MELBOURNE, Australia – The Filipino-Australian Student Council of Victoria (FASTCO), together with La Trobe University’s Philippine Australia Studies Centre (PASC), will be holding the 5th International Research Forum on the Philippines (IRFP) on November 23 to 24 at La Trobe University.
This year’s theme is “Interrogating Paradoxes in the Philippines.” This conference will look into the limitations of understanding Philippine territories, cultures, politics, institutions, and identities in either monolithic or dichotomous terms. The 21st century has been constituted and is constituted by conditions where the Filipino people’s ways of belonging to the nation, the region, and the world have become more fractal and less predictable than before.
Submissions may fall under broad themes such as, but not limited to, the following:
Globalisation and Localisation
Nation and Diaspora
Materiality and Intangibility
Mobility and Stasis
Innovation and Convention
People and Environment
Power and Susceptibility
Progress and Poverty
Secularity and Sacredness
Sustainability and Loss
The IRFP is FASTCO’s flagship academic program that aims to encourage Philippine studies in Australia, as well as collaboration among research scholars. The forum invites students, scholars, professionals, and individuals to take part by submitting papers that reconsider totalistic perspectives about Philippine or Filipino life and discuss interconnected issues on contemporary Philippines.
Deadline of submissions will be at 5PM on September 15, 2017 (AEDT). Interested participants must submit online a 250-word abstract along with other requirements (title, a 250-word abstract, 5 keywords and 100-word bio). Selected participants will be notified of their acceptance to the forum a week after the submission of their abstract.