Eloisa May P. Hernandez, PhD, a professor at the UP Diliman (UPD) Department of Art Studies (DAS), has been elected as the first Filipino member of the Board of European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS).
According to the EuroSEAS website, it is “the world’s largest organization devoted to the study of Southeast Asia. Founded in 1992, it aims to stimulate scholarly cooperation within Europe in the field of Southeast Asian studies.” Its main activity “is the organization of a biennial international conference bringing together hundreds of specialists on Southeast Asia from all over the world.”
The elections were held on July 24 in the inaugural Southeast Asian Regional Meeting during the 13th EuroSEAS Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In this year’s conference, Hernandez presented the documentary film Maria by Sheryl Rose M. Andes in the film discussion Documenting Duterte’s Drug War. Maria is a 75-minute documentary first shown in Cinemalaya 2023, a Philippine independent film festival. It follows the stories of three women named Maria after the bloody drug war campaign of former Philippine president Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Other Filipinos at the conference were Weena Jade S. Gera, PhD, an associate professor at the UP Cebu College of Social Sciences; Director Maria Aubrey Villaceran of the UP Center for Women’s and Gender Studies; Julie Jolo, an assistant professor at the UPD Department of English and Comparative Literature; Executive Director Rosalie Arcala Hall of the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies; Mary Joyce Bulao of the Australian National University and an alumna the UPD Department of Political Science; Aaron Viernes and Micah Perez, assistant professors at the UPD Department of History; Frances Antoinette Cruz, an assistant professor at the UPD Department of European Languages; and Cynthia Grace C. Gregorio, PhD, a professor at the UPD Institute of Chemistry.
In her Facebook post, Gregorio said Hernandez has been “tirelessly foregrounding Philippine studies at the EuroSEAS conference since 2007 and more importantly, has managed to find space for the arts and humanities in this convergence of Southeast Asian and European scholars. The presence of Southeast Asian scholars in its board is indeed EuroSEAS’ genuine expression for inclusivity and brings all stakeholders on equal footing.”
In her email to UPDate Online, Hernandez states she attended EuroSEAS conferences in Naples, Italy (2007), Gothenburg, Sweden (2010), Lisbon, Portugal (2013), Vienna, Austria (2015), and Paris, France (2022).
Hernandez has a PhD (Philippine studies) and an MA (art history) from UPD. According to the DAS website, her research interests are film, popular culture, and Philippine art history.