Vox Bikol Columnist to deliver Keynote Address in National Art Studies Conference

Tito Genova Valiente, a Bikolano public anthropologist and columnist of Vox Bikol, is one of the three speakers invited to deliver the keynote address in the 2^nd National Art Studies Conference on Feb. 18-19, in the Tambunting Hall of the National Museum. The other two speakers are Prof. Eufracio Abaya of the University of the Philippines-Diliman and Prof. Judy Freya Sibayan of the De La Salle University.

The theme of the conference is "New Directions in Art Studies and the Humanities." The conference seeks to engage a more varied and interdisciplinal focus by examining issues not just art writing but also pedagogy, art criticism and art production. Through the conference, the conveners also look to discussing emergent issues and generate new possibilities of engaging art studies and art history in the Philippine context.

Art historians, researchers, curators, artists and art administrators engaged in various art forms have been invited to send proposals.

Valiente is presently connected with Japanese Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University. He is co-editor with Dr. Hiroko Nagai, a Japanese anthropologist, of the book, Transnationalizing Culture of Japan in Asia. Dramas, Musics, Arts and Agencies , which was launched in October 2009 in Hanoi during the Second International Conference of the Japanese Studies Association in Southeast Asia. He is editing at present with Dr. Nagai a book on war as memory with the title Memories, Monuments and Media: Representations of Conflicts and Creation of Histories in Asia. Valiente also teaches Humanities this year in Ateneo de Naga University.