Officers & Board Members
2023-2024 (as elected by UGAT Board Members on 16 December 2023)
Randy T. Nobleza
Vice-President for Luzon
Randy is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Arts and Social Sciences, Marinduque State College. He is also the director of MSC Center for Language and Culture. He earned his undergraduate and Master’s degree at the University of the Philippines , taking up Philippine Studies. He obtained his PhD in Philippine Studies – Language, Culture, Media at De La Salle University.
Marjury E. Dino
Vice-President for Visayas
Gwyneth Vasquez
Vice-President for Mindanao
Gwen finished her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at the Ateneo de Davao University. Her research interests focus on the intersections between the digital divide, Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), and anthropology, with specific emphasis on the lived experiences of indigenous communities in Mindanao who recently gained access to ICTs
Doms Cordero
Secretary
Doms Cordero (they/them) is a graduating student from the Department of Anthropology in the University of the Philippines Diliman. Currently, they serve as convenor for PAMANA, the newly founded coalition of Anthropology-based student organizations. Their research interests move around local notions of gender, sexuality, and reproductive health, as well as intersections of art and ethnography.
Skilty Labastilla
Treasurer
Skilty is Instructor at Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Research Associate at the Institute of Philippine Culture. Since 2001, he has been involved in policy research on governance, children and youth, gender and masculinities, and housing and informal settlements.
Anthony John
R. Balisi
Board Member
Tuni is the Director for Programs, Policy, and Research at the National Book Development Board (NBDB). His current projects with the publishing sector include translation programs, rights management and rights selling initiatives, trade promotion initiatives, and intellectual property right management. The overarching goal to increase Philippine cultural and creative footprint within our country and worldwide.
Clarissa Ruzol
Board Member
Cla is a PhD Anthropology candidate at the London School of Economics. Their research explores how it is like to be a government bureaucrat implementing large infrastructure projects today. Aside from the anthropology of the state, bureaucracy, and infrastructures, they are also interested in the growing food sovereignty and agroecology movements in the Philippines and across the world.
Mark Francis Francisco
Board Member
Mark is currently the designated associate dean and quality assurance director of Colegio de la Ciudad de Zamboanga. His research interests and engagements focus on Sama-Bajau studies, Subanon and Chabacano culture and identity, and indigenous peoples and Bangsamoro education.
Eulalio R.
Guieb III
Board Member
Eli has research interests in political ecology, fisheries, marine protected areas, cultural studies, and the politics of representation. He teaches ethnography, development discourses, culture, identities, and qualitative research in the Department of Broadcast Communication and the Department of Graduate Studies of the College of Mass Communication in the U.P. Diliman.
Josef Adriel de Guzman
Board Member
“Jad” De Guzman is a PhD student at the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include migration, food and culture, and archaeology. His current research focuses on the eating habits of Filipino Migrant Workers in Hong Kong with the goal of understanding how migration influences diet and eating cultures. He likes taking photos in his spare time and is always spoiling his three rescue cats - Sammy, Cutiepie, and Nori.
Christian Rosales
Board Member
Christian A. Rosales is the first UPLB faculty member to receive the PSSC Virginia A. Miralao Excellence in Research Award. He conducts fieldwork among Indigenous off-grid communities in Mindoro and writes on cosmopolitics, ontology, and anarchy.
Alfred F.
Pawlik
Board Member
Alfred is Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Ateneo de Manila University and Director of the Anthropological and Sociological Initiatives of the Ateneo. His research interests include the prehistoric archaeology of Southeast Asia and Europe, the anthropology of hunter-gatherers, and the technological and sociocultural aspects of human adaptation and interaction with changing environments and ecosystems.
Thea Kersti C. Tandog
Board Member
Kert is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, U.P. Mindanao. They have a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the U.P. Diliman, a graduate diploma in Environmental Management and Development, and a Master's degree in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University. Their research interest revolves around the intersections of environmental issues and social justice.
Aileen E. del Rosario-Rondilla
Board Member
Aileen is a PhD student in Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include the anthropology of business organizations, enterprise development, finance & capital, critical cross-cultural management, business ethics, and kinship & gender. Her dissertation project problematizes small-medium-sized family businesses in the Philippines.
Melvin A. Jabar
Ex-Oficio - Executive Director
Melvin is a Full Professor of the Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences and the Director of the Social Development Research Center of De La Salle University-Manila. He obtained his Ph. D. in Asia Pacific Studies from the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, and his Master of Health Social Science from DLSU. He holds the PAGCOR Professorial Chair in Human Development and Tranquilino H. Valderrama Sr. Professorial Chair in Humanities.
Maria F. Mangahas
Ex-Oficio - Aghamtao Editor
Maria is Professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman Department of Anthropology. Her fieldwork has been on coastal and small-scale fishing communities (Batanes and Samal Island). She has also investigated the phenomenon of digitized 'scandals' and media piracy, as well as the history of Philippine anthropology. She was President of UGAT in 2014-2017.
Janine P. Ochoa
Executive Committee Member
Janine is an archaeologist interested in past faunal communities and human ecology, specializing in zooarchaeology. She is an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of the Philippines (Diliman). Janine is interested in investigating palaeoenvironments, biogeographic patterns, island evolution, and systems of indigenous ecological knowledge. She is currently studying fossil vertebrate assemblages from archaeological sites in Luzon and Palawan.
Jessie Varquez
Executive Committee Member
Jessie is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Manitoba in Canada. His research interests broadly fall within environmental anthropology, exploring the intersecting themes of livelihoods, food systems, and more-than-human relations. He currently conducts ethnographic fieldwork on Bantayan Island in central Philippines looking at human-dried fish relations. He is active in UGAT, serving different roles, since 2009.