Dialogo II: 2027 International Philippine Studies Conference

A Filipino story can travel far. But the question is what it gives up along the way. That is the question I am bringing to the Philippine Studies Conference in Auckland.

The conveners of Dialogo II accepted my paper. The conference runs on 18 and 19 February 2027 at the Sir Paul Reeves Building of Auckland University of Technology, in Aotearoa New Zealand. Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand. Philippine Studies is the academic field that looks at Philippine history, culture, and society, including the lives of Filipinos overseas.

The theme this time is “(Re)imagining the Global Filipino: Roots, Knowledges, Communities, and Collective Futures.” So the fit was easy to see. My work sits right there, between roots and reach.

What I am bringing to the Philippine Studies Conference

My paper is titled “From Filipino Roots to Global Resonance: A Cultural Intelligence Framework for Filipino Content Creators.”

Filipino films, television, and online content cross borders every day now. So creators feel a quiet pressure. To reach more people, many of them copy Western storytelling habits and sand down whatever feels too local. But that trade costs too much. It treats cultural specificity as a problem to fix, when it is often the reason the work is worth watching. That is where my paper for the Philippine Studies Conference begins.

The paper offers another route. It uses the Culturally Intelligent Storytelling Bamboo Framework from my book. The framework reads a story through four parts: StoryRoot, StoryCraft, StoryPulse, and StoryLeaf. Instead of asking creators to remove cultural difference, it asks them to make cultural meaning easier to enter. Because a story does not need flattening before other people can follow it.

Come and sit in, if you are in Aotearoa New Zealand

This Philippine Studies Conference is for the Filipino community and the wider public in New Zealand, because Auckland is where the conversation is happening. The venue is the Sir Paul Reeves Building at 2 Governor Fitzroy Place, Auckland CBD. Registration is open, and early bird rates run until 15 September 2026. The fee covers the conference kit and meals on both days.

The organisers have not announced my session time yet. So I will post it here once the programme comes out. Until then, the conference website and the Philippine Studies Network site carry updates as they come.