Jad
he/him
#MIGRANT COMMUNITIES & SOCIAL NETWORKS #DOMESTIC LABOR & CAREWORK #MIGRANT IDENTITIES
#MIGRANT FOODWAYS IN DIGITAL SPACES
I’m a PhD candidate of the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I’ve been interested in the anthropology of food and Filipino labor migration ever since I first visited Hong Kong in 2015 and saw the large groups of workers camped out in Chater Road. I’ve been in the academe for most of my career, working my way from an instructor to assistant professor at the University of the Philippines. My research interests lie within the everyday, the quotidian, and the mundane; the things that we often overlook as ordinary often end up revealing the most interesting truths about life.
Relevant Experience
- Communications Director, Hong Kong Anthropological Society
- Board Member, Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao (Philippine Anthropological Association)
Output
- De Guzman, J.A.O. 2021. Home cooking and identity formation in migrant Filipino families in Hong Kong. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism doi:10.1111/sena.12348.
- De Guzman, J.A.O. 2022. "Bring Adobo!" Food and Filipino Migrant Identity in Hong Kong. Aghamtao, 29.
Interest in Digital Care
In Dmanisi, Georgia, archaeologists excavated several homonin skulls dated to be around 1.8 million years old. One of these skulls, Dmanisi Skull 4, had lost all its teeth save for one, and likely belonged to an elderly individual. While these skulls collectively represent the earliest evidence of humans outside Africa, Skull 4 is significant because it shows that early humans’ capacity for care. This elderly individual, without their teeth, would not have been able to reach old age without the care of others. Care has always been a crucial part of being human, and as an anthropologist, I see the digital space as the latest space through which humans are able to practice this caremaking. In particular, I am interested in seeing how the digital space allows people separated by physical space to maintain and practice care for kin and community.