RGLSOSS conducts Philippine Studies workshop in Portugal

The International Workshop, "Sea of Stories: Waves of Influence and Winds of Change in the Asian-European Nexus" was held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 9 to 10 December 2025 as a channel for exchanges between the social scientists of the Dr Rosita G Leong School of Social Sciences of Ateneo de Manila University and Portuguese social scientists. Focusing on the historical, cultural, social, scientific, economic, and political connections between the Pacific and Atlantic regions and acknowledging that storytelling is becoming a popular tool for knowledge exchange, the workshop brought out not only the shared historical narratives and cultural traditions of Europe, Portugal, and the Philippines, but also their divergent trajectories.

The workshop was organized by Dr Stephanie Coo, Associate Professor, Department of History, Ateneo de Manila and made possible with the support  of the Center for Humanities of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Foundation for Science and Technology, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs through the Philippine Embassy in Portugal, and Ateneo de Manila University's Higher Education Internationalization Grants Program.

Held at the Biblioteca Palácio Galveias on 9 December 2025 and Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal on 10 December 2025, the workshop opened with ten book presentations by Portuguese and Filipino scholars. These included the books of Dr Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu (New Consumers in the Global South: No Longer Poor, Not Yet Middle Class, De Gruyter, 2026), Ms Karina Garilao and Dr Katherine Lacson (eds. Barako 77: The Story of Environmental Activism in San Juan, Batangas, Batangas: Barako Publishing, 2024), Dr Stephanie Marie Coo (Seams of Sedition: Sartorial Symbols in José Rizal’s Noli Me Tángere, Quezon City: Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2025), and Dr Patricia Irene Dacudao (Abaca Frontier: The Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformation of Davao, 1898-1941 ,Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2023) were the authors from Ateneo de Manila.

Day 2 featured twelve paper presentations. The presenters from Ateneo de Manila were Dr Stephanie Marie Coo (Detours, Destinations, and Displacements: Case Studies of the Transimperial Circulation of Philippine Crafts to European Backrooms), Dr Patricia Irene Dacudao (1931 Goodwill Trip: Comparing Philippine agriculture with its neighbors in Southeast Asia). Dr Geoffrey Ducanes (Untangling the Puzzle of Anemic Inter-Country Trade, Investment, and Labour Migration between the Philippines and Portugal), Dr Manuel Enverga III (European Digital Diplomacy and the Sino-Philippine Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea), Dr Olivia Anne Habana (Colonial Education in the Spanish Philippines and Portuguese Goa (16th-19th Centuries), Dr Katherine Lacson (The Tangible Past: Sensory Ethnography in American Women’s Travel Journals to the Philippines (1898-1941), Dr Diana Mendoza (The Politics of Reproductive Rights in Catholic Democracies: Examining Women’s Agency and Resistance in the Philippines and Timor-Leste), Dr Cristina Montiel (European Contributions to Democratization in the Philippines), Dr Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu (Non-traditional International Student Mobilities, African Student Navigations, and Educational Choices in Philippine Universities), and Dr Jane Yugioksing (Bridging Worlds: How Macao Connected Portugal with the Philippines).

One of the keynote speakers was Portuguese Philippinist, Prof. Dr Armando Marques Guedes from the School of Law, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. His Excellency Paul Raymund P Cortes, the Ambassador of the Philippines to Portugal and himself a product of Ateneo de Manila University, gave the workshop closing remarks and hosted a dinner at his Residence.

The workshop was also an occasion to renew the 2008 Exchange Agreement between Ateneo de Manila University and Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.