The Philippine Studies Programme

The Philippine Studies Programme at the University of Namur includes several activities and events.

All of them contribute to the initiative promoted by the Department of Foreign Affairs concerning a programme of Philippine Studies.

In particular, researchers of the University of Namur lead by Professor Sabine HENRY and Professor Isabelle PARMENTIER will pursue ongoing research activities with teams of the University of the Philippines, Diliman and colleagues from other Belgian and international universities, in two main topics:

  • Migration studies in the Philippines, and
  • The history of the Philippines.

Migration studies in the Philippines

The research project concerning Migration studies in the Philippines aims at deepening the analysis of the first national survey on migration (2018) with the goal of valorizing it.

The project will focus on two main aspects:

  • To apply specific analysis techniques on the Philippines national database (recently used at UNamur in the field of migration research), based on survey data recorded in the Philippines’ Island Bohol. Professors Sabine Henry and Florence de Longueville (UNamur), in collaboration with Francois Mialhe (Lumière University of Lyon 2), will supervise the work of a Filipino PhD student.
  • To compare the data from the national migration survey with the social network data used by Sébastien Dujardin a FNRS researcher working on the Philippines. His research activities examine how to leverage crowdsourced geographic information (e.g., data from citizen science, cell phones, and social networks) to assess climate risk and, more generally, to serve urban adaptation research. In this way, we can reduce the time between data collection and its use and thus be closer to the climate event.

History of the Philippines

The research project concerning the History of the Philippines is in line with the "Disasters" project, funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation, conducted by researchers from UNamur and UP Diliman between 2014 and 2019.

Activities

Visiting scholars programmes

  • A research stay of a Filipino PhD student (UP Diliman) who will work under the supervision of Professors Henry and de Longueville (UNamur), in collaboration with professors Mialhe (Lyon) and Dujardin (UNamur).
  • Lectures and seminars by Filipino guest scholars

Webinars and seminars

  • Online webinars on ‘Migration and mobility” with the participation of speakers from UNamur and from the Philippines.
  • Special edition of a “Midi de la FUCID” on Filipinos studies organized in collaboration with the Forum Universitaire pour la Coopération Internationale au Développement (FUCID)
  • Organization of study days and exchanges on research carried out by Filipino doctoral students or young doctors in Belgium.

Filipiana collection

  • Constitution of a compendium of unpublished documents on the History of the Philippines found in Belgium (libraries and archive centers): research, identification, high quality scanning in collaboration with the Moretus Plantin University Library.

Publications

  • Production of a thematic issue of a journal on “The 19th century Filipinos in Belgium” (stay of José Rizal (1861-1896) and other actors in Belgium).