EUC welcomes Professor Joseph Palis as a scholar-in-residence from the Department of Geography at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Palis specializes in cultural geography, media geographies, island and archipelagic geographies as well as film and music geographies. As part of his residency in Toronto, he will undertake research on Filipinos in diaspora and their conceptions of transnational homespace.
He recently presented a seminar on 鈥(Re)imagining islands, island worlds, and archipelagoes through narratives and discursive cartographies鈥 initiating conversations on challenging and (re)imagining islands, island worlds, and archipelagoes through a discussion of inter-island connectivities, emerging and emergent island/archipelagic narratives, and discursive cartographies. Palis' presentation used a Filipino-Canadian film titled which tells the stories of the lives of diasporic individuals living in a foreign territory and their (re)construction of familiar homespaces.
EUC undergraduate student Laurel Scott interviewed Joseph Palis to get to know more about his visiting scholarship at 91亚色.
What do you hope to accomplish during your visit to 91亚色 and the City of Toronto?
As a scholar-in-residence at 91亚色-EUC, I will be sharing my research to the faculty, students and members of the diasporic Filipino community in Toronto. I will be gathering data for my research using the geo-narrative mapping methodology in eliciting responses on topics such a creating fictional cities, geographies of hope, among others.
What issues or problems does your work address?
As a broadly-trained cultural geographer, I am interested in exploring the capabilities of mapping that gives voice and agency to individuals and groups. This involves the use of storytelling that assist in visibilizing tiny narratives in the lives of people in diaspora. Or in the case of my research, focusing on Filipinos who now reside in Canada and the tension of identity and interculturation within shifting geographical spaces.
What impact has your work had outside of academia?
My research has been used to map the needs and responses of people in the urban and rural setting in the Philippines. These people come from various sectors, situations, sensibilities and worldviews. Some of the cultural data gathered from people with disability, the aging population, and the youth sectors were used to generate guidelines in the community that aim for inclusiveness in decision-making as well as addressing the needs of people who do not belong to the majority.
In your studies of media geographies and cultural expressions like music, and film, how do these art forms influence how people perceive and interact with their environments? To build off the last question, because your research delves deeper into the intersections of geography, culture, and media, how do you see these mediums shaping or reshaping contemporary understanding of space, place, and identity?
My doctoral training focused on geographies of media, specifically in the articulation of the slippery slope of national identities through the filmic and cinematic. Like film, music as a media text can be explored to analyse not only the textual but also the political economies involved in the distribution, circulation and consumption of film and music media products. In recent years, the focus has shifted on the multiple platforms that produce music and film for mass consumption, yet place-based events are still important when, say a film or music festival become markers that define or brand a city, or a region. This in turn accrues music or film a value through their success in the festival circuit, or what Liz Czach calls 鈥榗ritical capital鈥 (after Bourdieu鈥檚 cultural capital). Consumers still drive the way products are produced for mass consumption.
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is Professor of Geography and International Studies at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, where his teaching and research are in the fields of cultural geography, media geographies, geo-humanities, counter-cartographies, island and archipelagic geographies, and film and music geographies. He currently co-edits the Palgrave Macmillan Pivot Series on Geographies of Media.
Palis completed his PhD in Geography at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and has served as both Director of the Third World Studies Centre and as Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of the Philippines. His most recent publications include a co-authored article on (2024); a co-authored book chapter on (2024); a co-edited book on (2024) and (2023); (2022), among others.