Last March 2, the first M&D Café for the year featured two psychologists, Dr. Cynthia Gavino and Dr. Angela, who shared their dissertation research on seafarer wives and the social identity of the Chinese in the Philippines, respectively. According to Dr. Gavino’s study, despite the cyclical separation of seafarers and their spouses, couples reconfigure their marital and family life to create new relational strategies to maintain a sense of intimacy, togetherness and happiness. In her study, Dr. Yu employed a social representation framework to understand how Chinese culture and personal and group migration history shape the self-perceptions and social identity of the Chinese in the Philippines.
On another note, we happily welcome back Dr. Ces Conaco, who we missed last year because of her weekend commitments in UP Cebu, and Dr. Rizza Cases, who recently completed her PhD from the University of Trento.