Founded in 1975, the CSC is recognized as the country’s pioneering local studies center. Over the past five decades, it has become a cornerstone in collecting, preserving, and interpreting Cebuano literature, history, and cultural heritage. Organizers say the upcoming roundtable will not only commemorate this legacy but also address the broader questions faced by regional research institutions in the digital era.

The event will open with welcome remarks from �������� President Fr. Francisco Antonio T. Estepa, SVD followed by a Guest of Honor address from National Historical Commission of the Philippines Chair Dr. Regalado Trota José Jr. National Artist for Literature Dr. Resil Mojares, the CSC’s founding director, is expected to deliver the keynote address and lay out the historical trajectory that shaped both the CSC and the wider landscape of local studies in the Philippines.

On the second day, Dr. Patricio Abinales of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa will deliver a special lecture that situates Philippine local studies within larger regional and global conversations, offering participants a broader analytical framework for understanding the role of local knowledge institutions today.

Roundtable discussions will focus on the evolution of LSCs over the past several decades, the unique challenges they face, and new opportunities for collaboration. Participating centers, representing Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, are expected to share their approaches to community engagement, digitization, archival preservation, and sustaining regional research in contexts where resources often remain limited. The organizers emphasize that although the centers vary widely in history, size, and mandates, they share a common goal of strengthening cultural memory and regional scholarship.

CSC director Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu will present updates on the Center’s current initiatives, including archival developments, publications, and partnerships that seek to extend the reach of Cebuano cultural materials to new audiences.

One of the gathering’s key objectives is the creation of a national working directory of local studies centers, intended to address the longstanding challenge of mapping and connecting institutions engaged in regional research. The roundtable will culminate in a collaborative panel, where participants will discuss a proposal for a national network and prepare a joint statement outlining shared priorities and strategies for future cooperation.

As the CSC prepares to enter its next fifty years, the event is expected to reinforce the Center’s leadership in regional cultural work and contribute to building stronger, more coordinated pathways for local studies across the archipelago.

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The conference entitled, “Food for Life: Lessons from the Garden” aims to tackle the multidisciplinary topic of Food and Cuisine within Visayan societies. 

Moreover, distinguished experts in Visayan food and food heritage will present and impart their knowledge about the rich and diverse culture of the Visayas with emphasis on food and other relevant topics.

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According to the Cebu City Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission, the award recognizes persons and institutions who have “contributed tremendously to the preservation and promotion of the city’s tangible and intangible heritage.” 

Upon the recommendation of the Commission, �������� was chosen as one of the awardees “for being the leading academic institution that has consistently contributed to the study, preservation and promotion of Cebu City’s heritage assets and resources.” 

The Commission considers ��������’s Cebuano Studies Center, Conservation of Heritage Studio and Workshop (CHERISH), and University Museum as playing important roles in heritage advocacy. 

Aside from recognizing persons and institutions, the Heritage Gala Night also paid homage to other stakeholders who went out of their way to ensure that the present and future generations will continue to advocate for the promotion of the city’s heritage assets and resources that go beyond five centuries of recorded colonial history.

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In a webinar entitled, “Gahi’g Ulo”? Deciphering Cebuano Culture and Society,” Dr. Zona Amper, Dr. Fiscalina Nolasco, Dr. Jobers Reynes Bersales, Dr. Nanette Lee-Mayol, Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu, and Roxanne Omega-Doron presented findings based on different research projects as well as fieldwork results from urban poor communities in Cebu to debunk the view that Cebuanos are hard-headed or ‘gahi’g ulo.’

Fr. Narciso A. Cellan Jr., SVD, who assumed only last month as �������� president, welcomed the webinar participants and set the tone by looking at how different cultures react to calamities and behave accordingly.

Dr. Bersales, director of �������� Museum, then followed by presenting headline news from SunStar Cebu and The Freeman as well as social media posts showing some Cebu City residents flaunting the government health protocols. He recalled a 1987 study conducted by Ateneo de Manila University which traced the strengths and weaknesses of the Filipino and asked whether these were still valid for Cebu 40 years later.

For her part, Dr. Amper, an anthropology professor and senior researcher at the �������� Center for Social Research and Education (CSRE), pointed to the sheer poverty and abject living conditions of nearly half the population in the city as the main reason why it is difficult to impose the nationally-mandated health protocols. Thus, when they are locked in for 15 days with free food delivered only for two days, people in these settlements have no recourse but look for ways of earning money.

Using statistical data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Amper presented the density of population per square kilometer in Cebu City’s top ten urban barangays. Many households in these barangays, according to her, do not even have toilet and sanitation facilities as well as potable water, much less vital space to practice social distancing.

Dr. Nolasco, CSRE director, on the other hand, looked at how mass hysteria may be one reason why many do not seem to follow protocols simply because they have no definite understanding of the pandemic. At the same time, she presented her study on HIV prevalence among sex workers in which there is sometimes a disconnect between a person’s knowledge about the risks of getting the virus and their actual behavior. She also pointed to the politics of care that has an impact on the delivery of services that needs to be studied closely.

Expounding further on the poverty situation in urban settlements discussed by Amper, Roxanne Omega-Doron, Executive Director of Diyandi Heritage Center, Inc., looked at the possibility of misbehaving as a form of protest. He also pointed to the leadership networks among urban poor residents which affect who they follow and obey.

Dr. Nanette Lee-Mayol, director of the �������� Office of Population Studies (OPS), presented findings in two on-going longitudinal studies conducted by her office, one starting in 1983 and continuing until 2030 on the same respondents. In these two studies she culled data of rule-breaking and found no significant difference respondents from Luzon down to Mindanao and between those living in Metro Cebu and Cebu City. Using a set of activities deemed rule-breaking, like texting while driving or involvement in fights after drinking, she saw only a very slight and insignificant difference between the data from Cebu City as against Metro Cebu.

The forum’s last speaker, Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu, director of the �������� Cebuano Studies Center (CSC), used a fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm to present a philosophical dimension to misbehavior and how it can be a form of protest but on dangerous grounds in the midst of the pandemic.

The webinar, aired through Facebook Live, was the first of a series hosted by the �������� Museum. Some 308 participants registered with over 350 viewers on the official Facebook page of . The next webinar, on the “Archaeology of the Visayas” by archaeologist Dr. John Peterson, will be hosted in the first week of August.

by Dr. Jobers Bersales, Director, �������� Museum

Tags: Museum, CSRE, Cebuano Studies Center, Office of Population Studies

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