Dr Kristian Saguin (Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of the Philippines Diliman) visited York between March 19th-22nd. Dr Saguin’s work engages with urban, agrarian and environmental studies in various sites in the Philippines. He has published political ecological and urban research that examines livelihoods, environmental practices, resource politics and urban life at the peri-urban fringes and beyond. His book, Urban Ecologies on the Edge: Making Manila’s Resource Frontier, was published by the University of California Press in 2022 and received the 2022 American Association of Geographers Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography.  

 On March 20th, Dr Saguin joined a roundtable of faculty and students at York to discuss current issues in Philippine Studies, political ecology and Southeast Asian urban studies. Dr Saguin also met separately with Dr Shubhra Gururani, Director of the York Centre for Asian Research, to discuss common research interests and future collaborations.

On March 21st, Dr Saguin gave a lecture titled “Urban Ecologies on the Edge: Making Manila's Resource Frontier”. The lecture examined urbanization through the example of Metro Manila and its adjacent resource frontier, Laguna Lake. The lecture provided an urban political ecological understanding of urban metabolism to track two resource flows with particular resonance for Manila’s 20th century urban environmental trajectory—fish and floodwaters. In this way, Dr Saguin provided a critical analysis of the actors, practices and material substances that are brought together to deliver vital resource flows for the city. The lecture was attended by faculty and undergraduate and graduate students from York University, as well as researchers from the University of Toronto and Syracuse University.

Dr Saguin also met separately with students in the Graduate Program in Geography at York whose research is focused on the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora.