendo from University of the Philippines Baguio
• “Displaying Indigenous Filipinos: Historiographies of the 1904 St. Louis Fair and Beyond”
• Jely A. Galang from University of the Philippines Diliman
• “Chinese Vagrants and Social Outcasts in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines”
• Eri Kitada from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
• “Gendering a Japanese Pioneer Narrative of “Savagery: Violence Committed by Indigenous Peoples towards Japanese Settlers in Davao, 1918-1938”
• Munap H. Hairulla from MSU-IIT IIigan
• “A Glimpse of Ilmu’Pagkausug in the Jawi Materials of Sulu”
• Rolando O. Borrinaga from UP Manila at Palo, Leyte
• “Tandaya or Kandaya Puzzle: The Confusion Clarified and the Historical Site Located”
• Marya Svetlana T. Camacho from University of Asia and the Pacific
• “Tagalog and Kapampangan Marriage Customs in the Spanish Colonial Legal Regime”
• Nicholas Michael Chow Sy from University of the Philippines Diliman
• “Demographic Constraints to Parental Choice over Marriage Partners in Nineteenth Century San Pablo, Laguna”
• Regalado Trota José from Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomas
• “Jean Paul G. Potet and His Work on the Philippines – Tribute to French Filipinist, Poet, and Author”
• Galileo S. Zafra from University of the Philippines Diliman, Vim Nadera from University of the Philippines Diliman, and Michael M. Coroza from Ateneo de Manila University
• “Balagtasan: Kasaysayan at Transpormasyon ng Isang Anyo ng Pangangawitran.”

The Journal of History 2019 will be launched at the conference.

During the event, prominent historian Samuel K. Tan, former chair of the Department of History of the University of the Philippines – Diliman and Chairman of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, will be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for History.

PNHS President Bernadita Churchill notes that Tan’s writings long nurtured not only a spatial perspective and cultural sensibility, reflective of his familial roots deeply sown in Siasi, but also pioneered and sustained a new way of seeing and sensing the Muslim South as an integral part of the national narrative in modern Philippine history.

The author of more than 20 books on Philippine histories, most from his native Sulu and Mindanao history, Tan deserves due appreciation and recognition for a lifetime commitment to modern Philippine history, profoundly shaping the field as a scholar, mentor, and institutional leader.

A photo and art exhibit of rare vintage photographs of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th Century (BRC Collection) on the theme of “Center and Periphery” will be displayed during the conference. The exhibit is a fusion of historical photographs and art featuring the “spontaneous realism paintings” of artist Celeste Lecaroz.

For more information, you may contact the following:

• Bernardita R. Churchill at (8 02) 9325165, 09087238295 and email at nitachurchill@hotmail.com
• Mary Jane Louise Bolunia at (8 02) 5271140, 09209467061 and email at mjlabolunia@yahoo.com

 – Rappler.com