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Danicar Mariano


is a PhD candidate at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and the 2011 Asia Research Institute scholar. Her advisors are Shirlena Huang and Brenda Yeoh. Her research interests include gender and sexuality as well as geographies of intimacy and sex work. She is also interested in LGBT tourism and gender counterpublics in cyberspace. She holds an MA in Asia Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco and a Literary and Cultural Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University. In 2007-2008, she was awarded the Yuchengco Graduate Fellowship from the Center of the Pacific Rim. Her article “Nicole Subic Rape Case and the Chingada in the Philippine Imaginary” is included in the book, “Transnationalism and the Asian American Heroine: Essays on Literature, Film” published by Mcfarland Press. Her paper “Filipina Counterpublics Online: Identity Community and Sexuality in Downelink” is included in Antithesis, A Graduate Journal of Criticism, Theory and Creative Writing, presented in UC San Diego’s graduate conference, “What is Public Culture?” as well as the 2008 NCA Conference, Best paper on Queer Concerns Category. She has also worked as writer-researcher for a book project entitled “People’s Communications for Development” under Isis International Manila and sponsored by the IDRC (International Development Research Center). The work examines the relationship between communication tools and empowerment within the lives of grassroots women in the developing South, taking into account traditional means of communication such as theater and face-to-face discussion alongside newer tools such as radio and television, as well as new information-communication technologies. She has also written for popular magazines and newspapers like Women’s Journal and Inquirer. Cai has volunteered for WeDpro since 2005.