Dr. Conely de Leon’s research looks at transnational practices of care and emotional labour among Filipina migrant domestic workers and caregivers in Canada, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Her pedagogical and curricular commitments to the development of Pinay Peminist Studies as a discipline is further demonstrated through her collaborative work with various international institutions and organizations. Her work can be found in Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility, the first comprehensive anthology published on Filipinos in Canada. Her work can also be found in academic journals such as Canadian Woman Studies, and edited volumes such as Precarious Employment: Causes, Consequences and Remedies, and When Care Work Goes Global: Locating the Social Relations of Domestic Work.

Dr. Maria Cecilia Hwang completed her Ph.D. in American Studies at Brown University. Her areas of research include feminist theories, gender and sexuality, international migration, labor, and globalization. She is currently a Henry Luce Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Southeast Asian Studies at Rice University and will begin her appointment as Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at McGill University in Fall 2019. She has published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, International Migration Review, and International Labor and Working-Class History.

Dr. Marissa Largo is a researcher, artist, curator, and educator. She has a PhD in Social Justice Education from OISE, University of Toronto (2018). Marissa’s book manuscript, Unsettling Imaginaries: The Decolonial Diaspora Aesthetics of Four Contemporary Filipinx Visual Artists in Canada examines the work and oral histories of artists who imagine Filipinx subjectivity in excess to the racist and colonial discourses that persist. Her projects have been presented in venues and events across Canada, such as the A Space Gallery (2017 & 2012), WorldPride Toronto (2014), and MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) (2007). Largo is co-editor of Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginaries (Northwestern University Press, 2017) and a guest co-editor of the Beyond Canada 150: Asian Canadian Visual Cultures, a special issue of the Journal of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (Brill Press, 2018).

Dr. Melissa-Ann Nievera-Lozano’s research looks at the life histories of Filipina American scholars and how pivotal moments have made an impact on their teaching methodologies. In her research, there is an emphasis on how the private formations of race, class, gender and sexuality are part of a larger process of forming a personal and political identity as a Pinay scholar-activist. Through the lens of women-of-colour theory from a Pinay decolonialist standpoint, Dr. Nievera-Lozano’s work sees these social categories created by colonialism as equally important across contexts. Her writing illuminates Pinay confrontations with coloniality in the context of education systems and shows the impact of their epistemologies and its manifestations in their work as scholar- activists. Dr. Nievera-Lozano is a sessional instructor at San Francisco State University in the College of Ethnic Studies. She is an emerging scholar and will benefit from engaging with the established scholars invited.

Dr. Rose Torres is a Lecturer in the Social Justice Education Department at OISE/University of Toronto. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of Asian Canada; African Studies; Queer Studies; Anti-racism Education; Development Education; International Development; Indigenous knowledges and Anti-colonial Thought.

Alma M.O. Trinidad, born and raised on the island of Molokai in Hawai‘i, is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Portland State University. She brings an array of scholarly work and practice in community development and organizing, policy analysis, organizational culture and processes, and collective impact in the areas of health promotion and education among diverse communities. Her publications have focused on critical Indigenous pedagogy of place, youth empowerment, social determinants of health and education, participatory action research, and leadership and mentorship for social change and equity. She serves on several boards of community-based organizations and grassroots groups in addressing issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Mary Joan A. Guan or Jojo is the executive director the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), a research and training organization that is affiliated with the nationwide women’s organization GABRIELA.

Right after graduation from the University of the Philippines, she has been involved in people-centered, grassroots-driven development work. She has more than two decades of experience in advocating for human rights, in conducting research and education on issues concerning women, children, and other socio-political matters.

As a Filipino woman activist, she believes that the empowerment of women could best be achieved by consolidating the ranks of the working class women, uniting with the rest of the toiling masses, and working for international solidarity.

Advertisement