In partnership with the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU-IAAS), the UP Asian Center recently held a two-day online international conference, Asia Today: Meaningful Change in the Post-Pandemic Transition last 9-10 November 2023, via Zoom.

The conference featured studies from scholars of the UP Asian Center and Lomonosov Moscow State University toward contributing knowledge on and understanding the Philippines, Russia, Asia and beyond. The sixteen papers presented focused on Philippine and Asian countries, history, culture, domestic institutions, migration patterns, politics, and geopolitical concerns. It examined how people, societies, and economies engaged with different internal and external forces to survive the worst existential crisis since World War 2, the Covid-19 pandemic. The experiences also showed the connections between our countries’ fates and futures.

The two-day event was formally opened by UP Asian Center Dean Henelito A. Sevilla, Jr. and MSU-IAAS Director Dr. Alexey Maslov’s opening message, followed by Panel 1, which was moderated by Dr. Ekaterina Baklanova of MSU-IAAS.

For the first panel on Cultural Source of Meaning and Knowledge, Dr. Matthew M. Santamaria (UP Asian Center) examined the presence of the Negrito in the Ibong Adarna (Adarna Bird) text. Dr. Elena G. Frolova (MSU-IAAS) analyzed the Russian-Tagalog translation lexical and grammatical equivalents, while Dr. Marina V. Frolova (MSU-IAAS) scrutinized an Indonesian film, KKN Di Desa Penari (“Students’ Field Work in Dancer’s Village”) in relation to the modern post-pandemic horror. The final speaker for Panel 1 was Dr. Yuanhao Zhao (UP Asian Center), who explored Yokai Monsters in and after Covid-19.

The Inclusion and Sustainability Panel was moderated by Dr. Marina Frolova (MSU-IAAS). Dr. Anna Gorozhankina presented the main constraints to South Korea’s innovation-driven growth. Dr. Jocelyn Celero (UP Asian Center) examined the current efforts of the Philippine government to provide for the health and social protection of Filipino migrant workers in relation to health and security systems literacy. Viktoria Zakharova and Dr. Valery Boitsov (MSU-IAAS) explored the processes of human capital exports in the Philippines. Dr. Joefe Santarita (UP Asian Center) probed the investment of the Philippines in renewable energy in India.

Moderated by Dr. Alexander Michael Palma (UP Asian Center), Panel 3 explored the historical and contemporary interactions in Asia. Dr. Ariel Lopez (UP Asian Center) interrogated the traditional sources of political authority in Sulawesi and Mindanao. Dr. Marc Yu Ulyanov (MSU-IAAS) presented the preparation for the Russian version of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las islas Filipinas. Dr. Alexey Kirichenko (MSU-IAAS) examined the integrity and management of cultural objects in Burma. Dr. Michelle Palumbarit (UP Asian Center) talked about the alternative approaches in engaging with North Korea.

The final panel, Politics and Morality and Agency, was moderated by Dr. Ekaterina Baklanova (MSU-IAAS). Dr. Natalia Kim (MSU) discussed how the historical past being the source of political conflicts in South Korea. Dr. Noel Christian Moratilla (UP Asian Center) studied how popular Filipino religious practices propagate and contradicts certain modes of power. Dr. Maria Dulce Natividad (UP Asian Center) examined the moral discourse of the Catholic Church regarding reproductive health and divorce in understanding the political dynamics of a nation. Ms. Olga Kalendar (MSU-IAAS) presented the past and present Indonesian labor migration to Malaysia.

The online conference ended with a brief closing remarks from Dr. Andrey Fesyun, Deputy Director for Science at MSU-IAAS and Dr. Antoinette Raquiza, Assistant to the Dean for Public Affairs at the UP Asian Center. Both expressed their gratitude to the partnership between the two institutions. They hope that this partnership could foster further projects and research collaborations in the future. The conference is part of the ongoing partnership between the two institutions.

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The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The UP Asian 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. It also 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. As an area studies institution, 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.