I am a cultural anthropologist and doctoral candidate whose research focuses on the Philippines and Filipino diaspora, with interests in beauty pageantry, gender, (trans/)nationalism, postcolonial feminism, and political economies in Southeast Asia. My current research examines the Philippines’ participation in local and international beauty pageantry. I am particularly interested in how the country's active participation in pageantry informs and moreover advances our understandings of national identity, ethnicity, cultural politics of beauty, and community-building in the Philippines. My family is from Guiuan.