09/07/2026
๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐๐น๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฒ๐
๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐น ๐ฅ. ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ (Ateneo de Manila University), ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด ๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), ๐๐น๐บ๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฎ (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), and ๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ป๐ฎ (De La Salle University)
To register, visit https://go.ateneo.edu/CriticalKeywordsWeather.
๐๐ง๐๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ช๐ก๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐, in collaboration with the Literary and Cultural Studies Program,the Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts and Practices, and the Chinese University of Hong Kongโs Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, invites you to a roundtable discussion titled โ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐๐น๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฒ๐,โ featuring ๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐น ๐ฅ. ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐, ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด ๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด, ๐๐น๐บ๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฎ, and ๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ป๐ฎ. The event will take place on ๐ฎ๐ฐ ๐๐๐น๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ, ๐ฏ:๐ฌ๐ฌโ๐ฒ:๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐ , at the ๐ก๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐ผ๐ผ๐บ, ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐น, ๐๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ฑ๐ฒ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐น๐ฎ ๐จ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐๐.
As climate emergencies reshape our understanding of the world, this discussion examines how weather and ecology emerge as critical keywords in Southeast Asian literary and visual cultures. Moving beyond familiar portrayals of the region as merely a site of disaster and vulnerability, the resource persons explore vernacular concepts, cultural histories, and aesthetic practices that offer more nuanced ways of imagining Southeast Asiaโs environmental realities.
Admission is free and open to the public. Please bring a valid ID for campus access.
๐๐๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ก๐๐ง๐๐๐๐
In an era of climate emergencies, this roundtable aims to uncover the resonances of critical keywords concerning weather and ecology. Its work forms part of a larger cross-institutional and multi-disciplinary project to trace the genealogies of vernacular concepts and tropes in Southeast Asian literature and culture.
Because of its equatorial position, Southeast Asia is often defined by its tropical heat, humidity, and decay. Situated along the Ring of Fire to the west of the Pacific Ocean, its maritime nations are among the geographic locations on the planet most vulnerable to natural calamities such as earthquakes, eruptions, landslides, typhoons, and tsunamis. Characterized by booming consumer economies with young populations numbering in the tens of millions, growing Southeast Asian megacities are increasingly confronted by issues of overdevelopment, congestion, and waste.
Based on these common perceptions, Southeast Asian landscapes are conventionally portrayed in the global media representations of international news agencies, policy institutes, consultancy firms, and aid organizations as risky zones of poverty, squalor, criminality, violence, and vulnerability. Seeking to challenge and depart from such dominant discourses, the different papers shift their analyses toward the entangled literary and visual cultures of the region.
๐๐๐ฆ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ง๐ฆ
๐ช๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ผ๐ป๐, ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฑ
Christian Jil R. Benitez
This essay attempts to consider weather as a node through which various Southeast Asian contexts can be juxtaposed productively. The essay primarily reworks the concept of โdemonio de las comparacionesโ (demon of comparisons) coined by the Filipino patriot and polymath Josรฉ Rizal in his novel Noli me tรกngere (1887), and eventually popularized by the scholar Benedict Anderson in his work on Southeast Asian nationalisms. While for Anderson, the spectral semblance that haunts the region is the comparable workings here of nationalism as inherited from the Eurowestern world, the present essay hazards to another proposition: that of the tropical weather as always already inciting comparisons across Southeast Asia, translating thus the diabolical in Rizal to be the atmospheric. To demonstrate this wager, the essay then considers the contemporary novel Curtain of Rain (2014) by Thai writer Tew Bunnag, where rain in Bangkok persists to bring two seemingly disparate lives, from different times, togetherโwhich can be imagined, perhaps, as the same storm that ravages Manila in present day, if not, too, at the end of Rizalโs novel. Through this comparative rehearsal, the essay ultimately argues for the criticality of weather, its inevitability even, as a rubric in approaching Southeast Asia as a field of inquiry.
๐ช๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐น๐ฑ ๐ช๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ต๐ฒ๐ป ๐ช๐ฒ ๐๐๐ถ๐น๐ฑ ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐๐ป?
Chieng Wei Shieng
Considering Southeast Asiaโs equatorial location and its relation to the sun alongside rising temperatures, this paper attempts to explore where could we go when we build around the sun. It follows infrastructures and imaginations of Southeast Asiaโs futurities related to the sun such as solar panels and solar farms, alongside the notion of โsolarpunkโโa supposedly more โoptimisticโ imagination of a harmonious and sustainable future brought about by technologies. These are brought into further dialogue with Southeast Asian artistsโ works that think around myths, deities and knowledges revolving the sun, namely Kent Chanโs performance lecture, Solar Orders (2024) depicting an imagined โfuture global tropicsโ where societies beyond the equatorial organise around the sun; Filipino artist Derek Tumalaโs installation works, Island in the Sun (2025) and A Warm Orange Coloured Liquid (2024), and Indonesian artist-filmmaker Riar Rizaldiโs speculative-fiction short film Becquerel (2021) which looks to an alternative future-Indonesia living under an artificial sun. Bringing together Chanโs notion of โsolar-darityโ, Tumalaโs exploration of psyche and lived realities in the heat, and Rizaldiโs probing of tensions between green technology, nation-state and productivity alongside a Sufi philosophical concept of โWahdat al-wujลซdโ (the โunity of beingโ), this paper then speculates on the extent these ideas may serve as potential lens to mitigate and complicate speculations of optimism and hope in solar panel farm projects and solarpunk, and to what extent they may contribute to a Southeast Asian/regional perspective and vocabulary of building around the sun.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ด๐ต ๐ฉ๐ถ๐๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ป๐ผ๐๐น๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ด๐ฒ ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
Elmo Gonzaga
Policy discourses about ecological vulnerability and disaster in Southeast Asia emphasize the urgency for national governments to possess the knowledge and capacity to guarantee the durability and resilience of their spaces and infrastructures against extreme weather events, which have grown more frequent and intense because of the climate crisis. Reinforcing its monopoly over authority and violence, these dominant frameworks uphold the nation-state as the sole protector over the life and death of its population.
Among the countries most regularly hit by environmental disasters due to their maritime locations in the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippinesโ disaster risk management agencies maintain websites and databases for public use that feature digital maps and visualizations to track their movement and impact across their territories. Indonesiaโs National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) defines the terms of disaster as encompassing not only natural calamities but also infrastructural accidents and civil unrest. Because Vietnamโs National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geological, and Meteorological Administration (PAGASA) rely for their weather information on remote sensing systems operated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and European Space Agency, local research institutions have designed and launched miniature artificial satellites in response to this form of data colonialism.
This paper explores how, faced with the limits of advanced science and technology, folk beliefs about the visual interpretation of plant growth, animal behavior, wind direction, and celestial patterns can offer experimental practices of survival and sustainability amid the imminence of catastrophe.
๐ช๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ป๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐๐ถ๐ฎ
Isa Lacuna
This paper analyzes the wasteland ecologies present in two Southeast Asian anthologies, namely, Destination: SEA 2050 ADand Trash: A Southeast Asian Urban Anthology, to interrogate the place and function of waste in the regionโs ecocritical imagination. If we start with the premise that waste is inevitable because all of material and symbolic life generates โwaste,โ then Southeast Asians have a uniquely intimate grasp of it given their literal and geopolitical proximity to wasteโs various forms and journeys. Supplementing a tracing of the worldโs waste through the region, this analysis also makes use of contemporary waste scholarsโ insight (Hird 2025, Corvellec 2025) that the presence of waste is a means through which knowledge of the repressed, stigmatized, and taboo parts of culture are made possible, and the way such evaluations result in an ordering of the world that divides objects and peoples between what must be saved and what must be expelled โelsewhereโ (Armiero 2021). Through the entanglement of these various strands of thought, this investigation asks how the various communities of Southeast Asia imagine the place of waste in their present lives (theirs, not theirs, or all of ours), and how the answer to such might impact our general understanding of the precarities of the present and the close(d)ness of their consequent apocalyptic futures.
๐๐๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐จ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ก๐ฆ
๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐น ๐ฅ. ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ is a Filipino poet, scholar, and translator. He finished his PhD in Comparative Literature at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, with a dissertation on nonhuman comparative poetics. He is currently teaching literature and creative writing at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he earned his AB-MA in Filipino literature. His first book ๐๐ด๐ข๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต ๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฏ (Ateneo de Manila UP, 2022) received the Philippine National Book Award for literary criticism and cultural studies. His translation of Jaya Jacoboโs ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ด๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ด: ๐๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ด (PAWA P and Paloma P, 2024) was a finalist in the 37th Lambda Literary Awards for transgender poetry. He was among the inaugural winners of PEN Presents x International Booker Prize for his on-going translation of Alvin Yapanโs ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐บ๐ฆ (๐๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ช ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐จ๐ข ๐๐ข๐ต๐ข; Ateneo de Manila UP, 2006).
๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด ๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด is currently a lecturer with the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is interested in pursuing the question, โWhat are Asians thinking?โ and to what extent could these kinds of thinking and thoughts be potentials for decolonial options to other ways of doing, thinking and being in todayโs world. She pursues these potentialities through her research interests, including Southeast/Asian knowledges and imaginations of โotherwiseโ and futurities from the margins that hold space for nonhumans (e.g. technologies, ghosts, monsters, spirits, plants and animals, etc.). She enjoys thinking about these through contemporary art, film and literature, music and sounds and whatever that may be considered funny, quirky or strange.
๐๐น๐บ๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฎ is Associate Professor and Director of the MA in Intercultural Studies Programme at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His second monograph, ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ (Fordham UP, 2023), traces the vernacular film, print, and visual cultures of capitalism, modernity, consumerism, and spectatorship in Manila and Singaporeโs lost popular commercial and leisure spaces under colonial occupation in the 1930s, national development in the 1960s, and neoliberal globalization in the 2000s. His work has appeared in the ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ข ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ข ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ-๐๐ด๐ช๐ข ๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ: ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ด๐ช๐ข๐ด, ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ฉ ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐๐ด๐ช๐ข ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ด๐ช๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด. With Brian Bernards, he is co-editor of ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ-๐๐ด๐ช๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ: ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ, ๐๐ฐ-๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐จ (Routledge, forthcoming). He is a Member of the Delegate Assembly of the Modern Language Association and the Executive Committee of its Southeast Asian and Southeast Asian Diasporic Forum.
๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ป๐ฎ is a lecturer at De La Salle University-Manila whose research focuses on the intersection of ecocritical history, climatic tropes, and the possible regional solidarities that might spring from these concerns. She has presented her research at both local and international conferences, and published her work with journals such as ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข ๐๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ, ๐ฆ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค, and ๐๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ข: ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ด๐ช๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ. She obtained her PhD degree from the University of Western Australia in 2023, where she was also a recipient of the Paul Laffey Memorial Prize and the Patricia Crawford Research Award in History. Her monograph, tentatively titled ๐๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐๐ญ๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ 19๐ต๐ฉ ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด, is forthcoming with Routledge in 2027.
๐๐๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ข๐ก๐๐๐ก๐ง๐ฆ
๐๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ teaches Philippine literature and ecocriticism at the Ateneo de Manila University. He led an Arete Sandbox Residency group that commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Typhoon Haiyan through grassroots and multi-sectoral podcast conversations in the Eastern Visayas. His research work deals with literature, film, and environmental humanities which are available in ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ถ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ฆ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค, ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฌ๐ข ๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข, and ๐๐ข๐ง๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช.
Holder of a PhD in languages and literatures from the Universitรฉ Libre de Bruxelles. ๐๐ผ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐น๐๐ป ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐ป is Associate Professor at the Universitรฉ catholique de l'Ouest (UCO), Angers, France, where she co-manages its Masters in Conflict and Mediation in its Faculty of Humanities. She researches on Culture, Memory, and Trauma Studies in Southeast Asia; on postcolonial literature, the politics of listening, diaspora, Translation Studies, the environmental humanities, and the vernacular, among others. In the last year, her publications appeared in ISEAS Publishing Singapore; ๐๐ถ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, Cambridge UP, and ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฌ๐ข ๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข. Her forthcoming book chapters in 2026 discuss the environmental humanities and photography (De Gruyter Brill); dignity and forgetting (Parole et Silence); and the Indonesian massacre of 1965 (Presses universitaires de Rennes).
๐๐๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐๐ ๐๐จ๐๐ง๐จ๐ฅ๐
๐๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฌ๐ข ๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข is acknowledged by a host of Asian and Asian American Studies libraries and scholarly networks and indexed in the MLA International Bibliography, Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Clarivate), Scopus, EBSCO, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs (ICCTP). Read KK issues and learn about submission guidelines and events on https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk or email the editors at [email protected].
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