Ateneo Breakthroughs - Narratives, Networks and Democracy Today

The Office of the Assistant Vice President for Research, Creative Work, and Innovation (OAVP-RCWI) in cooperation with the University Marketing and Communications Office (UMCO), cordially invites you to the inaugural lecture of the Ateneo Breakthroughs lecture series.

Narratives, Networks and Democracy Today

by 

Dr Joshua Uyheng,
Department of Psychology

Political Psychology of Democratization Laboratory Director Dr Joshua Uyheng tackles the question:  In a world shaped by digital technologies and online social forces, how do people construct meaning and community in today’s democracies? This landscape brings new patterns of division and vulnerability—such as online disinformation and hate—as well as new horizons of connection, solidarity, and social change beyond old borders, which Dr Uyheng and his team have been working to investigate.

Dr Joshua Uyheng is director of the Political Psychology of Democratization Laboratory and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Dr Rosita G Leong School of Social Sciences of Ateneo de Manila University. Through an interdisciplinary combination of critical and computational methods, Dr Uyheng's work examines the patterns of online and offline discourse—political speeches, news coverage, and social media talk—and what they reveal about how people break apart, come together, and navigate today's changing world.

This event is organized by the Office of the Assistant Vice President for Research, Creative Work, and Innovation (OAVP-RCWI) in cooperation with the University Marketing and Communications Office (UMCO).

📆 26 January 2026, Monday
⏰ 2:00 - 4:00 PM
📍 Escaler Hall, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights Campus, Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City 

Register here: go.ateneo.edu/Breakthroughs

ATENEO BREAKTHROUGHS: 
Ideas that change the world

Ateneo Breakthroughs is Ateneo de Manila University’s flagship public lecture series highlighting research and creative work that has the potential to improve lives or at least bring new perspectives to pressing issues—hence the tagline, Ideas that change the world.