MMSU to host 2007 Nakem Int’l Confab
SCHOLARS, academicians, and cultural and community leaders will gather this summer at the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) as the school will host the 2007 Nakem International Conference on May 22-25 at the university’s main campus in Batac, Ilocos Norte. This year’s conference will run with the theme: “Panagpanaw ken Pangindeg—Exile and Settling in Ilokano and Amianan History and Culture.” Rationale of the conference The said conference aims to bring into focus the various critical practices of the Ilokanos and the people of Amianan and abroad and reflect on these critical practices under the prism of the nexus of global cultures. Moreover, it intends to reflect on the urgent need to affirm minority cultural and linguistic rights in the face of the hegemonic positioning of dominant cultures, languages, and critical practices; and draw up a dynamic discourse on the need to articulate the silence in the narratives of struggle and survival of the Ilokanos and the people of Amianan. According to Dr. Raymund Ll. Liongson, assistant professor at the Arts and Humanities Division of the University of Hawaii (UH)-Leeward Community College, Nakem means mature thinking, critical consciousness and sensitivity. It connotes self-knowledge, social awareness, ethical standards, societal expectations and communal responsibility. “It spells out what makes us human and brings out the humane in us,” Liongson explained. And this, he said, is the core of Nakem’s vision that will be translated through studies on the power of culture, on the potential for language and literature to move people into action, and on the need for advocacy for the cultural, heritage and linguistic rights of minorities. Host and venue The Nakem Conference is under the auspices of the Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literature’s Ilokano and Philippine Drama and Film Program (IPDFP) of the UH at Manoa (UH-M) in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is a collaborative program with other higher learning institutions, organizations and individuals in the United States, Philippines and other countries. It commenced in 2006 at the UH in Manoa and was participated by hundreds of scholars, cultural workers, creative writers, academics, and civic and political leaders from the State of Hawaii, United States Mainland, Philippines, Australia, Japan, Canada and New Zealand. This year’s conference venue was approved and scheduled by the joint technical panel of MMSU headed by President Miriam E. Pascua and UH-M’s IPDFP headed by Dr. Aurelio S. Agcaoili during the MMSU-UH Joint Administrators’ Conference held at UH in November 2006. It can be recalled that MMSU has a standing Memorandum of Agreement with UH and the joint administrators’ conference was the initial step towards the implementation of the agreement. The organizers believe that it proper an fitting that the Nakem Conference will go back to its roots in consciousness, culture and creative potential with “the Ilocos and Amianan as both territorial and psychic spaces.” Its going back to the Philippines, they said, is a semiotic gesture demanded by the obligation to remembrance, memory and memory-making, and the power to instill in the cultures’ and communities’ “virtual and physical” to keep the creative collaborative anito alive. Call for collaborators, partners, volunteers and sponsors Various organizations, academic institutions, individuals and cultural leaders are invited to take part as collaborators, partners, volunteers and/or sponsors in this historic conference as it is going to be the first time that it will be held in the Philippines after its inauguration in the United States. Those interested to join as collaborators, partners, volunteers and/or sponsors in their individual or organizational capacity can contact the respective chairs of the joint Philippines and United States panel: for the Philippine panel: Dr. Alegria T. Visaya at atvisaya@yahoo.com; for the United States panel: Dr. Aurelio S. Agcaoili at aurelioa@hawaii.edu or at nakemconference@yahoo.com. The Nakem website at philippinesonline.org/nakem can also be visited for postings and updates regarding the event. Conference costs A fee of P2,000 will be collected from each participant at the start of the conference. This will cover registration, conference kit, meals and snacks, and other incidentals. The amount does not include lodging costs. There are, however, lodging facilities inside and outside the campus that charge minimal fees. Registration Interested individuals and organizations can pre-register via philippinesonline.org/nakem. They can also call Dr. Alegria T. Visaya at mobile number 0919-502-4767 or email her at her mentioned address. Registration committee chair Dr. Ninfa S. Asia can also be contacted at mobile number 0906-443-3824 or emailed at ninfaasia@yahoo.com. Both can be reached also at landline number (077)-793-3507 loc. 134. Emile Kathleen M. Aguilar, Contributor
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