Profile

My name is Chaya Ocampo Go (吳綺霞), a transnational Filipina scholar whose work is a commitment to life and resurgence in ravaged ecologies-communities at the front lines of disasters and climate change.

I was born and raised in Manila, Philippines and served as an emergency relief worker at the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

I received my PhD in Critical Human Geography from the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change at York University, Toronto, Canada. My doctoral research is a feminist political ecology of disaster response in the Philippines, supported by the Ontario Trillium Scholarship and the 2018 Doctoral Research Award from the International Development Research Centre.

I trained in Cultural Anthropology, and feminist and decolonial methodologies at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Social Justice. My ongoing practice of engaged scholarship finds expression in collaboration with civil society organizations, activists, and Indigenous-led eco-cultural restoration efforts across the Philippines and North America (Turtle Island).

To nourish spirituality in my work for social-ecological-climate justice, I train in mindfulness practices in the tradition taught by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.