'Toy napigket nga daga
Pitpitenmi nga umuna
Danggayanmi't kankanta
Takkiagmi a napigsa
Kettang ken bannogmi
dikam igingina 

     Mannamili
     Ilokano Folk Song

Sessions, Topics, Themes, and Workshops

·         Ilokano Studies, Amianan Culture, and the Universities from the Regions: Prospects and Possibilities. A general panel discussion on the critical theoretical frames to be taken in the systematization of Ilokano studies and its context in Amianan and national culture. An inquiry on the role of the universities from the regions in the pursuit of both Ilokano and Amianan studies.   

·        Narrating Narratives—Ilokanos in History. Theoretical, philosophical, and empirical inquiries on the narratives of exile. An Exploration on the site of stories of the history of the Ilokanos, the history of Ilokano and Filipino diaspora, and the strategies of Ilokanos and Filipinos in reclaiming their own history from other histories.

·         Navigating Layered Identities. The quest for identity, the coming to terms of the demands and hidden energy of binationality and multilayered identities; the unique Filipino American experience of the Ilokanos; the struggles of the immigrants shuttling through a variety of cultural reference points.

·         Diaspora: Ilokanos in the Last Hundred Years. A critical inquiry on the centennial of Ilokano experience of migration and exile. Focus on the sakada experience and how this experience formed an epistemology of struggle for a better life.  

·         Nexus of Cultures. Posits a rethinking of the context of Ilokano studies by providing a context of how cultures are produced in a broader frame by including its surrounding cultures as part of its concentric nature of accounting meaning and the truth of cultural and social experience.

·         Language as a National and Global Resource. An inquiry on the nature of languages, the nature of immigrant languages, and an analysis of such languages in terms of their social function and their being part of the resource of the nation and the other nations where such languages are found, spoken, used in the conduct of their speakers’ everyday lives. 

·         Cultural Advocacy for Ilokano Heritage Language and Culture. A reframing of language as part of a heritage and thus forming a core in the cultural life of a people, either as migrants, as in the case of Ilokanos in the diaspora, or as Ilokanos in the homeland beset with the problems of a colonial and neocolonial experience, with the problems of globalized way of thinking and doing about things, and with the problems related to the hegemonization of national experience via the national language at the expense of the languages and cultures from the regions. 

·         Trends and Methodologies and Critical Perspectives in Ilokano Studies. An exploration on the various ways by which Ilokano studies had been conducted by various scholars; critical appreciation learned from these inquiries and scholarships, and a rethinking of applicable methodologies and critical practices in the pursuit of Ilokano studies. 

·         Domestic Violence and Related Health and Legal Issues. A reading of the health and domestic issues confronting Filipinos, women in particular, in migrant/immigrant communities. Stories about women and empowerment, women and development, women in development form part of this panel. Consequences of domestic violence and other domestic issues.

·         The Politics of Ilokano Culture. Revisits the political ground in which Ilokano culture has been produced, invoked, and produced in the many aspects of the everyday life of the Ilokanos both in the Philippines and in the immigrant communities. Rethinks as well the reality of culture in Ilokano politics and the consequences of such a culture that has remained unchallenged for a long time.

·         Filipinos in Politics:  The Ilokano Perspective. Explores, presents, and analyzes the dynamics of political life in the both the inner and outer Ilocos throughout history, with an emphasis on trends in contemporary political life of the Ilokanos as they participate in national politics. Looks into the political roles of Ilokanos in the diaspora and exile and assesses such participation in the last 100 years.    

·         Ilokano Language Teaching in the Sciences. Points to pedagogic directions, orientations, and testing, using the first language of learners in the teaching of mathematics and the sciences. Pushes for a validation of the view that knowledge is best gained and information is best utilized when such are mediated by the first language of the learners. Reviews experiments conducted by teachers using this approach and epistemic frame. 

·         Testing and Measurement in Language Education. Explores the current practices in testing and measurement in language education in the Philippines and/or abroad. Accounts how contemporary principles in languages testing apply to Ilokano language education. Reviews experiments in measuring minimum learning competencies in language education, with a focus on the teaching of heritage languages of the Philippines. 

·         Lexicography. Explores the dialectic of dictionary writing, the history of Ilokano lexicography, and the approaches used in the recent Ilokano dictionaries.  

·         Ilokano Linguistics. Presentation of new studies on Ilokano grammar, issues on syntax, problems in semantics, and the question of standardization. A critical review of various discourses and researches on Ilokano language the last 100 years.             

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·         Art Forms and the Production of Culture. A bigger view of Ilokano life and culture through a revisiting of other art forms from the indigenous to the high-tech.  A critical view of the Ilokano e-zine culture, the blog culture, and the website.

·         Ilokano Women and Ilokano Writing.  A surfacing of the Woman’s Voice in Ilokano writing. Women and literature, women in literature, and a literature of Ilokano women writing or women writing in and from Ilokano.

·         Ilokano in Media.  A survey, exploration, exposition, and critique of Ilokano as used in the various mass media. An evaluation of the language component of a specific medium such as radio advertisement or print. An appreciation and evaluation of Ilokano as used in other mass media.

·         International Trade Relations:  Hawai`i and Ilocos Regions. Presents the economic, business, trade, and commercial relations between the State of Hawaii and the various communities in the Ilocos including Cagayan Valley and the Cordilleras. Analyzes the impact of such a relation in terms of cultural and social changes. Proposes policy recommendations to improve such a relation. 

·         Art As Activism. Looks into the discursive and political purposes of art in the last 100 years particularly those art forms that have been used to advance certain causes and ideological directions. Evaluates such “progressive” art forms in the context of the history and the cause of advancing social justice and human liberation.

·         Ilokano Theatre in Hawai`i and Ilokano Playwrights.  History of Philippine theatre in Hawaii in the last 100 years.  Production and staging styles, theatre groups and playwrights in the Ilokano theatre scene. Observations on the traditional and modern forms. Intersection of social history of migration and theatre in Hawaii. Ilokano theatre as history and the history of Ilokano theatre in Hawaii. 

·         Filipinos in the Judicial System.  Gives an expose of the role of Filipinos in the judicial system of the United States. Evaluates the roles of these Filipinos in the advancing of Filipino pride, cultural identity, social cohesion, nation building in the adoptive land, and immigrant rights.

·         Ilokano and Ilokanos in Public Schools.  Exploration of programs for teaching Ilokano in public schools. The role of ELL in bringing students into the educational mainstream. Focus on pilot projects in Hawaii public schools. Presents the role of diversity and minority access and achievement programs in opening opportunities for higher education.

·         Theatre in the Classroom: From Concept to Performance. (Workshop) Revisits the need to explore various teaching strategies in language teaching including the use of drama and its related forms in an effort to account both the functionality of language through the accounting of communicative situations and the accounting of the aesthetic possibilities of such situations. 

·         Creative Writing in Ilokano: From Idea to Paper (Workshop). Introduces the concept of creative writing, the possibilities of language awareness technique in the imagining and writing of a literary material, the production of linguistic tensions and metaphors, and the writing of the creative literary piece that makes sense. 

For submission of conference paper abstracts, email Prof. Precy Espiritu, precy@hawaii.edu;
Dr. Aurelio Agcaoili, aurelioagcaoili@yahoo.com; or the Nakem Conference Secretariat, nakemconference@yahoo.com.

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Nakem Centennial Conference Secretariat
E-mail: nakemconference@yahoo.com or precye@aol.com
Phone:  808-956-8405.  FAX:  808- 956-5978
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