UP Diliman Creative/Critical Thesis Grant in the Arts, Culture, and the Humanities (UPD CCTGACH)
The CCTGACH Outright Research and/or Creative Work Grant is envisioned to defray some expenses of the students in conducting research or producing a creative work/capstone project. A maximum of three recipients for each level ( i.e. undergraduate/bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral) is awarded annually. Find here the list of awardees and their theses/capstone projects.
Note: To learn more about a particular thesis/capstone project in the list, please send an email to cctgach_oica.upd@up.edu.ph
| Maliwat, Patricia Mae Z. (Undergraduate) | College of Arts and Letters | Devising “Ang Lihim ni Lea” in Portraying Depersonalization Disorder and Cognitive Bhavioral Therapy | February 2023 to January 2024 | Theatre as an art is already collaborative in nature but adding the process of devising to it adds another layer in terms of collaboration. Throughout the process, anyone participating in such types of productions are given the opportunity to chime in. While everyone has their own respective designations, everyone is also called a collaborator in building the world of plays taking on devising. Using this process, this study tackles devising a production using the children’s storybook “Ang Lihim ni Lea” written by Augie Rivera. In this study, the thorough process as this production was built from the first pre-production date up until its show date will be mentioned. In addition to this, the use of depersonalization disorder” as the play’s context and “physical theatre” as an added guide during rehearsals was discussed as to how they played vital roles in accomplishing this project. | 2023-01 |
| Lim, Leandro T. (Undergraduate) | College of Arts and Letters | LINUS (they/them): Performing Gender and Queer Embodiment in a Self-Revelatory Performance | February 2023 to June 2024 | Linus (they/them) is a devised solo performance that focuses on queer embodiment and gender performativity. A self-revelatory performance is a form of drama therapy that probes current personal issues in need of investigation, healing or transformation through the creation of an original theatrical piece (Emunah 2016). | 2023-02 |
| Cañete, Jo Antonette M. (Undergraduate) | College of Mass Communication | Desilya | February to June 2023 | Desilya seeks to bridge the gap between trauma and cinema through the integration of Bazin’s Theory of Realism and Meek’s Trauma Theory in Film. Through the stark differences exhibited between what was and what is in the reality of the film and between what should have been and what is in the filmmaker’s reality, the affective power of cinema creates an illusion of a presence that is manifestly an absence, ultimately pointing to the loss that is and the grief that has been. It is in cinema’s capacity to convey loss and absence through establishing what is present and actual that the filmmaker is able to tell a story of loss through a search. | 2023-03 |
| Bolata, Emmanuel Jayson V. (Master's) | College of Arts Social Sciences and Philosophy | Filipino Reception and Appropriation of Foreign Astronomical Knowledge, 1859-1958 | February 2023 to February 2024 | Aside from narrating the development of astronomical paradigms from precolonial to colonial periods, and the formation and the labours of institutions and individuals from colonial to postcolonial periods, the study also examines two specific themes in the phenomena of knowledge reception and appropriation. One is the vernacularization of astronomical knowledge, wherein concepts and practices were registered into vernacular languages and literature. This can be seen in the translation of astronomical terms and names, their usage as literary devices in poetry and prose, and the amalgamation of indigenous and foreign astrological concepts and practices. The other is the religious appropriation of modern astronomical knowledge, wherein religious institutions and individuals (i.e. Christian) interacted with modern science through defining science from a religious perspective, scientifying the religious cosmic order, and revising creation narratives. The study intends to contribute to the growing body of historical studies on scientific knowledge production, reception, and appropriation, with an emphasis on the cultural contexts around and in which the sciences were produced, developed, received, and used. | 2023-04 |
| Romano, Jennifer Lyn M. (Master's) | College of Mass Communication | Dalan: Exploring the Development of Cinemagoing in Mid-twentieth-century Naga City, 1923-1970 | February 2023 up to present | This thesis looks into the emergence and development of stand-alone movie houses in the “pilgrim city” of Naga through an exploration of extant materials from the archives and the people’s memories of early cinemagoing culture. Economic, agricultural, and industrial improvements at the turn of twentieth century in Naga and the rest of Bikol paved the way for hybrid networks and interrelations as it attracted immigrants seeking opportunities for business enterprise. As it coincides with the beginnings of cinema in the Philippines, cine or exhibition business was among these. This study looks into the initial phase of cinema development in Naga, with particular attention to Bichara theaters as one of the most prominent cinema theaters in Bikol, and how these movie houses produced spaces for networks and relations in which ‘local’ (city, region, and the people) and ‘wider’ (colonizers, immigrants, cinema, technology) forces meet. Furthermore, it explores how these spaces have shaped and influenced Naga’s culture and social life. In this process, it aims to contribute to the gap of knowledge that could potentially lead to a materially grounded path toward the region’s becoming. | 2023-05 |
| Mendizabal, Adrian D. (Master's) | College of Mass Communication | Towards the Open Image: A Dialectical Materialist Critique of the Long Cinematic Duration in the Cinema of Lav Diaz | February 2023 to July 2023 | This study used the dialectical materialist framework developed by Marx, Lenin, and Mao to comprehensively analyze and unpack the internal contradictions of long cinematic duration in three levels: consciousness, self-consciousness, and reason. The first level, consciousness, engaged with the form and style of long cinematic duration. The second level, self-consciousness, overcoming the aesthetic limit of the first level, problematized the critical reception and the politics of contending recognitions of long cinematic duration. The third level elevated the inquiry to economic reason, by rationalizing long cinematic duration within the general economic the study presented the open image as a sublated and revolutionary reformulation of sphere. In conclusion, long cinematic duration constituting a guide to action and future practices in cinema. | 2023-06 |
| Salcedo, Rayjinar Anne Marie G. (Undergraduate) | Provincia:Lamentations | College of Arts and Letters | February to August 2022 | The short stories in Provincia: Lamentations revolve around women in the rural who resist the colonial, catholic womanhood: intelligent, independent, great, ghostly women, women who care about other women, and women who love other women--cast in a rich landscape where the mystical exists in the everyday. All anchored in the town of Mayabo, a fictionalized version of my rural hometown Maragondon, the stories vary in time period, tone, mode, and realism, and they embody my multilingual, translational poetics that I call mustiness. | 2022-01 |
| Marasigan, Mike Anthony J. (Undergraduate) | DIGITAL MARKETING IN ONLINE THEATRE: Formulating the Appropriate Models of Publicity Strategies and Marketing Communications in Promoting an Online Performance Based on Maynard Manansala’s Tao Po | College of Arts and Letters | February to July 2022 | This study aims to find out what models of publicity strategies and marketing communications shall be used in promoting an online performance. This would be applied in promoting an online performance based on Maynard Manansala’s Tao Po. The models that the study is looking for would be identified through applying different models in the production process and assessing their effectiveness. The study would explore the perspectives of audience on watching online performances, and assess these to know what models should be recommended. Through the recommendation, this study would help theatre scholars in the field of contemporary digital theatre. This would help the theatre community in promoting online or digital performances the right way. | 2022-02 |
| Cuenza, Eva P. (Undergraduate) | An Pagsarakiki: An exploration of the musical and historical morphosis of Waray Kuratsa | College of Music | February 2022 to _____* | This study will focus on how music played its part in sustaining this folk tradition. The exploration of kuratsa music and its subtle interdependence with society resulted in the discussions as to why people were able to continue observing this dance tradition. I argue that the adaptability of how the tradition was negotiated became a catalyst to the fluidity of transmission. I will support my argument with 1. in-depth analysis of music scores that will show the confluence of variations that made this dance music flexible to change; 2. elucidating the impact of music technology as an important agency in steering the course of music traditions like recording and performance practice innovations; 3. sociological assertions that incorporate the dance tradition in social functions like raising funds. These are important postulations that are not just to uncover the significance of kuratsa as an identity marker for the Waray people, but also as an attempt to understand how and why they convey these sentiments through cultural expression. | 2022-03 |
| Hernandez, Fredyl B. (Master's) | Ang Estetika ng Dayalogo sa PETA ARTS Zone Project, isang Adbokasiyang Panteatro ukol sa Positibong Disiplina | College of Arts and Letters | February 2022 to _____* | Ito ay isang adbokasiyang pandula na nagsusulong ng karapatang pambata partikular ang karapatang maproteksyunan sa karahasang nakakubli sa pagdidisiplina gaya ng nasa likod ng pamamalo, pananakit, paninigaw, pamamahiya, at iba pang korporal na pagpaparusa. Isinusulong ng adbokasiya ang positibong disiplina bilang alternatibo sa karahasan ng korporal na parusa. | 2022-04 |
| Canlas, Arvin Daniel R. (Undergraduate) | Years When Dad Was Inside | College of Mass Communication | January 2021 to _____* | Under the idea that the “family” is one of the most prominent and influential units of our society, thus, directly corresponding to the concepts of “home” and “community,” this thesis dissects the notions of what it is like to be a “family” amidst the various adversities that we are being made to suffer under. In this instance, these adversities pertain to the current revolting practices in the guise of a “war” on drugs, and the persistent poor economic conditions that force our countrymen to go and earn a living in foreign seas. | 2021-01 |
| Magaling, Christian Lemuel M. (Master's) | Imperial Temporalities, Insurgent Futures: Comparisons of 20th Century Political Thinkers in Indonesia and the Philippines | Asian Center | Feruary 2021 to March 2022 | This study shall be significant in three ways: firstly, this is significant in decolonizing the approach to Intellectual History. The process of doing intellectual history has become rigid in the sense that some of its practitioners approached it from a limited perspective as a relation between the colonial/"source" and the colonized/"receiver." Secondly, in connection to the aims of decolonization, this study reiterates the importance of placing time to its theoretical plane; which is temporality, in understanding the region as an area of study. Lastly, to forward in our field of vision the interest of studying available materials from Southeast Asia and refrain from looking at the immediate past as purely a construct of colonialism but to tackle political discourses of revolution, labor, temporality, future and motion of history using political thinkers indigent from the region. | 2021-02 |
| Ocampo, Andrew Jaye Q. (Master's) | The Methodology of Three Philippine Community Rondallas | College of Music | November 2020 to September 2021 | In the Philippines, no previous studies have explored rondalla pedagogy in a digital setting. This study, through a digital ethnography, will explore the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) employed by the three selected community rondalla groups in the Philippines such as Sariaya Quezon Community Rondalla, Kabataang Silay Community Rondalla Ensemble, and Dipolog Community Rondalla via video conferencing, recorded rehearsals and performances, and interviews that will be analyzed through thematic-content analysis and triangulation. From the observation and analysis, this study assumes that the three groups will have their local Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) which might be related to establish rondalla methodology such as Celso Espejo method, Calubayan method, De Leon method and Pasamba method. | 2021-03 |
| Rosette, Judith Camille E. (Master's) | The Nature of Design: Ontological Perspectives on Design Solutions for Climate-Related Disasters in the Philippines | College of Arts and Letters | January 2021 to _____* | The study revolves around design initiatives implemented in response to climate-related disaster in the country. In recent years, design has been positioned, both as method and output, as capable of bringing forth innovative solutions to various problems, including those under the scope of environmental issues. This conception comes at odds with design’s historical complicity in the rampant production of things, and hence, in ecological crisis. The study proposes an opening up of the ways in which we view design practices, in that the tension between design’s role is regarded as philosophically productive. Specifically, we look into three distinct projects, (1) a personal flotation device made out of used fishnet and discarded plastic bottles in a coastal community in Negros Occidental, (2) floating shelter and agriculture structures in flood-prone barangays in Pampanga, and (3) a disaster preparedness program, adopted from Japan’s Iza Kaeru program, that utilizes gamification as pedagogical tool to teach children how to prepare and what to do during disaster situations. | 2021-04 |
| Baylosis, Allen B. (Undergraduate) | Performing Chamber Theatre: Performance by the Theatre-maker , the Performers, and the Spectators (formerly, Chamber Theatre as Performance: An Analysis, Adaptation, and Staging of Nick Joaquin's 'The Summer Solstice') | College of Arts and Letters | January to June 2020 | This aims to understand the process involved in the Chamber Theatre production of The Summer Solstice. This research also is a means in reintroducing Chamber Theatre as a technique for staging prose fiction texts and hopes to serve as a pioneering study that will help promote Performance Studies as an academic discipline in the Philippines. | 2020-01 |
| Corpuz, Dianne Leslie R. (Undergraduate) | BUGTUNGAN: Makata ng Bayan: Designing a Board Game Promoting Filipino Riddles Among Young Filipino Adolescents Ages 12 to 16 Years Old (formerly, BUGTUNGAN: Designing a Board Game Promoting Bugtong among Young Filipino Adolescents Ages 12 to 16 Years Old in Urban Areas) | College of Fine Arts | January 2020 to February 2021 | The researcher proposes creating an educational board game which will mainly feature bugtong. With a board game, players can share experiences while playing with family and friends face-to-face. To heighten the experience and also conform with the tradition, the oral aspect shall also be retained. The bugtong board game aims to encourage players to create their own bugtong based on modern subjects that they would mostly relate to. | 2020-02 |
| Ramolete, Aina Ysabel B. (Undergraduate) | Theatre in the Time of Covid: Pakikipagkapwa in the Process of Creating an Online Filipino Puppet Production of the Little Prince (formerly, Tungo sa Maka-Pilipinong Pagtatanghal: Pakikipagkapwa in the Process of Staging and Performing a Filipino Puppet Production of the Little Prince) | College of Arts and Letters | January 2020 to June 2021 | This study aims to analyze the process of performing puppetry in Teatrong Mulat's production of the Little Prince through the relations built during its production using the Filipino psychology concepts loob at labas, pakikiisa and pakikipagkapwa. The study hopes to explore how these notions help determine the Filipino in Philippine puppetry. | 2020-03 |
| Manalo, Maria Regina M. (Master's) | Written on the Body: Counter Narratives and Experience of Victimhood: A Framework for the Curation of a Memorial for Transitional Justice | College of Arts and Letters | January 2020 to _____* | Central to the project of this thesis is the concept and practice of curation and the "curatorial" in its multivalent registers: as legal dictum, as moral duty, as artistic gesture and as formation of pedagogy for social issues focusing on human rights. The key concept that threads these registers together is the notion of curation as transformstive, mediating among the conflicting discourses of victimhood, the law, and politics. | 2020-04 |
| Coronel, Ma. Margarita M. (Undergraduate) | The Black Nazarene Procession (Translacion): A Study of Devotees' Motivation (formerly, The Black Nazarene Procession (Translacion): A Study of Pilgrims’ Motivation) | Asian Institute of Tourism | January to June 2019 | The study aims to explore the motivations of pilgrims outside Metro Manila who travel to Quiapo specifically for the Feast of the Black Nazarene, to identify their reasons why they choose to take part in the Translacion and to know the relationship between religion and tourism in the context of the Black Nazarene. | 2019-01 |
| Lacsamana, Bronte H. (Undergraduate) | Bukas Mata | College of Mass Communication | January to July 2019 | The film works around the framework of magical realism wherein the mythical or folkloric is incorporated and accepted in the rational world. It is highly political as it strives to explain the existence of what might be strange or taboo to urban society, but is actually happening elsewhere in the world. In the film, the framework was used to portray the protagonist's struggle to understand the arrest of his mother, why people react to the event as if it's unusual and taboo, its context and implications, in such a way that is accessible to his young but troubled mind. | 2019-02 |
| Loreto, Roman Gerard N. (Undergraduate) | MALAYA: The Therapeutic Functions of Gay College Students’ First Sexual Identity Disclosure (Re)Performance in the Construction of their Perception on the ‘Coming Out’ Phenomenon (formerly, MALAYA: The Therapeutic Functions of Gay College Students’ (Re)Performance of their First Gender Disclosure as Reflected in their Self-Written Oral Interpretation Pieces) | College of Arts and Letters | January to May 2019 | This qualitative study explores how UP gay college students make sense of the phenomenon of coming out while still keeping their gender identity from at least one significant member of their families. Gay men undergo pre-therapy interview to explore the struggles, sentiments, and emotions about their gender identity concealment to their families. Dramatherapy, as a tool, is ultilized to stimulate the process of gender identity disclosure's role to their self-concept. Through an oral interpretation self-revelatory performance, the study aims to evaluate the functions of performing a "coming out" where each detail was planned and decided by the participants themselves - a coming out experience that is near impossible to happen. | 2019-03 |
| Garcia, Gail Goodrich P. (Master's) | The Drawn Negative: Alternative Photography to Depict Liminal Spaces | College of Fine Arts | January 2019 to August 2022 | The thesis asserts that integrating Photography with another appropriate art process, the resulting hybrid method can produce pictures that provide liminal subjects like Myth tangible embodiment in the real world. This is an art process that combines Drawing with Photography to produce hand-made negatives for creating physical prints through traditional photochemical processes. The purpose is to restore Photography's "objecthood" and somehow mitigate the effects of the printed photograph's disappearance from our daily lives and to generate both negatives and prints as a nod to photography's analog roots. This will also help educate young digital camera enthusiasts about the principles that make creating pictures possible. | 2019-04 |
| Ledesma, Maria Patricia N. (Master's) | UMBILICUS: An Exploration of Spatial Conditions that can Create Experential Metaphor for the Cyclical Process of Inner Healing | College of Fine Arts | January 2019 to February 2022 | In response to the escalation of suicide rates in the youth and the growing number of individuals undergoing depression today, the researcher/artist intends to participate in the theme of art as a way of healing. From her personal experiences of coping with depressive states evolves an intuitive spiritual practice that integrates beliefs from various spiritual traditions. She proposes to present a metaphor for her experience of this continuing cyclical process as visual dialogue, using space as the primary material to stand as metaphor for the self. | 2019-05 |
| Reyes, Jayneca Jeselle C. (Master's) | Contemporary documentary filmmaking in the Philippines through the lens of women documentary filmmakers from 2000-2017: A research-based film | College of Mass Communication | January to November 2019 | The research attempts to address the gaps in literature and contribute to framing documentary filmmaking practice using a gendered perspective. It aims to accomplish this by highlighting the rise of women filmmakers in contemporary documentary filmmaking practice in the Philippines from 2000-2017. Specifically, it will explore the perspective of women filmmakers about the practice of documentary filmmaking. | 2019-06 |
| Garambas, Cynthia D. (Doctoral) | Continuing a Time-honored Praxis through Characterization of Traditional Smoked Pork Delicacy (Kinuday) | College of Home Economics | January 2019 to October 2021 | The research project aimed to develop science-based value adding techniques to ensure food safety, consistent quality, and high market acceptability of etag and promote its commercialization as ethnic delicacy of the Cordillera. | 2019-07 |
| Peña, Romeo P. (Doctoral) | Naratibo ng Lukad sa Ating Gunita: Ang Industriya ng Niyog sa Kasaysayan at Panitikang Pilipino, 1940-2018 | Tricollege | January 2019 to September 2020 | Sasaklawin ng pananaliksik na ito ang industriya ng niyog sa Pilipinas ngunit ilalapat ang malikhain at mapanuring paraan ng pagtuklas sa pamamagitan ng paggunita sa mga naratibong pangkasaysayan o mga talang pangkasaysayan na direktang tumutuon sa industriya ng niyog sa Pilipinas at mga naratibong pampanitikan o mga akdang pampanitikan na ang paksa ay tuwirang pumapatungkol sa niyog --kultura at industriya nito sa ating bansa. | 2019-08 |
| Descallar, Ma. Rosa Angelica A. (Undergraduate) | Developing an Illustrated Children’s Book for Healing Therapy Material for War Torn Children of Marawi | College of Fine Arts | January to October 2018 | This can be used in advancing bibliotherapy or reading therapy research and can help children recover from emotional distress from war. Self-healing through reading can be used as an alternative or complementary option in therapy if direct communication with a psychologist is not available. | 2018-01 |
| Mirando, Mark B. (Undergraduate) | Liham sa Ama : Unang Dibuho (formerly, Brief An Den Vater: Pagsasaentablado ng Isang Devised na Pagtatanghal Base sa Liham ni Franz Kafka sa Kanyang Ama at Ibang mga Materyales) | College of Arts and Letters | January to October 2018 | Ito ay naglalayong ilahad ang proseso sa pagsasaentablado ng isang pandulaang pagtatanghal base sa liham ni Franz Kafka sa kanyang ama gamit ang "devising" bilang pangunahing istratehiya ng pagsasaentablado. Makapag-iiwan ang proyektong ito ng kontribusyon hindi lamang sa mag-aaral, mananaliksik at mga artista ng dulaan, kundi pati na rin sa lupon ng mga mananaliksik sa larangan ng theatre studies, panitikan, kasaysayan, politika at sosyolohiya. | 2018-02 |
| Lumbao, Annie Dennise P. (Master's) | Linescapes: Aestheticizing Chaos of Urban Infrastructure | College of Fine Arts | January 2018 to August 2019 | The project uses a number of processes (photography, drawing, animating, transcoding, digital media, and video) and relate to the idea of the flaneur by Charle Baudelaire, and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, which reflect embodiment, movement and becoming while applying countermapping strategies. Carefully orchestrating the visual elements of urban infrastructures with the aforementioned processes, the researcher tries to heighten the legibility of the dysfunctional aspects of the city. | 2018-03 |
| De Castro, Llenel G. (Master's) | The Social Value of Heritage: The Youth of the Dewil Valley and the Impact of the Palawan Island Paleohistory Research Project (PIPRP) | Archaeological Studies Program | January 2018 to February 2020 | This aims to explore the youth's conceptualisations of their heritage and to assess the impact of the learning activities carried out. It is based on the outputs of the various activities, on the outcomes of previous public initiatives of the PIPRP and observations made by the facilitators during the program's duration. In doing so, the study intends to examine the social value of archaeological heritage according to the youth of the Dewil Valley, and provide insights on how we can better engage the youth in conservation. | 2018-04 |
| Acuña, Arbeen R. (Master's) | Dayalektika ng Kaliwanagan: Ang Nakalarawang Noli Me Tangere | College of Arts and Letters | January 2018 to August 2019 | Muling inilimbag bilang tomo ang maaaring unang pagsasakomiks ng nobela ni Rizal, ang Nakalarawang Noli me Tangere (NNMT), noong 1956, taon kung kailan isinabatas ang RA 1425 o Rizal Law na siyang dahilan kung bakit may PI 100 o kursong Rizal sa rekisitong kunin ng mga estudyante bago matapos ng kolehiyo. Mula rito, sisipatin ng tesis kung paano nakikipagtagisan, nagnenegosasyon, sumasang-ayon at/o kumokontra sa nasyonalismong opisyal ang NNMT, kung saan posibleng nagmula ang bagaheng ideolohikal nito at kung paano ito kumakawala rin sa ipinamamandila nitong konsepto ng "bansa." Isasakasaysayan ng NNMT at suriin upang mabigyang-halaga ang naging papel nito sa nagpapatuloy nating paghahanap ng identidad at pagbubuo ng "bansa" at abstraktong pagka-Pilipino, na makikita nating hindi maiiwasang maiugnay sa kasaysayan ng kolonyalismo at nagpapatuloy na pananalasang daloy ng kapital at mga polisiyang neoliberal. Sa tunggalian sinisikap resolbahin ng NNMT, mauunawaan ang milieu nito at halaga nito sa ating panahon. | 2018-05 |
| Gonzales, Vladimeir B. (Doctoral) | Pagsasalin ng mga Dula sa Akademya at ang Pagtatanghal ng Paglalaho: mga Tala, Paglalapat at Paghihimay | College of Arts and Letters | January 2018 to August 2019 | Mapapatingkad ng disertasyon ang papel ng pagsasalin, panitikan at dula sa paghubog ng mga kritikal at mapagpalayang iskolar at artista, habang nagbibigay din ng koleksyon ng mga saling maaaring magamit sa mga produksyong pampaaralan sa hinaharap. | 2018-06 |