Event

Please join us for a presentation by ASAM Fellow Vernon Wells, who will share their research on neocolonialism's impact on Indigenous Filipino lifeways. Lunch will be provided for all registrants!

Abstract: U.S.-sourced multinational investment in the Philippines has proliferated in the past five decades as neoliberal deregulatory policy has diffused across the globe. Scholarship has located this phenomenon within an ongoing colonial experience: neocolonialism, in which a former colony still experiences indirect economic and political pressures exerted by a former imperialist state. As the geopolitical ties between the U.S. and the Philippines remain close as a result of their recent imperial relationship, this project examines how IndigenousFilipino(IP) lifeways have been impacted by multinational development, such as mining, deforestation, and plantation mono-cropping. Through what modalities have IPs articulated their desire for ancestral domain? And to what end does decolonization help realize land sovereignty despite legacies of U.S. political, military, and financial occupation?

Bio: Vernon Wells is a junior from Maine studying Anthropology and Sociology with a minor in Asian American Studies. As a diasporic Filipino student, they are interested in Filipino political movements and the role of Indigenous Filipinos in transnational politics. At Penn, they are involved in the ASAM UAB, Penn Philippine Association, Southeast Asia Working Group,QPOC, and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows. Vernon can often be found cooking, composing and producing music, or going on extensive walks.

Please RSVP here and join us in person  or  join us by Zoom here  ID 979 2192 3830

ASAM will take pictures of this event for social media and archive proposes, please let us know in advance or during the event if you don't want to be photographed.