Casa Boholana, written by IPC director Dr. Czarina Saloma and IPC research associate Mr. Erik Akpedonu, received the Outstanding Scholarly Work Award for the School of Social Sciences for schoolyear 2011-2012. The awarding was held last March 12, 2012 and the citation reads as follows:

“Casa Boholana: Vintage Houses of Bohol” by Erik Akpedonu and Czarina Saloma represents an inspiring collaboration of the social sciences, the humanities and technology. In its painstaking historical research on the evolution of traditional houses, the authors combine architectural and artistic details with the social and cultural underpinnings of Bohol’s rich heritage.  They give us insights into how Boholanos have creatively transformed over generations an ensemble of material and symbolic resources into social spaces that allow families both shelter and expressions of their identities.   The reader simultaneously experiences joy and nostalgia in viewing the beautifully rendered photographs of signature houses from various parts of the province. Displaying colorful renditions of this extraordinary heritage, enlivened by cogent, compact descriptions and observations, the book reveals how vulnerable houses are to decay, exposed as they are to the wider natural and socio-economic environments surrounding them. But beyond that is the story of how Boholano families and communities have rescued and rehabilitated their housing heritage through the practice of preservation.  This is the heart of the book’s timely and vigorous advocacy, highlighted by its use of a lively design reminiscent of an heirloom family album.  In our society’s rush to “modernity,” the reader cannot but resonate with the authors’ exhortations to today’s house builders to remember the “quiet grace, dignity, and charm of the old bahay na bato y tabla,” and to revitalize through creative cultural redesign the truly Filipino house.  
 
The Ateneo de Manila University School of Social Sciences is pleased and privileged to cite Casa Boholana; Vintage Houses of Bohol, by Dr. Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, with recognition also to Architect Erik Akpedonu of the Institute of Philippine Culture, as the Best Scholarly Work in the Social Sciences for the Academic Year 2011-2012.”

The book was funded by the Ford Foundation thru the Merit Reseach Award Grant and was published by the Ateneo Press. Congraultations to Dr. Saloma and Mr. Akpedonu!