Green Education Festival to be held at DLSU Manila

MANILA, Philippines -“Towards a Green Education in the Philippines and Asia Pacific: Perspectives, Pedagogies, Performances (Metro Manila Leg)” will be held on Oct 24-26 at De La Salle University (DLSU), Manila.

This festival comprises three main components: colloquia, teaching workshops, and performances. It seeks to gather together teachers/educators, scholars, artists, researchers and social practitioners in the Philippines and Asia Pacific, providing them a forum to discuss ideas and strategies on the conduct of environmental engagement in the humanities and social sciences classrooms of HEIs (higher education institutions).

Its two-fold aim is (a) to encourage the humanities and the social sciences courses to re-examine their vital connections to people, cultures, and places beyond the walls of the university and (b) to transform the learners of today into critical mass and innovative forces that work together towards a green, productive, and sustainable future.

The keynote speakers are: Dr. Francisco Benitez, president of Philippine Women’s University, on the topic “The Sustainable Humanities: The Humanities Education as Specie of Ecology”; and Dr. Hiko Tamashiro, professor of Hokkaido University, on “The State of Knowledge Regarding the Environment and Teaching as Potent Venue for Designing Transformative Courses and Educational Paradigms.”

The colloquia for the Metro Manila Leg deal with two specific themes: art imagining the future; and local myth as environmental discourse, media and the environment.

Speakers for the colloquia include: Arch. Paulo Alcazaren; poet Merlie Alunan; Australian poet Stuart Cooke; Spanish visual artist Paloma Polo; Thai social scientist Kanang Kantamaturapoj; screenwriter and anthropologist Ramon Felipe Sarmiento; and media communication specialists Gregg Yan and Christopher Ng of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines).

The facilitators for the workshops on teaching the environment in the humanities and social sciences are: Daylinda Banzon-Cabanilla (ethnographies of nature), Remmon Barbaza (philosophy of environment), Antonio Contreras (environmental politics), Dennis Erasga (sociology and environment), Dennis Gonzalez (nature as divine art),and Lars Raymund Ubaldo (history and environment).

This project is organized by the DLSU Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Resources and Development, the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center, and the Behavioral Sciences Department, and sponsored by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia and the DLSU Office of the President.

Registration fee is P4,000 ($125). It covers conference badge and kit, admissions to festival activities, meals, and certificate of attendance. Registration does not include travel and accommodation.

For inquiry or pre-registration, please call BNSCWC (632) 5244611 local 233; email bnscwc@yahoo.com; mobile +639175287491; or Facebook Dlsu Bnscwc.