Help An Exiled Writer Finish PhD Research Project

 

 

About Me: The Researcher and the Writer in Exile

I am an exiled Filipino novelist, playwright, essayist, publisher, human rights activist, and researcher on nationalist tensions and ethnic conflicts in Southeast Asia. I am living in the UK since 2019 for my protection from the Duterte regime in the Philippines. I am being targeted by my own government since 2017 because of my works as a writer and as a human rights activist.

The UK is going to be my 'home' now for my safety while waiting for the status of my asylum case (and it's going to be two years of waiting in November 2021) and while it is unsafe for writers, journalists, rights defenders to live in Duterte Philippines.

 

You can read my entire story here .

As a writer and a playwright, I published two novels, a collection of short stories, and a book of plays before I left the archipelago in 2018. Some of my opinion essays appeared on several online platforms in the Philippines and my plays were performed in several venues in the archipelago.

I am enrolled on MPhil/Phd English and Humanities (practice-based Creative Writing: Novel) at the School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London. This is my first year and I am studying part-time because I cannot afford to study full-time and I can only work 20 hours a week with my restrictions while waiting for the decision on my asylum case. 

You can read about works on theatre, community, activism, and my current projects on my website here .

Waiting for the decision of my case and my life is in limbo - but I am pulling things together to have a semblance of at least a 'normal life' that was taken away from me by forced migration.

I am one of the 33,000 people waiting for an asylum decision for more than a year. In November 2021, my asylum case is two years old.  The Home Office allows me to work part-time and I am permitted to study while waiting for my decision. I use these limitations to be a productive member of my community and continue at least to live 'a normal life' while my life in the UK is in limbo.

Since 2019 I've been working part-time and volunteering in various charities providing services to migrants and campaigning for migrant rights and protection. Since January 2020, I started t write in the English language so I can continue writing for stage and to write my stories in exile. So far, I've written two full-length plays, a tv script, a short story, and my novel-in-progress in the English language since January 2020. 

Since 2020, while waiting for the decision on my asylum case, I am conducting creative writing workshops in migrants communities in London and in other parts of England (online). 

Click the link to watch the opening scene Miss Philippines, my play currently being commissioned by the New Earth Theatre under the Professional Writer Programme.  Miss Philippines of a poor community in Manila struggling to mount a gay beauty pageant in the middle of the extra-judicial killings under Duterte's 'War on Drugs ' campaign since 2016.  This is my first play written entirely in the English language. 

Why I am Crowdfunding: Forced Migration Should Never Be a Barrier to Participate in Knowledge Production

As an asylum seeker, I don't have access to public funds - and that includes applying for scholarships to support my studies and research endeavours. My university barred me from applying for a scholarship (to encourage BAME students to pursue PhD) because I am an asylum seeker. And there is also a sanctuary scholarship being offered inside the university for asylum seekers; however, the 'sanctuary' ends in MA/MSc and does not cover asylum seekers capable of conducting self-directed research for an MPhil/PhD degree.

And as an asylum seeker, my university is charging me fees as an international student. 

My migration status as an asylum seeker was a hindrance to continue my life as an academic and a writer here in the UK. But when I started to work and to volunteer in migrant communities here in London, I have observed that the Filipino communities here in the UK are underrepresented and almost invisible. As a community organizer, I also witnessed the disproportionate deaths among NHS nurses during the pandemic last year. I saw how undocumented migrants were sent to destitution and even to death because of the pandemic and the lockdown - as they refused to seek medical help and support due to the fear of deportation. These experiences had inspired me to document and perform the narratives of Filipino migration in the UK last year - but this endeavour requires institutional support from the academe.

And as an asylum seeker living in the UK - institutional and social exclusions in my attempt to participate in everyday 'normal life' in the UK are endless. 

Despite being an asylum seeker, I was able to get placement for MPhil/PhD at Birkbeck's School of Arts and enrolled myself in the program as a part-time international student last October 2020 - paying my tuition on a monthly basis as an international student from my meager monthly salary doing part-time work! Because I am a warrior. 

And I want to continue my second year and third year as a full-time student. 

What motivates me to pursue this research project Migration Stories: The Narratives of Filipino Migrants in London for my PhD is to document and perform the migration narratives of Filipinos living in the UK for my community struggling to be integrated into British society. I would like to mainstream these narratives in my creative practices as a novelist and a playwright and engage the British public in a conversation that these Filipino migrant narratives are also part of British history, imagination, and culture.

I believe that my research project has value to my community and to British society as a whole. 

This crowdfunding project is asking for your support for Migration Stories: The Narratives of Filipino Migrants in London, to help me pay my tuition (for AY 2021-2022 and 2022 - 2023) as an international student (because of my migration status as an asylum seeker). Being enrolled in the program would allow me to access institutional support from my university, my peers, and it could help to focus on my research activities and writing my dissertation and my novel, as part of the requirement for the completion of the degree.

You see information about the University fees here.

PhD Research Project: Migration Stories: The Narratives of Filipino Migrants in London

I'll try to provide useful details of my research project so you'll an informed decision on the project that your supporting. Let's begin with this tentative abstract:

There is an estimated 200,000 Filipinos living in the UK. This project will document, explore, and then perform in a full-length novel the migration narratives of diasporic nationalist identity formation. The novel as a form can accommodate the diversity of migrant voices in a sustained narrative that avoids a monological/single vision authorial voice (Bakhtin, 1984). 50 randomly selected subsets of Filipino migrants who arrived in London from 1972 will be chosen as research participants. The project focuses on Filipino migrant narratives that create a feeling of belongingness and identity. As a community organizer, I will utilize community workshops to gather data, and build an archive of these primary sources. Central to my research method is migrant community participation. The outputs are a novel as a compendium of Filipino migrant narratives, 'Elephant and Castle', and a critical paper on the material history of diasporic Filipino nationalist identity formation in the UK.

Yes, a full-length NOVEL is part of the output!

The creative component of my research project is a novel: 'Elephant and Castle'

'Elephant and Castle', a proposed novel in 20 chapters, follows the story of a group of migrant Filipinos in London looking for an antique figurine, a relic from the British occupation of Manila in the 18th century. As they search, the novel reveals their lives and struggles in Duterte’s Philippines and as migrants in the UK after the Brexit vote.

The novel enacts a defamiliarization of London; the city is narrated from the perspectives of migrant Filipinos. 'Elephant and Castle' is the first novel written about this community. The novel will also examine the legacy of the British occupation of Manila in the 18th century. Overshadowed by almost three hundred years of Spanish colonization of the Philippines, the British occupation of Manila (1762 and 1764) left colonial legacies in both countries. This research endeavor through the novel 'Elephant and Castle' and structured archival research will attempt to unearth, explore, and perform these legacies.

Part of the research method is to conduct creative writing workshops in Filipino communities in selected areas in London!

Your support will definitely help me to meet my research schedules and conduct workshops in my communities, read hundreds of documents at the archives and write my novel and my thesis. 

October 2020 to July 2021: Building my bibliography, community workshops for second-generation Filipinos, those who arrived in the UK in the 70s, writing of Chapters 1-8 of the novel. Research agenda: Philippine-British colonial relations and the Empire. (UPDATE 07/08/2021: I am still struggling to build my annotated bibliography but the novel manuscript is now 40,000 words)

October 2021 to July 2022: Community workshops for Filipinos who arrived in the UK during and after the 1986 EDSA Revolution, writing for Chapters 9-17 of the novel. Research Agenda: Filipino Nationalism and Democratic Liberal values, Migration and Globalization, Diasporic Filipino Nationalism in Negotiation with British Nationalism.

October 2022 to July 2023: Community workshops for Filipinos who arrived from 2012, the beginning of the UK’s Hostile Environment Policy, finalizing the Baseline Research report, writing Chapters 18-20 and preparation of the full manuscript for revisions. Research Agenda: Hostile Environment Policy, Brexit and the Filipino Migrants and Fascism Returns to the Philippines, Baseline Research (final)

October 2023 to July 2024: Writing of the Critical Essay of 30,000 words and finalizing 'Elephant and Castle'’s manuscript. Submission of the dissertation for completion of the degree.

I'd like to acknowledge the supporters of this research project - even after the completion of my degree

BE MY SUPPORTER/DONOR/FUNDER if you believe that my research project has value to the community, to the society, and to expand the conversations on migration as an essential part of British life. 

The gathered migration narratives from the participants and other 'artifacts' from this research project will be stored in a 'digital museum' that is accessible to the public this coming academic year. A page in the digital museum will be dedicated to acknowledging all those who supported this research project, no matter what amount you donated.

THANK YOU!