Professor Deirdre McKay
- Title
- Professor of Sustainable Development
- Location
- William Smith Building: WS 1.28
- Role
- Senior Internationalisation Director
- Phone
- (+44) 01782 7 33601
- d.c.mckay@keele.ac.uk
Biography
I joined Keele in January 2008. Previously I held appointments as Postdoctoral Fellow and then Research Fellow in the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. My first degree, BA (1st Hons) Biology, was granted by Dalhousie University (Canada) in 1989. I obtained a Master's in Environmental Studies (1993), also from Dalhousie, and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of British Columbia (1999). My graduate studies involved work with Canada's international development agencies - CIDA and the International Development Research Centre - as both field researcher and intern. My position in Australia involved a research collaboration with the Australian Agency for International Development.
Research and scholarship
My research draws on both social/cultural geography and social anthropology to explore people's place-based experiences of globalisation and development.
I do fieldwork in the global South and also with migrant communities from developing areas who have moved into the world's global cities. Much of my work has been conducted with people who originate in indigenous villages in the northern Philippines.
Empirically, I am interested in the long-distance relations that connect outmigrants to their sending communities, changes in local livelihoods and the possibilities for locally sustainable, alternative economic development, and environmental degradation linked to migration as well as the kinds of social networks and relationships they build through migration.
To explore these empirical themes, I engage theories of personhood, subjectivity, and cultural economic approaches to understanding economic development.
Current projects
- Impact event at B Arts for the Being Human Festival
- Lead for Private aid and social media theme at http://newtontechfordev.com/
- CI for https://www.beyondmyself.net
Past Projects
- 2011 - 2014 Indiana University Press/Mellon Foundation (€11,287)
Fellow, Framing the Global Publication Project for monograph, Archipelago of Care - 2012 - 2013 ASEASUK/British Academy (€2,979)
The Traffic in Things: How Indigenous Filipinos Appropriate Material Remittances - 2011- 2013 with Dawson, Lau, and Knight, Higher Education Academy UK (€26,581)
Reading the World: Innovative Strategies for Building Textual Skills in the Curriculum - 2011- 2013 with Perez, P., as RA British Academy (€8,866)
Everyday Objects: the Making and Un-making of Filipino Crafts as Art - 2007 - 2010 Werbner, P. and Johnson, M. with D. McKay as named Senior Research Fellow
Diasporas, Migration, and Identities Programme, AHRC, UK (€821,087)
In the Footsteps of Jesus and the Prophet: Sociality, Caring, and the Religious Imagination in the Filipino Diaspora - 2003 - 2008 Gibson, K., McKay, D., McWilliam, A. and Robinson, K.
Australian Research Council with AusAID (€610,123)
Negotiating Alternative Strategies for Regional Development, Indonesia and the Philippines
Current Postgraduate Supervision
2017 - Lei Xiaoyu, PhD, Human Geography - Creative arts and plastic waste
2015 - Zahid Mughal, PhD Human Geography - Cosmopolitanism in Hong Kong
Past Advisees
Kenneth Masowo, PhD Social Policy (2012 – 2018)
Dynamics of community participation in develpment: Evidence from practice in Botswana
Stephanie Moore, MPhil Human Geography (2013 - 2018)
Why differentiate day visitors? Lessons for managing tourism in the Peak District National Park
Dr Denry Machin, PhD Social Policy (2013 - 2016)
The hybrid professional in international educational leadership.
Dr. Juliette Hallaire, PhD Human Geography (2010 – 2014)
Constructing Maritime Geographies: The Pragmatic Mobility of Senegalese Fishermen
Dr. Michael Fabinyi, ANU Anthropology (2004 – 2009)
Fishing for Fairness: Poverty, Morality and Resources in the Calamianes Islands, Philippines.
Dr. Hannah Bulloch, ANU Anthropology (2004 - 2009)
In Pursuit of ‘Progress’: the cultural-politics of development on Siquijor Island, Philippines
Dr. Michelle Carnegie, ANU Geography (2003 - 2008)
Place-based livelihoods and post-development challenges in eastern Indonesia
Dr. Jessica Weir, ANU, Resource and Environmental Studies (2004 -2008)
Cultural flows: an ecological dialogue with traditional owners from along the Murray River
Dr. Martina Jaskolski, ANU Geography (2003 - 2008)
Envisioning Balinese futures: engaging local and global discourses of 'sustainability' in secondary education.
Dr. Katharine McKinnon, ANU Geography (2000 - 2004)
Locating Post-development Subjects: Discourses of Intervention and identification in the Highlands of Northern Thailand
Dr. Catharina Williams, ANU Geography (2000 - 2003)
Maiden Voyages: Eastern Indonesian Women on the Move
Teaching
Year 1
- GEG - 10013 Human Geographies
- ESC - 10041 People and the Environment and ESC-10066 Climate Change - the Scientific and Social Context
Year 2
- GEG - 20009 Research Training (module lead)
- GEG - 20009 Singapore Fieldtrip
- GEG - 20049/50 Representing the World
- GEG - 20010 Practical Human Geography
Year 3
- GEG-30016 Economic Development and Environmental Transformation (module lead)
Postgraduate
- GEG - 40006 Economic Development and Environmental Transformation
Ambient Surveillance
Ambient Surveillance: How Care-for-control emerges across diasporic social media
The Conversation
Deirdre's May 27th item (Debt bondage, domestic servitude and indentured labour still a problem in the world’s richest nations) can be viewed here
The virtual meets reality
The virtual meets reality: Policy implications of e-diasporas
An Archipelago of Care
Archipelago of Care info pdf (with discount code from Combined Academic Publishers)
"Deirdre McKay takes a novel approach to key concepts undergirding globalization and transnationalism today – citizenship, surveillance, and security. She makes us think differently about the negotiation of belonging in a digital and hyper-securitized age."
(Jennifer Burrell, author of Maya After War: Conflict, Power and Politics in Guatemala)
"… a powerful critique of the limits of state-based articulations of belonging, responsibility and entitlement."
(Meghann Oromond in Ageing and Society)
"a distinctive perspective on global processes, and a valuable addition to the growing literature incorporating emotion into understandings…. of migration."
(Katherine Charsley in The Feminist Review)
An "impact" video from the book
Global Filipinos; Migrants' Lives in the Virtual Village
"A unique and important study that adds a refreshing and necessary reminder that, on the most fundamental level, a village is part of the global world."
(Nicole Constable, author of Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Migrant Workers)
"A luminous, elegant, and well-argued multi-sited ethnographic study."
(Martin F. Manalansan IV, author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora)
"The problems of overseas Filipino workers with loneliness; long absences from spouses, children, and other relatives; abuse by employers and governments; and efforts to use their time and talent to further individual opportunities are understood easily in McKay's monograph. The photos of her Filipino informants... add a human touch to the topic of overseas workers.... Recommended." —Choice
Selected Publications
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2017. Plastic masculinity: How everyday objects in plastic suggest men could be otherwise. Journal of Material Culture. doi> link> full text>
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2017. Sent home: mapping the absent child into migration through polymedia. Global Networks. doi> link> full text>
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2021. Plastics talk/talking plastics: the communicative power of plasticity. In Plastic Legacies Pollution, Persistence, and Politics. (12 vols.). Athabaskan University Press. doi> link> full text>
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2022. Towards framing the global in global development: Prospects for development geography. AREA, 185-194, vol. 54(2). link> doi> full text>
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2021. Comment on "Five Misperceptions Surrounding the Environmental Impacts of Single-Use Plastic". Environ Sci Technol, 1339-1340, vol. 55(2). link> doi> full text>
Full Publications Listshow
Books
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2016. An Archipelago of Care: Filipino Migrants and Global Networks. (9 vols.). Bloomington: Indiana. link> full text>
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2012. Global Filipinos. Indiana University Press.
Journal Articles
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2022. Towards framing the global in global development: Prospects for development geography. AREA, 185-194, vol. 54(2). link> doi> full text>
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2021. Comment on "Five Misperceptions Surrounding the Environmental Impacts of Single-Use Plastic". Environ Sci Technol, 1339-1340, vol. 55(2). link> doi> full text>
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2020. On global plasticity: framing the global through affective materiality. New Global Studies, 307-326, vol. 14(3). doi> link> full text>
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2020. Decorated Duterte: Digital Objects and the Crisis of Martial Law History in the Philippines. Modern Languages Open. doi> link> full text>
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2020. Properties of wood composite plastics made from predominant Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) plastics and their degradability in nature. PLOS ONE, e0236406, vol. 15(8). doi> link> full text>
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2019. Citizen aid, social media and brokerage after disaster. THIRD WORLD QUARTERLY, 1903-1920, vol. 40(10). link> doi> full text>
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2020. Ambient Surveillance: How Care-for-control Emerges across Diasporic Social Media. ETHNOS, 309-326, vol. 85(2). link> doi> full text>
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2017. Plastic masculinity: How everyday objects in plastic suggest men could be otherwise. Journal of Material Culture. doi> link> full text>
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2017. Sent home: mapping the absent child into migration through polymedia. Global Networks. doi> link> full text>
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2017. Sent home: mapping the absent child into migration through polymedia. Global Networks. doi> full text>
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2011. MEDIATED DIASPORAS: MATERIAL TRANSLATIONS OF THE PHILIPPINES IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD Introduction. SOUTH EAST ASIA RESEARCH, 181-196, vol. 19(2). link> doi> full text>
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2010. Rethinking the dynamics of rural transformation: performing different development pathways in a Philippine municipality. Transactions at the Institute of British Geography. doi>
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2010. A Transnational Pig: Reconstituting Kinship Among Filipinos in Hong Kong. ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 330-344, vol. 11(3-4). link> doi> full text>
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2010. A Transnational Pig: Reconstituting Kinship Among Filipinos in Hong Kong. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 329-343, vol. 11(3-4). doi>
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2010. On the Face of Facebook: Historical Images and Personhood in Filipino Social Networking. History and Anthropology, 479-498, vol. 21(4). doi> full text>
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2009. Performing economy differently: Exploring economic personhood and local economic diversity. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 330-346, vol. 20(3). link> doi> full text>
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2009. Rethinking Indigenous Place: Igorot Identity and Locality in the Philippines. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 291-306, vol. 17(3). doi> full text>
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2008. Ghosts of Futures Present: Photographs in the Filipino Migrant Archive. Visual Anthropology, 381-392, vol. 21(4). doi> full text>
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2007. Strengthening Community Economies: Strategies for Decreasing Dependence and Stimulating Local Development. Development Bulletin, 60-65, vol. 72. full text>
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2007. 'Sending Dollars Shows Feeling' - Emotions and Economies in Filipino Migration. Mobilities, 175-194, vol. Volume 2 issue 2(2). doi> full text>
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2007. Translocal Subjectivities: Mobility, Connection, Emotion. Mobilities, 167-174, vol. 2(2). doi>
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2007. Strengthening Community Economies: Strategies for Decreasing Dependence and Stimulating Local Development. Development Bulletin, 60-65, vol. 72. full text>
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2007. Translocal Subjectivities: Mobility, Connection and Emotion. Special Issue of Mobilities, vol. 2(2).
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2006. Introduction: Finding ‘the Field’: the Problem of Locality in a Mobile World. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 197-202, vol. 7(3). doi> full text>
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2006. Translocal Circulation: Place and Subjectivity in an Extended Filipino Community. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 265-278, vol. 7(3). doi> full text>
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2006. Place in Motion: New Ethnographies of Locality in the Asia-Pacific. Special Issue of The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 197-202, vol. 7(3).
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2006. Rethinking Indigenous Place: Igorot Identity and Locality in the Philippines. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 291-306, vol. 17(3). doi>
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2005. Practices of place-making: Globalisation and locality in the Philippines. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 89-103, vol. 46(2). doi> full text>
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2005. Migration and the Sensuous Geographies of Re-emplacement in the Philippines. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 75-91, vol. 26(1-2). doi> full text>
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2005. Reading remittance landscapes: Female migration and agricultural transition in the Philippines. Danish Journal of Geography, 89-99, vol. 105(1). doi> full text>
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2005. Rethinking Locality in Ifugao: Tribes, Domains and Colonial Histories. Philippine Studies, 459-490, vol. 53(4). doi> full text>
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2004. Negotiating Alternative Economic Strategies for Regional Development. Development Bulletin, 46-50, vol. 65.
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2003. Cultivating New Local Futures: Remittance Economies and Land-use Patterns in Ifugao, Philippines. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 285-306, vol. 34(2). doi> full text>
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2001. Beyond Heroes and Victims: Filipina Contract Migrants, Economic Activism and Class Transformations. International Feminist Journal of Politics,, 365-386, vol. 3(3). doi>
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2001. Migration and Masquerade: Gender and Habitus in the Philippines. Geography Research Forum, 44-56, vol. 21. full text>
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1995. Gender, Trees, Tenure: Land-use Priorities and Gender Ideology in Community Management in Ifugao, Philippines. Journal of Business Administration, 143-155, vol. 22(23).
Chapters
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2021. Plastics talk/talking plastics: the communicative power of plasticity. In Plastic Legacies Pollution, Persistence, and Politics. (12 vols.). Athabaskan University Press. doi> link> full text>
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2020. The Philippines–Hong Kong Migration Corridor. In Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development. (55 vols.). Taylor and Francis. link> link> full text>
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2015. Subversive Plasticity. In The Social Life of Materials Studies in Materials and Society. Drazin A and Kuechler S (Eds.). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
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2015. Sending dollars shows feeling. In Mobilities. Routledge.
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2015. Diverse economies, ecologies and ethics: Rethinking rural transformation in the Philippines. In Making Other Worlds Possible Performing Diverse Economies. Roelvink G (Ed.). Minneapolis: Minnesota.
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2014. Affect. In Framing the Global Entry Points for Research. Kahn H (Ed.). (1st ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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Sustaining livelihoods: mobility and governance in the Senegalese Atlantic. In Waterworlds. Peters K and Anderson J (Eds.). Farnham, Kent: Ashgate.
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2010. Sacred Journeys, Diasporic Lives: Sociality and the Religious Imagination Among Filipinos in the Middle East. In Diasporas. Knott K and McLoughlin S (Eds.). Zed Books.
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2009. Building Community-based Social Enterprises in the Philippines: Diverse Development Pathways. In Building Community-based Social Enterprises in the Philippines: Diverse Development Pathways. Amin A (Ed.). Zed Books.
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2009. Sacred Journeys, Diasporic Lives: Sociality and the Religious Imagination Among Filipinos in the Middle East. In Diasporas: Concepts, Identities, Intersections. Knott K and McLoughlin S (Eds.). Zed Books.
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2008. Just Act Natural: The Making of Apocalypse Now. In The Flip Reader. Zafra J (Ed.). Anvil Publishing.
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2007. Identities in a Culture of Circulation: Performing Selves in Filipina Migration. In Asian and Pacific cosmopolitans: Self and Subject in Motion. Robinson KM (Ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. full text>
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2007. Locality, Place and Globalization on the Cordillera: Building on the Work of June Prill-Brett. In Cordillera in June. Diliman, Quezon City : University of the Philippines Press.
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2005. Success Stories?: Filipina Migrant domestic Workers in Canada. In Asian women as transnational domestic workers. Huang S, Yeoh BSA, Rahman NA (Eds.). Times Academic Press,Singapore.
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2002. Filipinas in Canada: Deskilling as a Push Toward Marriage. In Women in Motion: Asian Marriage and Migration. Piper N and Roces M (Eds.). New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
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2002. Negotiating Positionings. Exchanging Life Stories in Research Interviews. In Feminist geography in practice: research and methods. Moss P (Ed.). Wiley Blackwell.
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1999. Philippine Postcards: Representations of Ethnicity on the Philippine Cordillera Central. In Identités, Territoire et Environnement en Asie du Sud-Est. Dery S, Matthews B, Nagata J, De Koninck R (Eds.). Québec: Group d’Études et de Recherches sur l'Asie Contemporaine, Université Laval.
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1997. Representing the Filipina: Comments on the Contemplacion Case. In L’Asie du Sud-Est Face a la Mondialisation. De Koninck R and Veilleux C (Eds.). Québec: Group d’Études et de Recherches sur l'Asie Contemporaine, Université Laval.
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1995. Invisible Women, Swidden Farmers: Gender Ideology and Agricultural Transition. In Managing Change in Southeast Asia. Dibernardi J, Forth G, Niessen S (Eds.). Montreal: Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies.
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1993. On Field Research in the Philippines: Some Personal Reflections. In Windows on the World. McAllister I (Ed.). Halifax: Pearson Institute for International Development.
Other
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2011. Intimate Encounters: Filipina Women and the Remaking of Rural Japan. link>
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2011. Marketing Dreams, Manufacturing Heroes: The Transnational Labor Brokering of Filipino Workers. link>
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2011. Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World. link>
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2011. Things Fall Away: Philippine Historical Experience and the Makings of Globalization. link>
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2008. Crossing the neoliberal line: Pacific rim migration and the metropolis. link>
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2007. Edited Collection: Translocal Subjectivities: Mobility, Connection, Emotion. doi>
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2006. Edited Collection: Place in Motion: New Ethnographies of Locality in the Asia-Pacific.
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2005. Global Experience in Tribal Land Issues: Customary Land Rights and Indigenous Peoples in Australia and the Philippines. full text>
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2004. Asia’s domestics: Risks and Opportunities.
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2004. Everyday Places: Philippine Place-Making and the Translocal Quotidian. Everyday Transformations: the Twenty-First Century Quotidian: Proceedings of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA) Perth: Cultural Studies Association of Australia and Curtin University. (electronic publication).
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2004. Filipinas in Canada: Deskilling as a Push towards Marriage. link>
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2004. Performing Identities, Creating Cultures of Circulation: Filipina Migrants between Home and Abroad. In R. Cribb (Ed.). Asia Examined: Proceedings of the 15th Biennial Conference of the ASAA. Canberra: Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) & Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS), the Australian National University (electronic publication).
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2003. Reading Remittance Landscapes: Female Migration and Agricultural Transition in the Philippines. In R. Wadley, O. Mertz & AE. Christensen (Eds.). Proceedings of the International Conference, Danish University Consortium on Environment and Development – Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED-SLUSE) and the Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (pp. 321-340, vol. 2). Local land Use Strategies in a Globalizing World: Shaping Sustainable Social and Natural Environments.
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2002. Filipina Identities: Geographies of Social Integration/Exclusion in the Canadian Metropolis (with the Philippine Women Centre, Vancouver.).
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2000. Landscapes of globalization: human geographies of economic change in the Philippines. link>
Presentations
2017
2016
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment
William Smith Building
Keele University
Staffordshire
ST5 5BG
Tel: +44 (0) 1782 733615
School email: gge@keele.ac.uk