This seminar examines how competing memories of the Marcos dictatorship shaped contemporary Philippine politics and what the Marcos families resurgence reveals about authoritarian nostalgia.
Four decades after the People Power Revolution ousted a dictatorship, the Philippines returned a Marcos to the presidency, a reversal that documented atrocities failed to prevent. This seminar presents Marcos, Martial Law, and the Complexities of Memory in the Philippines (Routledge, 2026), an edited volume that treats memory as the terrain on which this political rehabilitation was fought and won. Contributors trace the sites where memories of dictatorship are constructed and contested, from war memorials embedding fabricated heroism and museums preserving counter-narratives to textbooks sanitizing authoritarian violence and social media circulating nostalgic mythologies. Written entirely by scholars of the post-EDSA generation, including historians, heritage practitioners, sociologists, political scientists, and media scholars, the collection offers analytical tools for understanding authoritarian nostalgia at a moment when democracies worldwide confront the electoral afterlives of authoritarian pasts.
This webinar is based on the newly published edited volume Marcos, Martial Law, and the Complexities of Memory in the Philippines (Routledge, 2026), and will explore the key themes and findings presented in the book.
The ANU Philippines Institute Research Seminar Series is a recurring seminar series that showcases the work of scholars working on political, social and cultural issues in the Philippines and the wider region, with the goal of encouraging greater exchange, collaboration and networking amongst the research community.
If you require accessibility accommodations, please contact the event organiser.
Event Speakers
Dr John Lee Candelaria
John Lee Candelaria is a historian and peace studies scholar whose research focuses on memory studies, heritage studies, and the memorialization of wars, conflicts, and disasters. His work centres on the Philippines and Southeast Asia, examining how societies remember and engage with histories of violence.
Prof Kerby Alvarez
Kerby C. Alvarez is Professor of History at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He earned his PhD in History, Art and Archaeology from the Université de Namur, Belgium, and received the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Young Historian's Prize in 2015. His research spans environmental history, disasters, nationalism, and Philippine history.
Dr Jamie Pring
Jamie Pring is a peace and security scholar-practitioner from the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding with 17 years of policy and research experience across international organisations, governments, and NGOs. She has authored academic publications, practitioner guides, and policy reports on peace mediation, transitional justice, and dealing with the past.
Dondy Ramos
Dondy Ramos (he/him) is a PhD candidate at Australian Catholic University under the Australian Research Council Linkage Project, Mobilising Dutch East India Company Collections for New Global Stories. His research examines the memorialisation of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines and the Dutch East India Company in Australia.
Ross Tugade
Ross Tugade is a PhD candidate in Law at the University of New South Wales, supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship. She is admitted to practise law in the Philippines and before the International Criminal Court, with extensive experience in human rights.
Athena Charanne Presto
Athena Charanne Presto (Ash Presto) is a PhD candidate in Sociology at The Australian National University, supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program fellowship. She is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines College of Law and holds a Master of Public Policy from the National University of Singapore.