Dr. Jazmin Badong Llana is a prominent Filipino academic, theater director, actor, and writer who pioneered the teaching and practice of performance studies in the Philippines. Born on October 27, 1963, in Baao, Camarines Sur, her deep connection to her roots profoundly influenced her academic focus on Bicolano culture, vernacular religiosity, and regional literature. Her early exposure to traditional practices was shaped by her family; she has noted that her mother, Lourdes Badong, and her grandmother, Rosario Balilla, were both paradotoc (practitioners of the dotoc, a traditional Bicolano ritual prayer-performance), which inspired much of her later ethnographic research.
Dr. Llana built a highly distinguished educational background spanning institutions in both the Philippines and the United Kingdom. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Aquinas University of Legazpi in 1992, followed by a Master of Arts in Theater Arts from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1999. Backed by a prestigious Ford Foundation International Fellowship from 2006 to 2009, she pursued her doctoral studies abroad, graduating with a PhD in Theatre, Film, and Television Studies from Aberystwyth University (University of Wales) in the United Kingdom. Her doctoral dissertation focused heavily on her native region’s heritage, titled The Bicol Dotoc: Performance, Postcoloniality, and Pilgrimage.
Dr. Llana’s professional career is marked by substantial leadership roles in higher education and cultural administration. She is a Full Professor of drama, theater, and performance studies in the Department of Literature at De La Salle University (DLSU) in Manila, where she has also served as Department Chair and as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 2017 to 2020. Earlier in her career, she contributed significantly to academia in her home region, serving as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Executive Assistant for External Affairs, and Director of the Center for Culture and the Arts at Aquinas University. Beyond the university classroom, Dr. Llana has been an influential force in the national and international cultural landscape. In 2023, she made history by being appointed as the first president of Performance Studies international (PSi) from the Global Majority and outside the field’s traditional Western centers.
In the Philippines, Dr. Llana has worked extensively with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), leading the National Committee on Dramatic Arts as Head from 2014 to 2016, chairing its Research Technical Working Group, and editing its research journal, Saliksik Kultura. As a champion of regional art, she founded Sining Banwa, initiated the annual Rokyaw Street Theatre Festival in Albay, and co-founded the Pagsurat Bikolnon conference in 2000 to foster the flourishing of Bicol literature. Her immense contributions to Philippine letters and performance scholarship have earned her international accolades like the Helsinki Prize (2008) and the Dwight Conquergood Award (2010), as well as local recognition including the 2022 Gawad Paz Marquez Benitez from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL).