Pickleball, Peace, and Pistols: Bangsamoro’s Armed Politics since 2019

The UP Third World Studies Center invites the public to second lecture of the 2nd Dodong Nemenzo Public Forum Series: “Walang Hanggang Pakikibaka” titled “Pickleball, Peace, and Pistols: Bangsamoro’s Armed Politics since 2019.”

📆 DATE: October 7, 2026 (Wednesday)
⏰ TIME: 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
📍 VENUE: Pilar Herrera Lecture Hall, Palma Hall, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines Diliman
📝 REGISTER: https://bit.ly/TWSCbarmm

About the 2nd Dodong Nemenzo Public Forum Series

Next year, the UP Third World Studies Center will mark its 50th year as a research institution. It was a half-century driven by critical inquiry and activism, by pioneering research that exposed the oppressive qualities of power and the empty promises of progress. The Center stood both as chronicler and critic of the nation’s recent struggles. It is these struggles that the TWSC will highlight in the 2nd Dodong Nemenzo Public Lecture Series titled “Walang Hanggang Pakikibaka.”

With numerous movements and campaigns blooming into essence in what seems to be an unyielding cycle of injustice, this series celebrates the victories that have already been won, the scholarship generated in complement, and the failures that have redirected the path of these movements—for better or for worse.

The first half of the series will present lectures both from scholars and activists on academic freedom, peace efforts, and human rights.

About the Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo Jr. Public Forum Series

Beginning AY 2025-2026, the yearly public forum series of the Third World Studies Center (TWSC), College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines Diliman shall be called the Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo Jr. Public Forum Series.

TWSC was the brainchild of Dodong, eminent scholar-activist, who passed away on December 19, 2024. When the Center started as a program in 1977, autocrats were jockeying to lay claim on leadership of the Third World, or the so-called non-aligned or developing states. Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was one such claimant; Dodong, then dean of the UP Diliman College of Arts and Sciences, saw opportunity in the dictator’s ambition. With Randy David, he carved out a space for scholars who, like them, were disinclined to follow orthodoxies, labored to counter imperialist interventions, or resisted co-optation by the fascist “New Society”—a space named, by Dodong’s design, precisely after what the New Society’s chieftain desired to dominate. While later gaining renown for research and publications, TWSC started with colloquia and in-house lectures, gathering thinkers critical of the dictatorship or prevailing discourses on dependency, development, and democracy for incisive and insightful exchanges, contributing to finding emancipatory alternatives. As with the discussions and lectures organized by TWSC since, Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo Jr. Public Forum Series keeps alive this tradition of timely, unhindered, and purposeful critique.

NOTE: We are replacing our previous poster, which contains imagery that is not adequately attuned to particular religious sensibilities. Our apologies for the offense it caused.

Source: UP Twsc Facebook