Dr. Marie Marjorie Evasco-Pernia
Conferred AY 2004-2005
Professional Profile:
I was conferred the title of University Fellow in Academic Year 2004, exactly 20 years from when I first joined the faculty of the English Language and Literature Department of De La Salle University, Manila. The year before, Dr. Carmelita I. Quebengco had asked for my CV to support my nomination as University Fellow. But the nomination was premature since I lacked a year to complete the required service in the rank. Nevertheless, I already felt honored to have been considered in 2003. After all, becoming a University Fellow meant that I would be part of the collegial body of intellectual leaders and peers, and would give me a chance to learn from my colleagues, most of whom were my elders and mentors in the Humanities, like Brother Andrew B. Gonzalez; FSC who was my professor in my PhD courses; Dr. Isagani R. Cruz, who was the Chair of the EL&L Department; Dr. Cirilo F. Bautista, who was my poet-hero; Dr. Buenaventura Medina, who was my PhD dissertation adviser; and Dr. Ma. Lourdes Bautista, who was Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
After conferment, I learned from Dr. Ma. Lourdes Bautista that during the Fellows’ deliberations, Dr. Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr. had told the members of the Society that I had been instrumental in convincing his daughter, now poet and filmmaker Ida Anita del Mundo, to take the Literature major program in DLSU, which could teach her about what makes a literary piece good, and how to make them, too.
Aside from this personal testimony, the Fellows approved my nomination on the strength of my creative work, which had been published in books that won the National Book awards from the Manila Critics’ Circle. These were: Dreamweavers (Poetry, 1997), Six Women Poets: Inter/Views (Oral History, 1986), Ochre Tones (Poetry, 1999), and A Life Shaped by Music (Biography, 2001).
Moreover, I had won competitive study and travel grants, and writing residencies from national and international institutions like the Fellowship in the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa (2002); the Rockefeller Writing Residency in Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio, Italy (1992); the Hawthornden Castle Writers’ Retreat residency in Midlothian, Scotland (1991); the British Council Fellowship to the Cambridge University Literature Conference (1996); the UP Likhaan Regional Writing Fellowship (1986); and the Irwin Lee Professorial Chair in Creative Writing from the Ateneo de Manila University (1988).
Within De La Salle University, I had by then served in the URCO’s Research Dissemination Office and later as Director of the Research Center. The DLSU Press had also been under my directorship (1986-1989); so was the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center (2000-2006). I also served as Chair of the Literature Department (1990-1992), and then as Literature Graduate Programs coordinator (1993-1995).
But I was at my best in the classroom as a teacher of Literature. I enjoyed the learning process with my undergraduate and graduate students. And in 1999, DLSU fielded me to take part in the Search for Outstanding Teacher of the Metrobank competition at the tertiary level. I was happy to have brought honor to the University through the Metrobank SOT award and five years later, the Metrobank Continuing Excellence and Service (ACES).
My creative and scholarly work had also seen publication in journals in the country, in Asia, Europe and North America. My research agenda focused on women in the literary and visual arts, as well as on the development of writing poetry in English and in the major Philippine languages particularly Cebuano-Binisaya. Seeing my creative work published in other languages of the world like Japanese, German and Spanish, I also focused my doctoral dissertation on literary translation within its contextual cultures of production and circulation.
As a University Fellow and Professor Emeritus in Literature, I am committed to emulating the good example of living a life of the intellect, embodied in Brother Andrew, Dr. Emerita Quito, Dr. Isagani Cruz, Dr. Cirilo Bautista, Dr. Ma. Lourdes Bautista, and many colleagues in the Society and in the University. It is a life that empowers the generosity between teachers and learners in the classroom, laboratory or in an alternative setting where the production and examination of ideas give the possibility of beneficial change and a degree of happiness.
I am also committed to the forwarding of peace through the charism of education, following the good example of St. John Baptist de la Salle and the Christian Brothers of the Philippines. As De La Salle University continues to prosper in its mission and vision, it also nurtures my work as a creative writer, a literary scholar and an advocate for women’s and children’s human rights. I hope to bring substance to the oft-said dictum: “Once a Fellow, always a Fellow.” Yes, even in my gladdening years of restoration in retirement, I hope to continue to grow with De La Salle University together with the Society of University Fellows.