Workshop on Reconstructing Philippine Politics Using Historical and Ethnographic Approaches

Philippine politics has long been described using a series of bad words. From the 1960s through the 1980s, these words were mostly cultural. Since about the 1990s, Philippine scholars have moved away from culture to describe politics in more structural terms. The keywords were different—patronage, political dynasties, corruption—but just as negative. These words are not just another way of seeing politics in the Philippines but the modal, if not, for many Philippine scholars, the only way of seeing it. These bad words are not just seen as good descriptions of Philippine politics but are naturalized, or taken for the reality of the country. They shape not only how Filipinos see politics but how they feel about it, and, by extension, how they feel about themselves.

We assembled a group of scholars around the need to look beyond “bad words” models and develop a more complex, dynamic, and hopeful picture of Philippine politics, and, from July 4-5, 2024, held a symposium on Reconstructing Philippine Politics at the University of Chicago’s Hong Kong Center. It was a huge success. Over the course of our discussion, we forged a common agenda and decided on a way forward. This July 11-12, 2025, we will be bringing the group together again but this time to workshop full papers with the goal of producing a coherent, potentially groundbreaking manuscript which we can then submit to the Ateneo de Manila University Press for publication.

Essential and Preferred Skills:

The RAs (1-2) will have substantive and administrative tasks. Administratively, the RAs will work with Angela Siu of the Hong Kong Center to organize the workshop, including day-of duties such as timekeeping and note-taking and day-after duties such as following up with participants. Substantively, they will debrief with the PI (Marco Garrido) to discuss the project before and after the workshop. They will be required to read all the papers. They may be asked, in consultation with the PI, to develop small projects that help amplify the impact of the endeavor.