Professor MCM Santamaria served as Officer in Charge of the Asian Center on Wednesday, 1 April 2015. He was appointed to the post by Dean Eduardo T. Gonzalez, who traveled to Myanmar for a conference.
Professor Santamaria led the flag ceremony on the GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center grounds, and inspected Carlos P. Romulo Hall, the designated name of the Asian Center building under a Board of Regents resolution on 19 December 1985. Furthermore, Dr. Santamaria presided over a faculty workshop for the Asian Center’s Emerging Interdisciplinary Research Grant.
Professor Santamaria teaches courses on Readings in Philippine Socio-cultural Studies, Theater and Society in East Asia, and Southeast Asian Culture and Society, among others. He finished his Doctor of Law at Kyoto University, Japan, and Master in International Studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman. His research interests include politics, performance studies, and Japanese and Southeast Asian studies. His latest publication is "Sulu sojourns: Photo-ethnography and political discourses on four ethno-linguistic groups in the Sulu and Tawi-Tawi Archipelagoes," which was published in the Philippine Political Science Journal last December.
The Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.
