EDUCATION AND FIELDS OF SPECIALIZATION: Respicio earned her undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts major in advertising and editorial design in 1971, her M. A. in Art History in 1988, and her Ph.D. in Philippine Studies in 1999, all from the University of the Philippines, in Diliman. She studied Japanese Language at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies and Japanese Art History at the Kyoto University, Japan in 1978-1983 and in1990. She has conducted research on Japanese textile designs and production practices in traditional textiles capitals of Japan such as Kiryu, Niigata, Ibaraki, Kanzawa, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Kagoshima and all islands in Okinawa in 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2000. She recently did a year-long research on the history and aesthetics of Japanese textiles and the corresponding production process and work relations involved. The study was conducted in Nishijin, Kyoto as Visiting Scholar at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto from 2004-2005.

Her primary fields of specialization are on the history and aesthetics of traditional art forms with specific focus on textiles primarily on those of the Philippines and secondarily on those of Japan. A corollary concern of hers is the management of tangible (e.g. ritual implements, textiles), intangible art forms (e.g., songs, epics, dyeing), and cultural heritage sites (structures and towns) in the Philippines.

Her secondary area of specialization is Japanese Art History with specific focus on the Yamato-E of the Late Heian Period, and on the Arts of Sotatsu and Korin in the Edo Period.

ON TEACHING: Respicio has 25 years of continuous service in the University of the Philippines. She is a Professor of Art Studies at the College of Arts and Letters. She regularly handles undergraduate courses in Humanities II, Art and Society, Japanese Art History, East Asian Art History, Curatorship, Research, and Thesis as well as Philippine Art and Society, Philippine Traditional Art, Special Topics and Problems (on the art of advertisements) in both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She also serves as affiliate faculty at the Center for International Studies, the Asian Institute of Tourism, and at University of Asia and the Pacific.

She serves as the thesis adviser to 4 M.A. students in Art Studies. (The M.A. students are set to defend their dissertation/thesis this semester.) She has served as dissertation adviser to a Ph.D. student in Philippine Studies, and thesis adviser to 7 M.A. students in Art Studies, and as a critic or as member in 9 M.A. thesis panels and 2 dissertation panels in the past school years．