Romeo Joe L. Quintero

Thesis title: “Longing for Homes Where Mangroves Used to Grow: Narratives of IDPs in Southern Philippines“

Description: The existing foundations of research on internal displacement are concerned with homelessness and joblessness, hunger, poverty, gender and sexual violence, and public health outbreaks. In addition, majority of Philippine literature on internal displacement is centered on the experiences of people who flee their homes because of a typhoon. My master’s thesis project, involving three months of ethnographic fieldwork using decolonial Filipino methodology and methods, is an exploration of armed conflict induced displacement in Zamboanga City (Mindanao, Philippines). Some of my findings from 11 research participants generate counter-narratives to their marginality and outside the western model of resistance. This includes the intentional performance of IDPs as vulnerable to become eligible for the resettlement housing project, and the performance of drag by a queer individual as a wayward practice of hope, including the ascription of religious homonationalism to protect herself from discrimination.

Supervisor: Amrita Hari