5th International Research Forum on the PHL set

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 Nov. 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: Globalization and Localization, Nation and Diaspora, Materiality and Intangibility, Mobility and Stasis, Innovation and Convention, People and Environment, Power and Susceptibility, Progress and Poverty, Secularity and Sacredness, and 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 5 p.m. on Sept. 15 (AEDT). Interested participants must submit online a 250word abstract along with other requirements (title, a 250-word abstract, five keywords and 100-word bio). Selected participants will be notified of their acceptance to the forum a week after the submission of their abstract.

For more information, visit the official Facebook page of FASTCO ( www.fb.com/

fastcoVic) or e-mail to: official@fastcovic. org with the subject “IRFP 2017.”