Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Plying the Straits: Batel Mobilities in Central Philippines | A Book by Joefe B. Santarita, PhD

Details
In his book, “Plying the Straits: Batel Mobilities in Central Philippines,” Professor Joefe B. Santarita of the UP Asian Center argues that a ship can become a lens for exploring both the logistics and the dimensions of mobilities by paying attention to: 1) the mobilities of ships; and 2) the mobilities that are facilitated by ships. The book is published by the Asian Institute of Maritime Studies (AIMS), and came out in late December 2020. 

Excerpt

“In this book, mobility and trade are the important concepts employed to explain the role of the batel in facilitating the movements of goods and thereby allowing for the development of trading nodes and markets in various parts of Central Philippines. Furthermore, it also examines the use of the batel in terms of movement of people from one place to the other for work and to some extent peopling of new localities. To explain these phenomena in details, it is good to quote here at length the work of mobilities’ scholars as cited by Anim-Addo, Hasty and Peters in their introductory article titled “Ships’ mobilities and shipped mobilities”. Ships’ mobilities refer to the movements of sea-going vessels while the latter pertain to an interest in what is moved by ships in particular circumstances from the movement of goods, to flows of capital, to the transmission of ideas. The ship as a moving thing and mover of things could not easily be separated. Geographers have argued that the seas and the ships that journey upon and through them, open up new spatial imaginaries for mobilizing a vision of the world that moves beyond the constructed borders of the nation-state, promising a more fluid way of conceptualizing territory and interconnection.
About the Author
Dr. Joefe B. Santarita is a professor at the UP Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. He obtained his Ph.D. in South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. He currently handles some graduate courses at the UP Asian Center and a few History courses at the University of the Philippines Visayas. His research interests range from Indian studies, migration studies, Philippine culture and society, maritime history, to Southeast Asian political economy. View full profile here.
The UP 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. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. The Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website. For other news and upcoming events at the Asian Center, click here.