About the Journal

In the vernacular, the term banwa / banua is commonly understood in its modern social and geopolitical sense as “community” and “territory.” But this term, within the context of the Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian family of languages, encompasses a whole range of meanings. The banwa, therefore, can be understood as the totality of the world; a space, both physical and conceptual, that encapsulates the whole gamut of human-nonhuman interlockings, with emphasis not only on human individuals and groups—and by extension, human constructs—but also on the various aspects of nature that they engage in, in complex and contingent ways.

Appropriating this term as the name for the university’s publishing efforts, the university envisions to publish scholarly and creative works, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, that will contribute to the social transformation, human development, and technological advancement of Mindanao.