Ateneo de Manila University Faculty discuss Korean studies in the Philippines.

Tuesday, October 13, 2026
2:15 PM - 3:45 PM
Royce Hall, Room 243
CA

Roundtable Panel Information 

The Korean Studies Program at Ateneo de Manila University The Korean Studies Program (KSP) is an interdisciplinary hub for examining, engaging, and experiencing Korea in Philippine academia. It was first set up in 2012 as the Ateneo Initiative for Korean Studies (AIKS) - a platform for consolidating all Korea-related initiatives in the university and for incubating an autonomous academic program on Korea.

Within a shot span of tow years, the initiatives resulted to a Minor Program in Korean Studies, which was incubated in and by the Department of Modern Languages of the School of Humanities, and another year later, to the creation of a full-fledged Korean Studies Program under the School of Social Sciences, the first of its kind in the Philippines.

Guided by its three-pronged framework, KSP endeavors to promote the critical study of Korea and contribute to the strengthen of Philippines-Korea relations through research and active development of Korea-related courses and programs both for students and educators. Currently, it has the widest course offerings on Korea, covering themes across various disciplines in Social Sciences and Humanities.

The roundtable features three presentations by Ateneo de Manila University faculty:

"Sustaining Korean Studies Beyond the Center: A Local Realities Model from Philippines " by Aurea C. Javier (Director of the Korean Studies Program, Ateneo de Manila University)

This is a  reflective account of Korean Studies in the Philippines, drawn from speaker's own experience as Director of the Korean Studies Program at Ateneo de Manila University. At Ateneo, university-level backing has allowed externally funded, locally driven model of Korean Studies to produce a growing, critically engaged research agenda on Korean migrants in the Philippines and Filipino migrant workers in Korea. Director Javier argues that sustaining Korean Studies in the Philippines going forward requires treating the local realities model she proposes not as a deficient imitation of the Western model, but as a legitimate third paradigm.    

"Recontextualizing Korean: Short-Form Media and Language Practice in the Philippines" by Jeremiah Estela Magoncia (Instructor, Korean Studies Program, Ateneo de Manila University)

This talk examines how Filipino university students describe producing Korean-language short-form media and how these experiences illuminate the localization of Korean language practice in the Philippines. Drawing on open-ended questionnaire responses from twenty students, the study shows how learners move from classroom grammar toward situated expression, use rehearsal and multimodal resources to negotiate linguistic limitations, and exercise creative authorship through familiar media and social relationships. Students draw simultaneously on Korean popular culture, Filipino media, everyday spaces, family, peers, and digital conventions, making Korean meaningful within their own communicative worlds. Rather than treating the Philippines as merely a  recipient of Korean language and culture, the talk argues that these practices position Southeast Asia as a site of regional knowledge production where Korean is actively rehearsed, personalized, mediated, and recontextualized through local cultural and social repertoires.  

"Implementing the Seasonal Workers Program between the Philippines and Korea: Critical Junctures and Institutional Change" by Diana I. Mendoza (Director, Ricardo Leong Institute for Global and Area Studies; Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Ateneo de Manila University) 

The presentation is based on a paper re-examining the link between migration and development in the Philippines by focusing on migratory farm labor, specifically, the country's Seasonal Workers Program (SWP) with Korea. Introduced in 2017 to address labor shortages, the SWP provides temporary and short-term employment to Filipino workers to engage in agriculture or fisheries work in Korea. As of December 2023, Filipino farmworkers deployed in South Korea have reached thousands already. In January 2024, however, the Department of Migrant Workers issued a moratorium on the deployment of farmworkers under the SWP. Ten months later, on November 4, 2025, the Philippines and Korea signed a new Joint Memorandum for the Implementation of Korea's SWP. The presentation highlights the factors and forces that shaped the implementation of the SWP with Korea particularly the shift from an international sister-city agreement to a formal government-to-government framework. 

Aurea C. Javier is Director of the Korean Studies Program at Ateneo de Manila University , where she also serves as faculty. She teaches Korean language and culture courses as well as Korean Studies content courses. Her research focuses on sustainability of Korean Studies in higher education, contextualized Korean language education, Philippines-Korea trade, and Filipino migrant in Korea.     

Jeremiah Estela Magoncia is an early-career researcher and junior faculty member at Ateneo de Manila University, where he teaches Korean language and Korean Studies courses in the Korean Studies Program, as well as film and media production courses in the Department of Communication. His research focuses on transnational Asian media cultures, particularly questions of identity, representation, and media labor across borders. His work also engages with Korean language pedagogy and language teaching in cross-culture context. 

Diana J Mendoza, PhD is an associate professor of political science and the director of the Ricardo Leong Institute for Global Area Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. Her academic and research engagements focus on comparative politics, Southeast Asian Studies, gender and public policy, and ASEAN-EU relations. She is a member of the  Editorial Board of Suvannabhumi: Multidisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies and the Board of Directors of the Ateneo Center for Asian Studies.    

The Ateneo de Manila Korean Studies visit to UCLA is part of the UCLA Center for Korean Studies' "Koreans in the World" Project. It aims to build Korean Studies connections with institutions across the Pacific Rim, in particular Southeast Asia and Latin America. Through academic and institutional exchange, it is opportunity for UCLA and Ateneo de Manila University to showcase its programs and discuss the future development of their programs. 

The "Koreans in the World" project hosted by UCLA's Center for Korean Studies. This event is supported by the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS Award Number: AKS-2023-SRI-2200001) as part of its Strategic Research Institute Program for Korean Studies.  

Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies, Asian Languages & Cultures, Academy of Korean Studies