Projects
Following Rice: Agrarian Transformation in the Central Luzon Rice Corridor (2022—)
Dissertation research examining how the Philippines transformed from rice exporter to the world's largest rice importer between the 1980s and 2019. Tracing the political economy of rice through Central Luzon—Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Metro Manila, and Pampanga-Tarlac—using visual ethnography, archival research, and interviews with farmers, organizers, and policymakers. The project asks: what happens when a nation abandons its agricultural base?
PSONA (2025—)
Each July, tens of thousands march through Manila for PSONA—the People's State of the National Address—burning effigies, blocking highways, facing police lines. This long-term project documents the scale, organization, and persistence of anti-imperialist struggle in the contemporary Philippines. Shot from within peasant movements, building an archive year by year.
2025–ongoing.
Balik: A Diasporic Return (2024—)
A visual ethnography project on displacement, return, and belonging. After 22 years away, I returned to the Philippines for two seven-week trips (2024, 2025)—reuniting with family, conducting dissertation research, and navigating the insider/outsider positions of diaspora. The work explores what it means to come back to a place you're from but never fully belonged to, and how research becomes entangled with personal reckoning. In development as an artist book.
In progress
[View Work in Progress →]
JDPOD (2024—)
A political education podcast where revolutionary theory meets public scholarship. Co-hosted with Nate Lattanzio, JDPOD breaks down complex global dynamics in the Marxist traditions of the Third World, making rigorous theoretical perspectives accessible beyond the academy. The project serves as a counter-institution—scholarly work in service of the people and the struggle for liberation.
Kilig (2025–)
A live music journal centering POC artists and live music scenes in Los Angeles and beyond. Named for the Tagalog word kilig, which escapes direct translation but describes a feeling of elation and exhilaration (think butterflies in your stomach, that electric rush of joy). The project seeks to capture that energy: the kilig of being present at a live show, the collective exhilaration of performance and community. Combining photography, editorial writing, and artist features.
[Visit Kilig—>]
The Fire Hummingbird (2025)
Collaborative art installation created by Adrián Arias for Burning Man 2025, selected as an Honoraria Project. Inspired by ancestral traditions and Día de los Muertos, the pyramid structure with luminous hummingbird created an intimate gathering space for song, storytelling, and connection with ancestors. I served as collaborating artist, contributing to construction, installation, facilitation, and photographic documentation during the week-long event.