This lecture describes "Filipiniana Online" (Cultural Studies 250), a baccalaureate/postbaccalaureate course being offered by the University of the Philippines' Open University.  The course provides a virtual site for problematizing topics such as: Who is Filipino? What is “Philippine” about Philippine cultural practices? --- through politicized discussions on Philippine literatures, Philippine theaters, Philippine dances, Philippine arts, Philippine musical forms, Filipino movies, and "Pilipino Komiks."

The very structure of the course --- online discussions with four specialists on culture (national writers, artists, critics, cultural historians as well academics from any of the University of the Philippines System's seven other autonomous universities and other Philippine universities), as well as the course participants' individual projects and/or papers on one aspect of Philippine culture --- is designed to elicit active involvement of  the course participants in the re-constitution of his/her Filipino self, in answering questions about the “Philippine-ness” of our cultural forms and in re-negotiating traditional concepts of Philippine nation.  The course offers two additional sources for intelligent discussions --- the Filipiniana Reader a book collection of more than 40 historical and critical essays on Philippine culture, from the most canonical to the newest; as well as a Filipiniana CD containing additional write-ups on writers, artists, theater and other performing groups; audio clips and video clips of popular songs and movies; pictures of scenes from plays and other performances; images of paintings,  komiks, textiles and other cultural artifacts not otherwise accessible to participants. Filipiniana Online thus exposes the course participants to multiple, often heterogeneous, articulations of what is Philippine and who is Filipino.

Through this forum-like environment of Filipiniana Online, participants are able to network with people belonging to any of the Philippine's eight major linguistic groups, the many ethnic/regional communities living within the archipelago's 7,100 islands or Filipino enclaves around the world --- all bearing the inscriptions of their specific historical/political/social/cultural locations. The course structure/design thus allows the forum to be border-less.

Priscelina Patajo-Legasto, Ph.D. is a Full Professor of Comparative Literature at the Department of English and Comparative Literature (DECL), College of Arts and Letters (CAL), University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD). She teaches courses in literary, cultural, feminist and Marxist theory and criticism, Philippine theater history and post colonial studies.  Her publications include the Philippine Post Colonial Studies: Essays in Language and Literature (as editor and contributor; 2nd edition, UP Press, 2004), Filipiniana Reader: A Companion Reader of Filipiniana Online (as editor and contributor, UPOU, 1998), Sarswelang Pangasinan (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1996), and Prism of Literature  (as co-editor with Yolanda Tomeldan et. al., 1986).  In Fall 2005 she is a Fulbright Senior Visiting Scholar at UCLA.

Parking in UCLA's Lot 3 costs $8.

Cost : Free and open to the public.

www.international.ucla.edu/cseas/

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies