Director and Staff

Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu
Dr. Saloma-Akpedonu, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, obtained her doctorate in Sociology from Universitaet Bielefeld in Germany, her M.A. in Population Science from Peking University in the People's Republic of China, and her B.A. in Sociology from the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her professional responsibilities included being President of the Philippine Sociological Society (2006-2008) and Chairperson of Ateneo's Department of Sociology and Anthropology (2005-2010). She is currently Vice President of the Research Committee on the Sociology of Science and Technology of the International Sociological Association. She was awarded the 2007 National Academy of Science and Technology "Outstanding Young Scientist" in the field of Sociology. She is the author of "Possible Worlds in Impossible Spaces: Globality, Gender, Knowledge and Information Technology in the Philippines (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2006) and co-author (with Erik Akpedonu) of "Casa Boholana: Vintage Houses of Bohol" (Ateneo Press, 2011).

 

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR RESEARCH

Ma. Elizabeth Macapagal
Dr. Macapagal is Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology of  Ateneo de Manila University. She received her M.A. in Social Psychology from the Claremont Graduate University and her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the Ateneo de Manila University. She has published books and articles on general psychology, people power, peace and political psychology, and gender socialization.  She was former chair of the Ateneo Psychology Department and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Psychological Association of the Philippines.

 

Angela Desiree M. Aguirre
A research associate of the IPC, Ms. Aguirre served as training director of the UNICEF-initiated capacity building of local communication task forces in 2006. The following year, she directed a UNICEF-commissioned special project on developing community-based communication materials on Bird Flu prevention intended for a national information campaign. Ms. Aguirre has been involved in a number of participatory researches on children and youth, people-centered health, agrarian reform, and natural resource management. Her academic training includes a fellowship at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands, where she obtained a diploma on Children, Youth and Development, and a master’s degree in Social Development from the Ateneo de Manila University. With Mary Racelis, she co-authored a participatory research-based publication “Making Philippine Cities Child-Friendly: Voices of Children in Poor Communities.

Erik Akpedonu
Erik Akpedonu studied Architecture at the Lippe University of Applied Sciences in Detmold, Germany, where he graduated in 1997 with a German MA equivalent. His professional work experience stretches over three continents, having worked since 1992 with reputable architectural firms in Germany, Ghana and Malaysia, where he participated in numerous small-, medium-, and large-scale projects located in those countries as well as in the Middle East. Since his arrival in the Philippines in 2006, Mr. Akpedonu has been working as a Research Associate with the Ateneo de Manila University’s Institute of Philippine Culture, conducting extensive surveys of Philippine historic architecture in Bohol (2006/2007) and currently in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces. He is co-author (with Czarina Saloma) of the book  “Casa Boholana:  Vintage Houses of Bohol” (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2011).

 

Maria Elissa Jayme-Lao
Dr. Lao is Assistant Professor at the Department of  Political Science with a Mastersin International Science from the University of the Philippines-Diliman and a PhD in Public Administration from the National College of Public Administration and Governance, UP-Diliman. Her research interests are in International Relations, Electoral Politics, Political Parties, Philippine Foreign Policy, and Migration.

 

Emma Porio
Dr. Porio is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Ateneo de Manila University. She completed her doctorate in Sociology at the University of Hawaii (UH, Honolulu) on an East-West Center Fellowship grant. Upon her return to the Philippines in 1989, she taught at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology while doing research at the Institute of Philippine Culture where she initiated two programs: Urban Poor Studies  and Coastal Resource Management. She was chairperson of the department from 1999-2001. Her publications include Urban Governance and Poverty Alleviation in Southeast Asia (1997), Partnership with the Poor (1991), Pathways to Decentralization (1992) and Children in Drugs in the Philippines (2005).

Agustin Martin Rodriguez
Agustin Martin Rodriguez (Ph.D. in Philosophy, Ateneo de Manila University) is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy of the Ateneo de Manila University. He is the author of Governing the Other: Exploring the discourse on Democracy in a Multiverse of Reason (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2010). For the IPC project on the qualitative monitoring study of the impacts of the 2008 financial crisis, he maintains the website, http://admuphilo.wordpress.com/.

Fernando Nakpil Zialcita
Dr. Zialcita has an M.A. in Philosophy from the Ateneo de Manila University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Hawaii. He is Full Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Loyola Schools, Ateneo de Manila University and heads the Cultural Heritage Studies Program at the same. Though from Manila, much of his field research took place among farming communites in the Ilocos, Northern Luzon. Lately, however, he has shifted his focus to street research because of his interest in urban heritage and regeneration. Indeed he is active in groups advocating the preservation of built heritage. Though interested in the Hispanic World, he has also explored the world of Southeast Asia. He thus writes on the interface between the Southeast Asian and the Hispanic worlds in domains of Filipino culture such as traditional architecture, cookery and popular Christianity. He is the Project Director of IPC 297 (Preserving and Protecting Philippine Heritage Architecture).