Panel Session 4
Department of History
Emerging Interdisciplinary Frontiers in Philippine- Portuguese Research
Moderator
Dr. Katherine G. Lacson
Assistant Professor, Department of History
April 23, 2026 (Thursday)
9:40 AM – 11:00 AM
This panel showcases research stemming from a groundbreaking international conference held in Portugal in December 2025. By synthesizing historical, economic, psychological, and political inquiries, this session positions Philippines-Portuguese studies as an emerging, interdisciplinary frontier. These scholarly dialogues highlight significant, yet long-neglected, Euro-Philippine connections.
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The panel utilizes a framework that represents a radical departure from the terrestrial-bound, nationalist historiographies that have traditionally dominated Philippine social science. We challenge the nation-state as the primary unit of analysis, shifting the focus to a "sea of stories"—the fluid dynamics of Indo-Pacific region.
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By bringing together historians, economists, and political psychologists, this inquiry provides a roadmap for future researchers to integrate Philippines-Portugal research into the study of history, trade, and democratic resilience across Asia.
The 1931 Goodwill Trip: Comparing Philippine agriculture with its neighbors in Southeast Asia
Dr. Patricia Irene Dacudao
Department of History
This paper examines the outlier position of the Philippines in Southeast Asia in the context of a 1931 Goodwill Trip conducted by the Philippine Governor General and colonial officials across the region. Since the late nineteenth century, Southeast Asia has been known for estate agriculture producing monocrops exported to Europe and North America. These western-owned and managed plantations were part of the developmental project of colonialism, believed to bring modernity to the countries they operated in and civilization to their workers. In contrast, recent scholarship has shown that smallholder agriculture thrived alongside the estates, producing the same crops despite a lack of colonial support. Moreover, scholars studying coolie labor have argued that capitalism and globalization were responsible for institutionalizing cooliehood and a regime of low-wage labor in the region. However, the Philippines had few large agricultural estates comparable in size to its neighbors and had no large population of imported coolie workers. This paper asks what the Philippines’ comparative advantage among its neighbors in the region was, then assesses American colonial policymaking through the ensuing official recommendations of the Goodwill Trip.
Untangling the Puzzle of Anemic Inter Country Trade, Investment, and Labour Migration between the Philippines and Portugal
Dr. Geoffrey M. Ducanes
Department of Economics​
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Economists typically attempt to explain the level of economic activity – trade, investments, labour migration - between countries through what is called a gravity model. From the name, the model posits that the key determinants of the exchange between countries are their relative size (e.g. in terms of population or economic output) and distance, broadly defined, (e.g. physical distance, shared borders, historical and cultural ties, shared language). The Magellan historical link is an example of a historical tie that in theory should reduce the distance between the two countries.
The anemic level of economic activity between the Philippines and Portugal is a puzzle from this perspective, particularly in comparison with the level of economic exchange between the Philippines and other European countries. For instance, the Philippines has higher total trade in goods with countries that are either notably poorer (less richer) or smaller in population than Portugal, like Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic. Many more overseas Filipino workers go to Norway, the Netherlands, and Finland than Portugal, despite the more difficult language adjustment those entail. There is very little investment to the Philippines coming from Portugal.
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This article attempts to untangle this puzzle through quantitative analysis and key informant interviews. In particular, the article examines the role played by historical factors and the economic complementarity between the two countries. The article hopes to inform current policy discussions as the Philippines and Portugal engage in new attempts to strengthen their economic partnerships through a newly established Philippines-Portugal Chamber of Commerce in Lisbon (in 2025) and ongoing discussions for a bilateral labour agreement to facilitate Filipino labour migration to Portugal.
Bridging the Pacific: Colonial Education in the Spanish Philippines and Portuguese Goa (16th-19th Centuries)
Dr. Olivia Anne M. Habana
Department of History​
This paper explores the transpacific flow of educational ideas, institutions, and practices between Europe and Asia, with a primary focus on the Spanish Philippines and comparative insights from Portuguese Goa. It investigates how educational policies developed in Spain—particularly those tied to Catholic missionary goals—were imposed, adapted, and at times resisted within colonial settings. While the Spanish Crown sought to establish a unified system of education across its empire, local realities, indigenous cultures, and regional dynamics significantly influenced implementation and outcomes.
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Drawing from historical accounts, missionary reports, and colonial records, the paper examines the curricula, pedagogies, and cultural frameworks employed in these institutions, and how they contributed to social transformation and the reproduction of colonial hierarchies. By asking questions such as: “How was basic education envisioned and implemented in the Spanish Philippines and Portuguese Goa?” and “What role did transoceanic religious networks play in shaping colonial educational models?”, the paper seeks to illuminate the circulation of educational ideas within the broader Iberian colonial world. It also explores how these models were localized, modified, or contested by native communities. This transoceanic and comparative perspective highlights both the continuities and divergences in colonial education across different imperial contexts. Ultimately, the paper aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Spanish and Portuguese colonial education by situating it within interconnected global processes, showing how knowledge, faith, and power traveled—and were reshaped—across oceans.
European Contributions to Democratization Processes in the Philippines
Dr. Cristina J. Montiel
Department of Psychology​
New democracies in the Global South undergo structural processes of power redistribution across political, cultural, and economic domains. Such democratization processes, however, face major local roadblocks, as they navigate difficult transitions from vertically entrenched to horizontally equitable systems. External contributions from wealthier and more well-established Global North democracies may play an important role in catalyzing democratization processes and undoing local societal inertia. Focusing on the Philippines, this paper examines the interplay between local democratization processes and various international contributions to these processes. More specifically, we focus on European contributions to Philippine democratization during the Marcos dictatorship and following the People Power Revolution of 1986.
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We examine several case studies of European contributions to democratization processes in the Philippines. Adopting a multilayered lens, we analytically distinguish between micro-layer (individual) and meso-layer (collective) actors in the local political arena, and macro-layer (structural) entities including the democratizing Philippine state and various European nations. We highlight how European contributions to Philippine democratization entail a reciprocal dynamism with local individual and collective actors. For instance, European contributions may provide symbolic and material resources which local actors agentically and creatively harness to intervene in structural contexts of state deadlock.
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Taken together, these insights inform a perspective of Global South democratization not in isolation but embedded within the broader international landscape. From this standpoint, we discuss several key considerations for peaceful and collaborative relationships between the Global North and the Global South in working toward shared objectives of democratization both within and across nation-states on the world stage.