(NOV. 29) — The Philippines supplies more than a quarter of the highly globalized labour market for seafarers.

This was mentioned in the study of Prof. Maragtas S.V. Amante, PhD, of the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations, “Philippine Seafarers in the Rough Seas of the Global Labour Market.” (https://www.psap-parola.org/resources/research/philippine-seafarers-in-the-rough-seas-of-the-global-labour-market/)

The recently held international symposium at UP Palma Hall “Understanding Seafarers: Identities, Narratives and Contexts” is all about shedding light on the human and social dimensions of Filipino seafarers.

Prof. Carlos P. Tatel Jr., PhD, in his correspondences with UPDate Diliman said the symposium had three parallel sessions. The first parallel session had experts discussing the issues “Seafaring and the Seafarer: State of Research” and “Sexualities and Masculinities.”  Parallel Session 2 topics were “Narratives, Life Stories and Families,” “Spirituality, Rights” and “Seafarers Rights.”  Parallel Session 3 dealt with “Education, Formation, Research Ethics.”

Tatel is Conference Coordinator of the Folklore Studies Program (FSP) of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP)-Office of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Keynote lectures were by Prof. Grace Aguiling-Dalisay, PhD, of the UP Department of Psychology and Prof. Helen Sampson, PhD, Director of the Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC), Cardiff University.

Aguiling-Dalisay’s topic was “The Human Face of Seafaring: Perspectives from the Social Sciences (Keynote Lecture 1), while Sampson’s was “Twenty Years of Maritime and Social Sciences Research at SIRC” (Keynote Lecture 2).

Held on Nov. 18, the symposium was organized by FSP in partnership with Cardiff University, United Kingdom, and supported by the Associated Marine Officers and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP), and Tolentino and Bautista Law Offices. – Mariamme D. Jadloc with report from CSSP-FSP; image courtesy of amazon.com