EUC Global Connection: The Philippines
The Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change brings together geographers, physical scientists, social scientists, humanities researchers and artists whose innovative research seeks to advance sustainability and social justice. Using field-based science, policy analysis, critical social theory, planning skills, geomatics, and cultural and arts-based approaches, our researchers drive action to address the world’s environmental and urban challenges.
EUC researchers are engaged in collaborative relationships, projects and partnerships with colleagues and institutions around the world. Here are the works we have been doing in The Philippines.
EUC Main Researchers in The Philippines
EUC Main Partner Institutions in The Philippines
EUC Research in The Philippines
drafted by Philip Kelly 14th Feb 2025
Despite its location, 12 times zones away from Toronto, The Philippines features prominently in the life of our urban region as the source of one of our fastest growing immigrant communities. Research and student interest in the country is therefore extensive at EUC.
Formal ties between York and the University of the Philippines date back to 2007 when an MOU was signed between the two institutions to facilitate Shannon Arnold’s MES project (supervised by Philip Kelly) on seaweed cultivation in the Visayan region of the Central Philippines. Since then, numerous Geography and Environmental Studies graduate students have conducted fieldwork in the Philippines, including Jennifer Payton, Adam Lukasiewicz, Alex Felipe, Nel Coloma-Moya and Clarence Magpantay (all in the Geography graduate program), as well as EUC Professor Sarah Rotz during her MES days. International graduate students from the Philippines – many with ties to the University of the Philippines – have also been an important part of our community, including: Kenneth Cardenas, Christopher Chanco, Hazel Dizon, and Chaya Ocampo Go. Current students working on topics related to the Philippines include Romeo Quintero, Geneviève Minville and Ria Ducusin (all in the Geography PhD program). Many other EUC students have worked on topics related to the experiences of the Filipino diaspora in Toronto, including Chris Sorio, Lawrenz Decano, Nikki Pagaling, Ben Bongolan, Julia Mais, and Tom Lusis.
Professor Philip Kelly’s program of research has focused on the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora for more than 30 years. These projects have included work relating to immigrant labour market integration, intergenerational social mobility in immigrant families, transnational ties of solidarity between Canada and the Philippines, migration and rural change in the Philippines, and Filipino migrant workers in the global fishing fleet. He has also worked with colleagues at York to develop Philippine-centric curriculum materials for schools in the GTA (through the PASSOC project), and to develop Philippine Studies programming at York. Many such projects are highly collaborative, including with colleagues at the University of the Philippines, the Scalabrini Migration Centre in Quezon City, Gabriela Ontario, and Migrante Canada.
EUC has hosted several visitors from the University of the Philippines (UP) Department of Geography in recent years, including Kristian Saguin, discussing his book Urban Ecologies on the Edge. More recently, Joseph Palis shared his work on counter-mapping and Island Geographies through the EUC Scholar-in-Residence program.
More broadly, York’s Philippine Studies Group (PSG) at the York Centre for Asian Research has become a major Canadian hub for research and knowledge sharing about the Philippines and its diaspora. In recent years, the group has received visits from the Philippine Ambassador in Ottawa, the Philippine Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Philippine Commission on Higher Education. The PSG was supported in 2023-24 by a grant from the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto. York has also hosted the annual McLuhan Fellow in Journalism from the Philippines – an annual award for public interest journalism made by the Canadian Embassy in Ottawa.
