Decolonizing Philippine Linguistics: Where are we? Where can we go?

June 20, 2024

Francisco C. Rosario, Jr., Divine Angeli P. Endriga, and I gave a workshop on decolonizing Philippine linguistics in the recently concluded 16th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics (16-ICAL) held at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines. Here is the workshop description:

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in decolonizing the field of
linguistics; from letting minoritized languages inform grand linguistic theorizing to
more community based approaches to language work. This workshop aims to give
its participants the chance to join the discussion and chart how and where we can
contribute to decolonizing linguistics as practiced in the Philippines. We will give an
overview of the clear decolonial impulses in past work of the UP Department of
Linguistics. Participants will then be asked to reflect on and take stock of how their
respective HEIs (higher education institutions), government offices, advocacy
groups, etc. have done similar efforts at decolonizing language description,
language documentation, curriculum development, and instruction. The output of
this workshop will be a capsule project proposal that participants can bring back to
their institutions for possible future implementation.