UP CSSP Folklore Studies Program

S O O N 🤓

kitakits bukas! 🤓

[KADUNONG LECTURES]
Sigbin, Betsin, at Rabis:
Mga A*o sa Kaalamang Bayang Pilipino

Ian Christopher B. Alfonso, PhD

April 7, 2026
2:30 – 4:00
Pilar Herrera Hall
Palma Hall, UP Diliman

[KADUNONG LECTURES]

Sigbin, Betsin, at Rabis:
Mga A*o sa Kaalamang Bayang Pilipino

Ian Christopher B. Alfonso, PhD

Dalawa sa kapaniwalaang malaganap sa Pilipinas ay ang mitikal na sigbin ng Kabisayaan at nakalala*on ng a*o kahit kapiranggot na betsin. Ngunit maaaring alaalang kultural ito ng mga Pilipino sa aktwal na pangyayari sa kasaysayan: ang pagpa*ok ng sakit na rabis noong ika-18 dantaon at paraan ng paglipol sa mga a*o sa pampublikong pook noong ika-19 na dantaon gamit ang isang pulbos na kristal upang masawata ang pagkalat ng rabis. Nang dahil sa rabis, bumaba ang tingin ng lipunang Pilipino sa sarili nating mga a*o o Aspin.

===

About the speaker

Si IAN CHRISTOPHER B. ALFONSO, PhD, ay Katuwang na Propesor sa Departamento ng Kasaysayan, Unibersidad ng Pilipinas Diliman. Siya ay Board Member ng Philippine Historical Association at kasapi ng UNESCO Memory of the World Program sa Pilipinas. Nagtapos siya ng Masterado ng Sining sa Kasaysayan at Doktor ng Pilosopiya sa Kasaysayan sa UP Diliman. Ang kaniyang interes sa pananaliksik pangkasaysayan ay tungkol sa Pilipinas bago at maagang pananakop ng mga Espanyol, ang Himagsikang Pilipino, toponimiya, pamamang kultural, nasyonalismo, kasaysayang pampubliko, at kasaysayang lokal ng mga pamayanan sa paligid ng Look ng Maynila. Kabilang sa kaniyang mga aklat ay ang Dogs in Philippine History (2023).

===

April 7, 2026
2:30 – 4:00
Pilar Herrera Hall
Palma Hall, UP Diliman

[KADUNONG LECTURES]

A*og Allegories:
Trans Feminine Intimacy in the Fractured Locus of Colonial Difference
Jaya Jacobo, PhD

March 27, 2026
2:30 – 4:00
CSSP Health & Wellness Center

see yah! 🤓

[KADUNONG LECTURES]

A*og Allegories:
Trans Feminine Intimacy
in the Fractured Locus of Colonial Difference

Jaya Jacobo, PhD

In this talk, I revisit scenes in selected accounts from the colonial archive where the A*og’s "animacy" could only begin to degrade from the gendered aspects of her "animality". It is through this prose of degradation that I would also argue that such allegorical propositions on the A*og’s abjection open up the possibility for the trans feminine figure to aggravate further the aperture within the coloniality of gender, and this time through intimacy, whose definition is expanded here from a methodology of fulfilling desire to a capacity of building community, where trans folk could begin to delink themself from the abstractions of allegory, affirming a resistant inhabitation of what María Lugones would describe as the “fractured locus” of “colonial difference.” While the A*og is extirpated from colonial society by way of her purported deviance, imperial narration could only describe the q***r dimensions of her participation in colonial modernity. To imagine the planetary reach of such ironic modes of resistance and reexistence, especially in the global south, I will compare the A*og with cognate figures in decolonial trans folklore, such as the Sarimbavy of Madagascar and the Tr****ti of Brazil, specifically Xica Manicongo, marking out paradigmatic moments in the prose where the A*og and her sisters are suspended in between figurations of dissidence and complicity, at the same time seeming to propose within the fracture a pedagogy of transgender difference.

===

About the speaker

Jaya Jacobo is a trans feminist poet, dramaturg, scholar, and theorist teaching trans and q***r studies at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. She holds an AB-MA in Filipino Literature from the Ateneo de Manila University and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook through the J. William Fulbright Foundation and was Postdoctoral Fellow of the Global Grace: Gender and Cultures of Equality Programme funded by the United Kingdom Research Innovation, which allowed her to immerse in decolonial performance in the city of Rio de Janeiro. She has co-created alongside tr****ti and tr*******al women artists, scholars, and community workers in diverse sites throughout Brazil, including the Amazon, as well as with trans, q***r, and nonbinary Filipina/x/o performers from the Philippines and the Philippine diaspora abroad. Arasahas, her debut volume of poetry in Filipino (Savage Mind, 2023 & 2024; Pulso, 2025) was a Finalist for Best Book of Poetry in Filipino at the 2024 National Book Awards, and the translation in English by Christian Jil Benitez Arasahas: Poems from the Tropics (PAWA & Paloma, 2024) was a Finalist for the 2025 Lambda Award in Transgender Poetry. In the Autumn of 2025, she was Curator of Theory & Discourse at Sincerely Yours, The Philippines: Festival for Dance, Performance and Karaoke at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, in Frankfurt, Germany.

===

March 27, 2026
2:30 – 4:00
CSSP Health & Wellness Center

Organized by the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) Folklore Studies Program, the UP Astronomical Society, UP Departamento ng Kasaysayan, and UP Department of Linguistics, "Balatik: A Symposium on Philippine Ethnoastronomy" was held last 21 November at the Pilar Herrera Lecture Hall, Palma Hall and the University Amphitheater, UP Diliman.

We are grateful to our discussants/presenters, guests, and attendees for participating in the event, as well as to our university and college officials, volunteers, and staff who helped us make this possible. We hope to see you in the next Balatik Symposium!

Photos by Nicole Margaret Villabroza, Lorenz Timothy Barco Ranera, Jaree Violago, and Brent Fabie

✨✨

🦎🔭

Balatik: A Symposium on Philippine Ethnoastronomy

The UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) Folklore Studies Program, together with the UP Astronomical Society, UP Departamento ng Kasaysayan, and UP Department of Linguistics, warmly invites everyone to "Balatik: A Symposium on Philippine Ethnoastronomy” on 21 November 2025, 2:00 PM – 7:00 PM, at Pilar Herrera Lecture Hall, Palma Hall and the University Amphitheater, UP Diliman.

Here are the activities for the upcoming symposium. See you!🦎

Join us by answering the registration form: https://tinyurl.com/balatikreg