Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist. "The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver
Honoring a Life Well Lived: Dr. Grace Odal-Devora, Former AC Alumni Association President, passes away at 68
Honoring a Life Well Lived: Dr. Grace Odal-Devora, Former AC Alumni Association President, passes away at 68
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Dr. Grace Odal-Devora, beloved student of the UP Asian Center and TriCollege Ph.D. Philippines Studies and former president of the AC Alumni Association, passed away on 19 March 2025. He was 68.
GRACE ODAL-DEVORA, Ph.D. (1953-2025)
Dr. Grace Odal-Devora is a proud alumna of the UP Asian Center where she finished a degree in MA Asian Studies (1986). She also took up her Ph.D. in Philippine Studies (2012) from the TriCollege Ph.D. Philippine Studies Program of the University of the Philippines Diliman with a dissertation focusing on the Filipino concept of Mutya. Her research on the Mutya-Diwa forms the basis of her upcoming plan to create a MUTYA Museum for a History of Ideas in Davao City. Her free-flow dance practice which she calls “Mutya Alay-Sayaw Dance Offering for Earth-Healing" is the application of her 16-year research on the Mutya as applied in Creative Indigenous Dance.
Prof. Grace Odal-Devora served as an Instructor at the Department of Arts and Communication, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Manila from 1979, until her retirement in 2021. Within this period, she was awarded Outstanding Artist in 2001 and 2009 by UP Manila; Outstanding Faculty in Research and Publication by UP Manila in 2002; and Outstanding Faculty in Extension Service by the College of Arts and Sciences in 2007. She finished her BA in English, with a concentration in Comparative Literature in 1977 from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.
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The UP Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. The Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website. For other news and upcoming events at the Asian Center, click here.
