Manila, Philippines: Narratives of Tradition and Resistance

Summary

**Note: New Scholarship available! All UC Berkeley students admitted to the program will automatically be awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Note this is in addition to the $1,500 BSA scholarship automatically awarded to students who are financial aid eligible whose EFC is less than $50,000.

Learn about Philippine history, culture, and society through interactions with Filipino people, as well as selected lectures by leading scholars in the Philippines. Students will be based at the University of the Philippines Diliman, the flagship campus of the national university system, and will go on field trips to farming communities, urban poor communities, the Cordillera mountain region, and more. The course asks: How can we learn about Philippine history, culture, and society? What makes “experiencing” the chanting of an epic, with its ever changing narrative, different from reading it as a “fixed” text in a book? What can we know about Filipino spirituality through the work of a tattoo artist from a Kalinga village? What can a contractual factory worker on strike tell us about the Philippine economy from his/her point of view? How can we understand the situation of Filipino peasants by witnessing/participating in field labor and hearing the songs they have written? This course brings students on a research trip to the Philippines to learn through interviews and interactions with Filipino people, as well as selected lectures by the Philippines’ leading scholars. Among the other topics to be explored are: the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) through the eyes of “comfort women”; indigenous knowledge, such as indigenous law, mathematics, and engineering in the Banaue rice terraces; health care and urban poor communities; and Martial law (1972-1986) memory and counter-memory from survivors of torture and detention. Highlights include:

• Program is based on the University of the Philippines flagship Diliman campus in Manila
• Excursions to visit and learn from indigenous communities the Cordillera mountain region, farming communities outside of Manila, factory workers and more.
• Consistent lectures from community organizations, artists, musicians, and leading scholars in the Philippines.

Dates:

• June 15 - July 21, 2024
• All dates are subject to change

Language of Instruction: English

Course:

For this program you would be enrolled in one course for 6 units:

• SEASN 154: Philippines: Narratives of Tradition and Resistance (6 units)

Requirements satisfied through this program:

• L&S International Studies Breadth
• Additional Breadths TBA
• Consult with your college/major advisor to see which degree requirements this course may fulfill.

Note: Requirements above must be satisfied through full participation (all courses must be completed with C-/P or better)

Eligibility:

• At least one year of college coursework completed by the start of the program
• 2.0 GPA or higher
• Must be 18+ years old at the time of application
• May not be on academic probation or under censure for student misconduct at any point from application review to the end of your program.

Housing:

• Students will live in student dormitories and rooms only with other registered program participants. There are two students per room. Please note that, due to in-country policies, students will be paired with roommates based on the gender listed on their passports. If you have clarifying questions, please feel free to reach out to the program staff at summerabroad@berkeley.edu. Meals are not provided on the program (except when on excursions, and occasional group meals) but there are cheap food options nearby. On the first week of the program, the faculty and staff will orient students to cheap food options.

Food:

• Lunch is provided daily on the program. Meals are also provided during the excursions/field trips. Additionally, there are cheap food options nearby. On the first week of the program, the faculty and staff will orient students to cheap food options.

Application:

• Application opens February 1, 2024
• Space is limited and applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis
• Deadline to apply is March 13, 2024
• Please note: there is one additional program-specific statement question on the application for SA Philippines. This question will appear on the application itself.

Courses

During the program, you will take one course for a total of six UC Berkeley units.

Course: South and Southeast Asian Studies 154

Title: Philippines: Narratives of Tradition and Resistance

Instructors: Joi Barrios, Cynthia Agnes C. Aban, and Karen Llagas

Units: 6 units

How can we learn about Philippine history, culture, and society? What happens, for example, if we are able to “experience” the chanting of an epic, with its ever-changing narrative, instead of just reading it in a “fixed” text in a book? What can we know about Filipino spirituality through the work of a tattoo artist from a Kalinga village? What can a contractual factory worker on strike tell us about the Philippine economy from his/her point of view? How can we understand the situation of Filipino peasants by witnessing/participating in field labor and hearing the songs they have written?

The course brings students on a research trip to the Philippines to learn through interviews and interactions with Filipino people, as well as selected lecturers by the Philippines’ leading scholars. Among the other topics to be explored are: the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) through the eyes of “comfort women”, indigenous knowledge, such as mathematics and engineering in the Banaue rice terraces; healthcare and urban poor communities; and Martial law (1972 - 1986) memory and counter-memory from survivors of torture and detention.

Requirements satisfied through this program:

• L&S International Studies Breadth
• Additional Breadths TBA
• Consult with your college/major advisor to see which degree requirements this course may fulfill.

Note: Requirements above must be satisfied through full participation (all courses must be completed with C-/P or better)

Course enrollment:

Summer Abroad staff will enroll you in courses after your acceptance to the program. Please make sure there are no active blocks on your student account that may impact your course enrollment.

Costs

**Note: New Scholarship available! All UC Berkeley students admitted to the program will automatically be awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Note this is in addition to the $1,500 BSA scholarship automatically awarded to students who are financial aid eligible whose EFC is less than $50,000.

The fees to participate in this program are broken down into 1) tuition and 2) program fees, which are applied to your student billing account as follows:

Fees are subject to change. All non-Berkeley students must pay an additional Document Management Fee of $68.

Estimated Out-Of-Pocket Expenses

In addition to the fees outlined above, Berkeley Study Abroad has estimated amounts for out-of-pocket expenses. These amounts are used to calculate financial aid packages for eligible students. Actual expenses will vary depending on your lifestyle and spending habits.

It is your responsibility to obtain any necessary travel documentation for your program destination (i.e. passport, visa, etc). This may require you to pay fees of up to a few hundred dollars depending on the type of paperwork required.

Financial Aid

Financial aid is available for Berkeley students who are enrolled in at least 6 units during the summer.  Students can request a financial aid package estimate to understand what their individual financial aid package will look like. We recommend all financial aid eligible students request a financial aid estimate.

​​Requesting a financial aid package estimate: If you wish to receive a financial aid package estimate, please fill out this form (CalNet Authentication required). You will receive an email with your financial aid estimate (please allow a minimum of one week for response).

If you have a specific question about a study abroad financial aid issue you are encountering, please email TravelAid@berkeley.edu. Please do not email to request a financial aid estimate, these requests should be made using the form above. 

All other students should contact the financial aid office at their home institution for more information.

Explanation of Fees

Tuition is based on a per unit cost:

• The UC undergraduate student rate is $419 per unit
• The visiting student rate for all non-UC participants is $595 per unit

The program fee includes the following items:

• Student housing & some meals (see summary tab for more details on the housing and which meals are provided)
• Excursions and program related activities including transport to Cordillera mountain region and more, entry fees to local museums, historic sites, etc.
• On-site orientation activities
• Travel insurance, including accident/sickness medical coverage, emergency medical evacuation, security extraction, and other travel assistance services
• Other program-related costs including fees for placement services
• The $300 deposit. If accepted to the program, the $300 deposit will be applied towards your program fee. If you are waitlisted or denied admission to the program, your deposit will be refunded. If you request to withdraw your application prior to an admission decision being issued, or cancel your participation after being accepted to the program, the deposit remains charged to your account. 

*Please note that the list of items included in the program fee is not all-inclusive and is subject to change.

The following items are excluded from the program fee and included in the Out of Pocket expenses estimate:

• International airfare
• Personal expenses (souvenirs, routine medical expenses, toiletries, etc.)
• Course materials (textbooks and readers) if applicable. You can contact the instructor of the course to clarify.
• Other travel expenses (passport, visa, etc.)
• Additional meals not covered by the program

Timeline

*The pre-departure orientation is mandatory and takes place on the UC Berkeley campus. If you are not on campus during this time, we will schedule a meeting via phone or Zoom.

†Students should plan to fly to the Philippines and check into program housing in Manila, Philippines on June 17, 2023. Students are expected to check out of program housing in Manila, Philippines on July 23, 2023. Students who arrive early or depart after the last day may do so, but they are responsible for arranging their accommodations outside of the program end date.

All dates are subject to change.

Instructors

Joi Barrios (Maria Josephine Barrios Leblanc)

Email: joibarrios@berkeley.edu

Professor Barrios serves as a continuing lecturer teaching Filipino and Philippine Literature at UC Berkeley. After completing her Ph.D. in Filipino and Philippine Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman, she taught at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies, UCLA, and UCI. She then returned to Manila to serve as Associate Dean of UP College of Arts and Letters and Coordinator of its Graduate Program. She is the author of several books, among them, two Filipino textbooks, the poetry collection "To Be a Woman is to Live at a Time of War," and her research, "From the Theater Wings: Grounding and Flight of Filipino Women Playwrights." She has won fourteen national literary awards and for her contributions to literature, was among the 100 women chosen as Weavers of History for the Philippine Centennial Celebration. In 2004, she also received the TOWNS (Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service) Award, and in 2016, the Balagtas Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature (Poetry in Filipino).

Cynthia Agnes C. Aban

Email: cacaban57@berkeley.edu

Professor Aban is a continuing lecturer at UC Berkeley for Filipino Beginning and Intermediate levels. She also co-teaches seminar courses on Filipino Spirituality, Southeast Asian Performing Arts and the summer course, Philippine Myths and Legends. She has presented in several language and arts conferences in the US and abroad: the 1st Salindunong International Conference (“Proficiency Assessment of Filipino as a Foreign Language”) on April 2018; the National Heritage Language Conference at UCLA; the Philippine Studies Conference at the University of Hawaii Manoa (“Beyond IdentityX Heritage Language Acquisition and Philippine Studies”); and the Malikhaing Guro (Creative Teacher) National Conference at the University of the Philippines Los Baños in Laguna, Philippines. She has authored 3 Preschool Skillbuilder Books, Read and Grow, Count and Grow, Explore and Grow for ICI International, all currently in use in preschools in the Philippines. At present, she is revising Colloquial Filipino; The Complete Course for Beginners for Routledge Publications, to be published in 2019. Chat Aban was a candidate for Ph.D. with a major on Clinical Psychology at the University of the Philippines-Diliman and earned her BS Psychology from the University of the Philippines-Baguio. An award-winning songwriter, musician, and performer with Ang Grupong Pendong (KATHA Best World Music Album), she also contributed songs for various recordings of the band, ASIN and Lokal Brown.

Karen Llagas

Email: karenllagas@berkeley.edu

Professor Llagas has taught Beginning and Intermediate Filipino classes (FIL1A/B and FIL100A/B); online Intermediate Filipino classes (FILW100A/B), as well as coX taught Freshman/Sophomore seminar courses on Southeast Asian Short Stories (S,SEASN 39, with Prof. Sylvia Tiwon) and a summer course on Philippine Myths and Legends (S,SEASN 120, with Maria Joi Barrios LeXBlanc and Cynthia Aban). Together with fellow Filipino teachers, she has coXcreated materials for the UC Berkeley’s Filipino classes online. In addition to teaching, she has been conducting her research on the use of folklore in contemporary Filipino and Filipino-American literature and on heritage language teaching. She is currently at work on a Tagalog verb book (501 Tagalog Verbs, with Tuttle Publishing), which will be an important resource for students learning Filipino/Tagalog. As a poet and essayist, she has been a recipient of a Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize, a Hedgebrook residency and a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize. Her first collection of poetry, Archipelago Dust, was published by Meritage Press in 2010. Her poems have appeared in Rhino Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, the anthologies Troubling Borders, An Anthology of Art and Literature by Southeast Asian Women in the Diaspora (University of Washington Press, 2014), The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010), Field of Mirrors, (PAWA, 2010), among others.