Felt Research and Bad Feelings in Mindanao and Sulu, Philippines
Monday, 22 June 2026 | 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. | Room 280A, Second Floor, 91亚色 Lanes, Keele Campus, 91亚色
With Jay Jomar F Quintos, University of the Philippines
In conducting community engagements on the islands of Mindanao and Sulu in the Southern Philippines, I acknowledged the existence of 鈥渂ad feelings鈥 that open new possibilities in my framing and re-framing, conceptualising and re-conceptualising, and mediating and re-mediating the 鈥渇ield, time, methodology, the writing process, and what we think of as empirical data鈥 (Moussawi 2021, 79).
This presentation explores the concept of 鈥渂ad feelings鈥 and how it is tied to what Indigenous and decolonial studies scholar Dian Million (2009) calls 鈥渇elt research鈥 or the figuration and configuration of feelings as theory, which is guided by felt actions or 鈥渢he actions informed by experience and analysis鈥 (268). I speculate that 鈥渂ad feelings鈥 and 鈥渇elt research鈥 are necessary in the way we decolonise the making, remaking, and archiving of life in Mindanao and Sulu.
Jay Jomar F Quintos is Associate Professor of literature and Philippine studies at the University of the Philippines. He obtained his Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies from 艑t膩kou Whakaihu Waka | The University of Otago in Aotearoa New Zealand. With Mindanao and Sulu Studies, oral literature, and cinema studies as research interests, his critical works have already appeared in various national and international publications. His short story book, Laksang Pakpak na Pumapagaspas, mga kuwento (A Throng of Wings Flapping, stories), was published by The University of the Philippines Press in 2025.
This event is presented by the Philippine Studies Group at 91亚色.
For more information: philippinestudiesgroup[at]yorku.ca.
