Dr. Dada Docot, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Anthropology. (Facebook)
Vancouver, B.C.
Updated: 5:34 PM, July10, 2018
2nd Update: 6:47 AM, July 11, 2018
Docot graduates from the University of British Columbia (UBC)
By Ted Alcuitas
Dr. Dada Docot, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Anthropology, joins an increasing number of Filipino scholars in Canada after having successfully defended her thesis on July 8, 2018 at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
The oral exam was done via web conference from Shanghai where Dr. Docot is teaching as a Fellow at the New York University of Shanghai.
Docot’s thesis, ‘Anthropology of the Hometown, The Workings of Migration and Intimacy in the Town of Dollars, Philippines’, is an exploration of how migration and intimacy co-produce what is now called by its residents as “town of dollars.”
Her doctoral dissertation is based on her ethnographic fieldwork in her hometown of Nabua, Camarines Sur in Bicol, Southern Luzon.
“Nabua is known for the many male townsfolk who served in the United States Navy from the beginning of the 20th century until the closure of the U.S. bases in 1991, and sending dollars to their relatives were left behind. Generations of people from Nabua have been shaped by this migration and by the stories brought home of the “American dream.”
“Nabua has also been transformed by rapid globalization and neoliberal restructuring, resulting in the transformation and structuring of life, particularly of the majority of the non-migrating rural poor. Docot argues for the need to bridge discussions of the much-studied Filipino diaspora with the investigation of what occurs in the origin community of migrants, including how migration-oriented state imaginings impinge on the lives of the rural poor.”
Dr. Docot is the first Filipino recipient of the Government of Canada’s Vanier Awards. She co-founded the UBC Philippine Studies Series. In 2014, she was a visiting scholar at Oxford University’s Centre for Migration, Policy, and Society. She obtained her masters degree in Human Security Studies, Department of Anthropology at the University of Tokyo. A graduate of the University of the Philippines, she is a visual anthropologist whose works center on Filipino overseas migration. Her works has been shown in both academic and art environments including the Society of Visual Anthropology’s Film Festival, the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, the CaixaForum in Barcelona, The Red House Center for Culture and Debate in Sofia, Bulgaria, among others.
She is a former instructor at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in Manila.
The examining committee was chaired by Dr. Peter Boothroyd. Members of the Supervisory Committee were
Dr. Alexia Bloch, Research Supervisor (Anthropology), Dr. Geraldine Pratt (Geography) and Dr. Patrick Moore (Anthropology).
University Examiners were Dr. Leonora Angeles (Planning) and Dr. Leslie Robertson (Anthropology).
External Examiner was Dr. Martin Manalansan IV.