External Advisory Board - ReConnect/ReCollect

Dr. Stephen Acabado

Dr. Stephen Acabado is an anthropological archaeologist whose research focuses on Southeast Asian agricultural systems. He received my PhD in Anthropology from the University of Hawaii-Manoa in 2010 and was hired by the University of Guam as an assistant professor at the same year. In 2013 he joined the Department of Anthropology, University of California at Los Angeles. He directs the Ifugao Archaeological Project (IAP).

Dr. Acabado’s research continues to engage archaeological issues that focus on colonialism, culture contact, and Indigenous empowerment. Although the bulk of this research has emphasized the unique responses of the Ifugao, he has recently expanded his investigations of Iberian colonialism in Asia by theorizing how Filipinos responded and coopted the colonial aims. This work contributes to a better understanding of the Early Modern Period (EMP) (1400-1820) in Southeast Asia (SEA), a region that played a major role in the rise of European mercantilism in the 17th century. Ironically, this time period in SEA is poorly understood.

Dr. Oona Paredes

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Dr. Oona Paredes is an anthropologist and ethnohistorian who specializes in the study of Indigenous minorities in Southeast Asia. She is currently Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA’s Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. Prior to UCLA, she taught in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, and was appointed the inaugural Strom Visiting Professor in History at the University of Toronto in 2017.

Oona has been working with the same community of Higaunon Lumad on the island of Mindanao since 1994. For the past decade, she has been supervising the compilation of Higaunon oral traditions (panud) for the preservation of Higaunon language and cultural heritage. The compilation was published in 2023 under the title Su Panud Ta Baligiyan: Su Kasaysayan hi Apù Intampil daw su mga Otaw Gabi ha Anay ha Napuun ku Kalapaya ta Kalibutan (“The oral tradition of Baligiyan: The story of the ancestor Intampil and the people long ago who came after the flood”). In 2024 the book was adopted into the local Indigenous Peoples Education Program (IP Ed) of the Philippines’ Department of Education in Region X. Authored by the esteemed migpanud (chanter) Datu Limpukawan Budluwà Ansihagan, it is only the second book ever published entirely in the Higaunon language.

Oona’s most significant publications to date include: A Mountain of Difference: The Lumad in Early Colonial Mindanao (Cornell SEAP, 2013); “Custom and Citizenship in the Philippine Uplands,” in Citizenship and Democratization in Postcolonial Southeast Asia (Brill, 2016); and several journal articles including “Rivers of Memory and Oceans of Difference in the Lumad World of Mindanao” TRaNS (2016); “Projecting Order in the Pericolonial Philippines: An Anthropology of Catholicism beyond Catholics” TAJA (2017); “Preserving ‘Tradition’: The Business of Indigeneity in the Modern Philippine Context” JSEAS (2019); and “More Indigenous than Others: The Paradox of Indigeneity among the Higaunon Lumad,” Sojourn (2022).

She was born and raised in the Philippines, with ancestral Visayan roots in northern Mindanao.

Liza Posas

Liza Posas has been working with the Autry Museum of the American West since 2005. She currently serves as the Head of Research Services and Archives at the Autry. She received her Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) in 2002 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2003, UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) Libraries awarded her with a 2-year Library Residency designed to increase the diversity of the library profession and to encourage participation of underrepresented groups in academic libraries. In the last few years, she has concentrated in developing procedures and practices with her colleagues related to proper and ethical stewardship for collections that contain culturally sensitive information or restricted tribal knowledge.

In addition, she holds a part-time faculty position with the USC Libraries as the LA as Subject (LAAS) Coordinator. LA as Subject is a collaborative network hosted by the USC Libraries that works to promote and preserve the rich history of Los Angeles and Southern California. To this end, shee facilitates collaborative projects with different organizations and individuals within the LAAS membership. These projects include the LA as Subject Resident Archivist program, federally funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the “Monomania LA” video series funded by CalHumanties, and the annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar co-hosted with the USC Libraries.

Dr. Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador

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Dr Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne and serves on various advisory boards and associations. She has recently been appointed as a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis of the New York University. A member of the International Conservation Advisory Panel for National Heritage Board, Singapore, she is also a member of the ICOM Working Group for the Museum Definition, and Secretary of ICOM Asia Pacific Regional Alliance. She contributes to the upskilling and professionalization of Philippine museums as Conservation Advisor to the Central Visayas Association of Museums.

Dr Labrador has a PhD in social anthropology and museology from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Museum and Gallery Management from City, University of London. An accomplished author with extensive publications on social anthropology, preventive conservation, and art history, her latest work, “Art in Limbo: Logistical challenges, cultural differences, and the complications of collections access during the pandemic” which is a chapter in a book, providing an insight into the complications of organizing an exhibition consisting of artworks from abroad caught during the global lockdown. She is an editorial board member of several journals, including Museum International (Routledge), Museum Management and Curatorship (Routledge), and the International Journal of Sociomuseology (University of Lusofona, Lisbon).

Prior to her current roles, Dr Labrador served as Deputy Director-General for Museums at the National Museum of the Philippines and spent many years as an academic at the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University. She is among a few people who have a marine species named after her. The Drilliola labradorae (from the Family Turridae), about 18 mm long, were named and accepted by the international community in 2021, thanks to scientists Guido Poppe and Sheila Tagaro.

Joseph (“JoJo”) Ruanto-Ramirez

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Joseph Allen (“JoJo”) Ruanto-Ramirez (he/they) is Tuwali Ifugao (Lagawe, Ifugao), and Ilokano (San Esteban, Ilocos Sur) on his father’s side; and Tina-Hambali and Aballen Sambal-Ita (Dirita – Iba, Zambales), and Iranun (Maguindanao) on his mother’s side. JoJo is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Claremont Graduate University in Cultural Studies – American Studies, with his dissertation titled “Locating Igorot Americans: On Indigenous Space and Time in Diaspora.” They earned their Master’s in Sociological Practice from California State University, San Marcos and wrote their thesis titled, Locating Their Penis: Pilipino American College Male Performativity, Sexuality, & the “Bahag Syndrome”; and they earned their Bachelor’s from the University of California, San Diego. JoJo currently resides in San Diego, California on occupied Kumeyaay land. They are an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and Director of the Asian American Studies Program at Southwestern College, and a Visiting Professor in Asian American Studies at San Diego State University. They currently serve the role of Commissioner for Asian & Pacific Islander Relations for the County of San Diego Leon L. Williams Human Relations Commission.

Dr. Analyn Salvador-Amores

Dr. Analyn Salvador-Amores is professor of Anthropology and Director of the Museo Kordilyera, the ethnographic museum of the University of the Philippines Baguio. She is an anthropologist and continues to conduct research in the archives and museums in the US and Europe, reconnecting historical documents, archival photographs and material culture to source communities in Northern Luzon through digital repatriation. As a curator, she mounted exhibitions for the Museo Kordilyera since 2015 to the present: Batok (Tattoos): Body as Archive, Feasts of Merit: Wealth, Status, and Feasting in the Luzon Cordillera and the most recent one on Cordillera Textiles, entitled Handwoven Tales: The Warp and Weft of Cordillera Textiles. She is the Project Leader of the Cordillera Textiles Project (CordiTex) composed of an interdisciplinary team conducting research on traditional and contemporary textiles in Northern Luzon.

She earned her masters and doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology from Oxford University, UK. Her research interest includes non-Western aesthetics, material culture, ethnographic museums and colonial photography in the Philippine Cordillera. Included in her work is the award-winning book: Tapping Ink, Tattooing Identities: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Kalinga Society published by the University of Philippines Press in 2013 (National Book Development Award, 2013 and National Academy of Science and Technology, 2016). As a public service professor, she continues to engage indigenous communities in her work, and promoting indigenous knowledge in different platforms. She actively carries out anthropological fieldwork among the indigenous communities in Northern Luzon, and have published extensively on this subject.

Josephine (Arjho) Caturan Latimban Cariño Turner

Josephine (Arjho) Caturan Latimban Cariño Turner is an immigrant from the Philippines who currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, as a US citizen. Married and the mother of two young children, she is proud of her heritage belonging to the Blaan Indigenous Peoples group of south-central Mindanao.

Turner graduated with a BS in Agriculture majoring in Plant Pathology from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB) and later earned her Master’s degree in Environment and Natural Resources Management from U.P. Open University (UPOU). Recently, she was awarded the Public Leadership Credential (PLC) by the Harvard Kennedy School.

Before immigrating to the USA in 2006, she worked in the Sarangani Province as the Luntiang Lumad Project Manager. Following that role, she worked as the Indigenous Peoples Development Program Manager. She co-authored scientific research publications on the subject of traditional upland rice varieties grown in the hinterlands of Sarangani Province as part of a partnership with researchers and professors of Mindanao State University in General Santos City. As a cultural advocate and co-founder of the KafyeBlaan Empowerment, Inc., she created and maintained cultural advocacy websites and Facebook pages highlighting cultural masters and their skills transfer specific to Indigenous Peoples cultures from her home Region. She is currently engaged by the Philippine Senate Committee on Cultural Communities as a member of the Technical Working Group for the Community Intellectual Rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities and the Indigenous Peoples Act and the Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act. In addition to serving as a Member of the Board for three non-profit organizations, Turner is a business owner, Founder and CEO of ACT International Consulting, LLC, an educational consultancy providing online mentoring for leadership, program and project management and agile coaching. Currently, she is the Eduhubspot Program Manager for Southeast Asia Region.

Adelwisa L. Agas Weller

Adelwisa L. Agas Weller, sometimes known as “Deling,” turned 80 years old this year (2021). She taught Filipino Language and Culture and served as mentor to undergraduate and graduate student researchers of Philippine Studies at the University of Michigan (UM). She retired in 2006. Before then she taught courses in Public Administration and Social Research and Statistics while performing personnel and research administrative work at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Metro Manila. She had her undergraduate and a graduate degree from UP, and two graduate degrees from UM. A resident of Ann Arbor, MI since 1980, she has been active in Filipino/Filipino-American community building since coming here as a student in 1968.

James Beni Wilson

James Beni Wilson is an independent documentary filmmaker from Metro Detroit. His film, “BINITAY: Journey of a Filipino Adoptee,” tells the story of his journey as a Filipino adoptee in search of his birth story and birth family. His film has been shown at Harvard, Schoolcraft Community College, the Minnesota Transracial Film Festival, Philippine American Community Center of Michigan, and the Filipino Heritage Camp at Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families. His sequel documentary, Once Upon An Ochia, highlights the post-reunion relationship, sociocultural challenges, and collective narratives of his biological family.

James was born in the village Mábuli in Tabógon, on the island of Cebu, in the Philippines. He was transracially adopted at the age of three years old. He received his Bachelor of Science in Sociology at Arizona State University and is a Learning Assistant Coordinator at the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA). James is a Board Member and Youth Chair Liaison of the Filipino American Community Council of Michigan (FILAMCCO). He also serves as a Board Member of the Philippine American Community Center of Michigan (PACCM), Secretary of the Michigan Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHSMI). He was a past assistant director of Paaralang Pilipino (Filipino School) at the PACCM where he is also the lead facilitator and teacher for the Filipino Youth Initiative (FYI). He is also active in the larger Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) community. James serves as a Board Member for American Citizens for Justice (ACJ), which formed after the murder of Vincent Chin back in 1982. In 2013, James was awarded the “Rising Star” award by APIA-Vote Michigan for his dedication and leadership in the APIA community.

James utilizes his blog space, “Pathos of Asian Adoptees,” as a space for dialogue between Asian adoptees, adoptive parents, and larger communities. “Pathos of Asian Adoptees” serves as a hub for shared information about Asian adoption studies, culture, socio-historical and sociocultural context sociocultural context.

The External Advisory Board (EAB) is an essential component of the ReConnect/ReCollect project. Comprising nine members, including representatives from Filipino American organizations, community elders, and Filipino Indigenous People (IP) communities in the United States and the Philippines, the EAB provides invaluable guidance, expertise, and cultural context to ensure the project’s success.

The EAB’s key responsibilities include offering insights into Filipino cultural heritage, colonial history, and community perspectives, as well as providing feedback on project activities and methodologies. They help shape the project’s outcomes, facilitate connections with community organizations, and hold the team accountable for ethical practices. The EAB’s involvement ensures that the project remains culturally sensitive, accountable, and aligned with community needs, fostering trust and meaningful connections between academia and the Filipino communities it serves.