Officers & Board Members
2024-2025 (as elected by UGAT Board Members on 18 December 2024)
P.A. Echague
Vice-President for Luzon
P.A. (she/her) is an early career researcher from Palawan who finished her Bachelor's degree in Anthropology at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her research interests include studying notions and intersections of bodies, ecologies, and care. She works in multiple sites in her home province and Metro Manila, organizing community-based projects, and co-creating stories.
Marjury E. Dino
Vice-President for Visayas
Amiel Lopez
Vice-President for Mindanao
Amyel is a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at Ateneo de Davao University. For nearly a decade, he has been engaging with the Sama Dilaut/Bajaus in Davao City and across the Philippines, bridging research and praxis as the co-founder of DYESABEL Philippines. His research interests lie at the intersection of climate change, education, queerness, urbanity, maritime studies, and Sama-Bajau culture. Beyond academia, he enjoys singing and is learning the art of freediving— both in water and in life.
Doms Cordero
Secretary
Doms (she/they) is an aspiring gender scholar who finished their bachelor's degree in Anthropology at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She serves as convenor for PAMANA, the newly founded coalition of Anthropology-based student organizations. Their current research projects are concerned with local notions of gender, sexuality, and reproductive health, as well as intersections of art, ecology, and ethnography.
Christian Rosales
Treasurer
Christian is the first UPLB faculty member to receive the PSSC Virginia A. Miralao Excellence in Research Award. He conducts fieldwork among Indigenous off-grid communities in Mindoro and writes on cosmopolitics, ontology, and anarchy.
Gwyneth Vasquez
Board Member
Gwyneth Marie Vasquez is an Advanced Masters student in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and an alumna of the Ateneo de Davao University’s BA Anthropology program. Her research focuses on the digital divide, ICTs, and development, with specific emphasis on Mindanao indigenous peoples’ encounters with commercial internet connectivity. Alongside her scholarly pursuits, she enjoys the company of nonhuman others—her cat, as well as the breathtaking ecologies of Mindanao and beyond.
Clarissa Ruzol
Board Member
Cla is a PhD Anthropology candidate at the London School of Economics. Their research explores how it is like to be a government bureaucrat implementing large infrastructure projects today. Aside from the anthropology of the state, bureaucracy, and infrastructures, they are also interested in the growing food sovereignty and agroecology movements in the Philippines and across the world.
Randy T. Nobleza
Board Member
Randy is an Associate professor at Marinduque State University (MarSU) College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS), was the former School Publication Head and Unit Director of the MSC Gender Advancement and Development. He is also an Independent Media Center Marinduque volunteer.
Eulalio R.
Guieb III
Board Member
Eli has research interests in political ecology, fisheries, marine protected areas, cultural studies, and the politics of representation. He teaches ethnography, development discourses, culture, identities, and qualitative research in the Department of Broadcast Communication and the Department of Graduate Studies of the College of Mass Communication in the U.P. Diliman.
Josef Adriel de Guzman
Board Member
Jad is a PhD student at the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include migration, food and culture, and archaeology. His current research focuses on the eating habits of Filipino Migrant Workers in Hong Kong with the goal of understanding how migration influences diet and eating cultures. He likes taking photos in his spare time and is always spoiling his three rescue cats - Sammy, Cutiepie, and Nori.
Janine Ochoa
Board Member
Janine is an archaeologist interested in past faunal communities and human ecology, specializing in zooarchaeology. She is an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of the Philippines (Diliman). Janine is interested in investigating palaeoenvironments, biogeographic patterns, island evolution, and systems of indigenous ecological knowledge. She is currently studying fossil vertebrate assemblages from archaeological sites in Luzon and Palawan.
Yeoh Seng Guan
Board Member
Daniel SG Yeoh is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the School of Arts & Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. He is an urban anthropologist who does fieldwork in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. His research focuses on the intersections between cities, religion, migration, and civil society in Southeast Asia. Daniel also makes ethnographic documentaries. He holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Thea Kersti C. Tandog
Board Member
Kert is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, U.P. Mindanao. They have a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the U.P. Diliman, a graduate diploma in Environmental Management and Development, and a Master's degree in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University. Their research interest revolves around the intersections of environmental issues and social justice.
Skilty Labastilla
Ex-Oficio - Executive Director
Skilty is Assistant Professor at Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Lecturer at the Sociology and Anthropology Department, and Research Associate at the Institute of Philippine Culture. Since 2001, he has been involved in policy research on governance, children and youth, gender and masculinities, and housing and informal settlements. His recent research deals with transdisciplinary collaboration in higher education.
Maria F. Mangahas
Ex-Oficio - Aghamtao Editor
Maria is Professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman Department of Anthropology. Her fieldwork has been on coastal and small-scale fishing communities (Batanes and Samal Island). She has also investigated the phenomenon of digitized 'scandals' and media piracy, as well as the history of Philippine anthropology. She was President of UGAT in 2014-2017.
Jessie Varquez
Executive Committee Member
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Jessie is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Manitoba in Canada. His research interests broadly fall within environmental anthropology, exploring the intersecting themes of livelihoods, food systems, and more-than-human relations. He currently conducts ethnographic fieldwork on Bantayan Island in central Philippines looking at human-dried fish relations. He has been active in UGAT, serving different roles, since 2009.
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Executive Committee Member
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