8 Canadian grad students get PH Studies research funding

Researchers (Counterclockwise from top left): Antoniel Roca, Geneviève Minville, Nikki Mary Pagaling, Ria Jhoanna Ducusin, Kad Mariano, Romeo Joe Quintero, Mywla Chawla, and Dani Magsumbol. YU

Eight graduate students in Toronto’s York University collectively received $32,000 in funding to support their Philippine Studies research projects.

“Their groundbreaking projects promise to make an important contribution to the field,” said Ethel Tungohan, associate professor of politics and Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism.

Tungohan is a member of the Philippine Studies Group (PSG) at the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), which brings together faculty and students with an interest in the Philippines, Filipino migration and diaspora, as well as Philippine studies.

PSG’s activities throughout 2023, including this latest round of student funding, are made possible by the support of the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto.

“It is very exciting to read about York University students’ projects, which range from in-depth fieldwork examining the gendered dimensions of the Mindanao peace process to intensive language study and cultural immersion in the Philippines,” Tungohan added.

The following are the research funding awardees:

Myla Chawla, a doctoral candidate in political science, examines women’s roles and experiences during the Moro conflict and Mindanao peace process in the Philippines.

Doctoral student Ria Jhoanna Ducusin researches the political economy of local urbanization and feminist political ecology scholarship and examines how urban flooding results from political decisions, economic interests and power relations.

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Romeo Joe Quintero, a human geography graduate student, researches protracted situations of forced displacement and placemaking practices among internally displaced persons in the Philippines, particularly in Mindanao communities that have experienced violence.

Dani Magsumbol examines the political economy of emotions, and “the affective relationships of citizenship and nationalism,” focusing on the multigenerational experiences in families of the Filipino labor diaspora in Canada. She will collect data via interviews and focus groups in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver, as well as Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.

Nikki Mary Pagaling, a master’s candidate in geography, researches labor market transitions (with “an intersectional feminist framework”) that Filipina women make after completing Canada’s temporary foreign caregiver programs.

Antoniel Roca is researching the impact of Filipino-North American diasporic identity on the thought and composition processes of musicians in the Manila metropolitan area. A doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology, Roca’s previous fieldwork in the Philippines touched on the music genre kundiman, and the ways in which it was utilized as propaganda during both the Spanish and American colonial periods.

Doctoral students Kad Marino and Geneviève Minville each received a language subsidy grant to further their Tagalog studies. Mariano will use Tagalog in researching the diaspora’s role “in the memory dynamics of reconciliation, such as cross-cultural coalition building.” Minville will be in the Philippines this summer to engage with communities, local experts and NGOs on issues of forced displacement related to disasters and climate change.