Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad, Cebu
In 2019, The Center for Philippine Studies obtained a grant from the Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (FH GPA). This program, titled “Mapping Language and Culture in the Philippine South” (also called Project Magsayod, the Bisayan word for “to learn”) was finally implemented in summer 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It trained 10 American K-12 teachers, faculty and students on the basics of the Cebuano language and area studies focusing on the southern Philippines (Cebu and “Muslim Mindanao”). Project Magsayod ran for four weeks of language training and immersion in collaboration with the University of San Carlos in Cebu City. Originally, 12 participants were originally selected, but two dropped out for some reasons, the pandemic being one of them.
Fulbright-Hays Project Magsayod, Cebu City 2022
While in Cebu, the 10 participants were immersed in conversational Cebuano (Sinugbo in the local lingo) in the classroom, and practiced speaking with locals in the afternoon under the tutorship of Ms. Lilia Ibo and Mr. Clyde Chan. USC’s Director of Cebuano Studies, Dr. Hope Sabanpan Yu, served as the project coordinator and supervisor. Apart from acquiring conversational competence in the Cebuano language, the participants also had field trips to several heritage sites in Bohol and Cebu, such as Boljoon Church, and Basilica Sto Nino, observed nature while hiking at Mt. Apo, Negros Oriental, and swam with the docile butanding (whale shark) in Oslob, Cebu, The Project Director and grant writer of Magsayod was Dr. Federico V. Magdalena, while the Co-Director was Dr. Pia Arboleda, who was also the Center’s Director.
Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad, Cavite
The following year (2023), the Center again obtained and implemented a second Fulbright-Hays GPA, “Filipino Language and Indigenous Cultural Heritage” (locally titled “Project Dunong at Kalinangan“). This time, the training site and host was De La Salle University in Dasmarinas, Cavite. The number of participants doubled to 19 American teachers and students from Hawaii and California, who underwent four weeks of training during the summer 2023. They trained under the supervision of the DLSU Coordinator, Dr. Christian George Francisco.
Fulbright-Hays Project Dunong at Kalinangan, Dasmarinas, Cavite 2023
Project Dunong at Kalinangan ran from June 8 to July 6, 2023, shortly after the pre-departure orientation on June 5-6, 2023. Nineteen teacher participants from Hawaii, California and Arizona have been selected to undertake this month-long immersion program on Filipino language and cultural heritage in the Philippines.
In Cavite, they learned basic Filipino (Tagalog-based language in the country) and cultural heritage focusing on Mindanao and Luzon regions for the purpose of integrating their knowledge in their respective curriculum at home. Like its Magsayod predecessor, Project Dunong was successfully completed. The project director (also the grant writer) is Dr. Magdalena, affiliate faculty at the Asian Studies Department, and Deputy Director of the Center. The project Co-Project Director is Dr. Pia Arboleda, the Center Director, with Dr. Jayson Parba as Program Administrator. The duo are language professors at the UH Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures, which is concurrently chaired by Dr. Arboleda.
The CPS project, Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (aka Project: Dunong at Kalinangan), was successfully completed, the participants enjoying their language training and exposure to historic Cavite. It’s the second FH project implemented by UHM Center for Philippine Studies.
Reports of project have been submitted to Fulbright-Hays GPA management and are available on file.
Pamana ng Lahi
Pamana ng Lahi is an initiative that started in 2019 with support from the UH Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Please see Pamana ng Lahi – Center for Southeast Asian Studies (cseashawaii.org). Pamana is the Filipino word for heritage; lahi means race or people. Pamana ng lahi speaks of the things that our ancestors bequeath to us—their language, ancient knowledge, and cultural traditions.
Since then, it has evolved as a workshop for students to equip them with knowledge of Philippine geography, language, food, and other aspects of Filipino culture. Workshops have also been conducted for professionals.
An upcoming teacher training will be conducted online starting May 23, 2022, Friday (see flyer). Mark your calendar and register early. Click Here to Register
PCGH-Legarda Donation
The Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu, the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, and the Department of Foreign Affairs (called here as PCGH-Legarda) donated to the Center in 2022. This donation created a project that supported visiting scholars, provided scholarships for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students, and developed Philippine-related courses.
Six visiting scholars from the Philippines and the United States came to UH to give lectures and performances, ten students received scholarships, and three Philippine related courses were developed and integrated into the Filipino language program of the Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures. The latter revived the Philippine Kulintang class and supported two high-demand culture courses for the BA in Philippine Language and Culture at the University.
Peacebuilding in Mindanao
In 2013-15, the Center implemented a curricular project to ingest peace education and peacebuilding in Mindanao, with a grant from the US Institute of Peace (USIP). Forty-five faculty members participated in this endeavor. The two-year project was completed, in cooperation with three campuses of Mindanao State University, in the Philippines. They comprised the MSU Main Campus in Marawi City, MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology in Iligan City, and MSU-Tawi-Tawi College of Technology & Oceanography in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi. Aside from empowering the history teachers, the project also produced a manual for studies in History 3. Dr. Federico Magdalena wrote the grant and served as project director.
eMindanao is an offshoot of the USIP Project, part of the Center’s initiative to develop a Mindanao Studies Program at UH Mānoa. It is our modest contribution to the emerging focus on Islam in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region. Carried out on a larger plane, this initiative is an outreach project in the southern Philippines with three campuses of Mindanao State University (Marawi, Iligan, General Santos), and Ateneo de Zamboanga University.
This curricular peacebuilding project also reinforced the joint online course (ASAN/PACE 407) at UH with Ateneo de Davao University and MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology as institutional collaborators.
CPS conducted four seminar workshops in the summer of 2013-2014 in Iligan City for history teachers, thanks to the generous support of USIP and the active collaboration of the three MSU campuses. These workshops empowered MSU teachers, enhanced their pedagogical capacity, and improved the local history curriculum (History 3).
Mindful of the significance of the on-and-off peace process in Mindanao, a digital library on the historical, social, and political dimensions was conceived. Part of that project came as an annotated bibliography, available at this link: eMindanao Annotated Bibliography 2015. Another outcome of the project is an anthology about Mindanao edited by Dr. Juvanni A. Caballero for the teaching of a required course, Hist 3 (History of Muslims & Lumads in Mindanao) at MSU. Finally, a significant contribution of the USIP project is the formulation of a peace education course (FPE 101) in the MSU System, requiring all students to take it as a passport to graduation. Thanks to the initiative of Dr. Samuel E. Anonas, Coordinator for the USIP curriculum project, and the lead officer in the creation of FPE.