Heo/Geo Lecture Series 2025-09: Chris Sorio on spatial justice among Filipino migrants in Canada

In writing about urban labor migration of Filipinos in Canada, Philip Kelly emphasized the spatiality of class in studying mobilities because "class subjectivities might be complicated by the spatiality of migration, which is an ... important feature of the global economy" (Kelly, 2012, p. 154). While scholarly materials have been written about Filipinos in Canada in relation to assimilation and identity, labor migration and transnational habitus, few have been written about migrant geographies from the perspective of a labor organiser and worker. 

For the ninth lecture for 2025 of the Heo/Geo Lecture Series of the UP Department of Geography and co-sponsored by the UP Center for International Studies (UP CIS), Chris Sorio will talk about narratives of Filipino labor migrants: his and other Filipino workers in Canada. Sorio's talk titled Radical Routes: Filipino Migrant Narratives and Spatial Justice in Canada happens on Friday, 12 September 2025 at 5:30PM Philippine Standard Time (5:30AM Eastern Standard Time) via Zoom. 

The talk is preceded by a screening of filmmaker Alfredo Ruzol's short film Recipe for Change which focused on Chris Sorio, and which was shown in Toronto in 2024. The Philippine Reporter which covered the event in Seneca Polytechnic singled out Ruzol's film, thus "[t]he documentary revisits Sorio’s harrowing experience during the Marcos Sr. dictatorship in the Philippines. At just 21 years old, Sorio was arrested and tortured by soldiers in Manila in 1982. Now living in Toronto, he continues his activism to ensure that this dark chapter of history is not forgotten."

Sorio's presentation, on the other hand, examines the lived experiences of Filipino migrants in Canada through the lens of spatial justice, drawing upon radical geography to illuminate the intersections of displacement, labour, and resistance. By foregrounding personal narratives and community histories, it explores how Filipino migrants navigate and contest the socio-spatial inequalities embedded within Canada’s immigration and labour systems. The analysis highlights the ways in which migrants transform everyday spaces—such as workplaces, community centres, and domestic environments—into sites of agency and solidarity. Through this exploration, the presentation aims to shed light on the broader implications for understanding migrant geographies and the pursuit of spatial justice in contemporary Canada.

Chris Sorio is currently the secretary general of Migrante Canada—a grassroots organization supporting temporary foreign workers and immigrants. He is currently an MA student in critical human geography at the Environmental and Urban Change of York University. Alfredo Ruzol is a filmmaker and media producer who pursues untold stories about climate justice, human rights, social issues, and peacebuilding. Recipe for Change was recently shortlisted in the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2025. 

The event is co-sponsored by the UP Diliman Department of Geography, the Center for International Studies, and the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS). The Heo/Geo Lecture Series is a monthly resource talk / lecture given by academic geographers, geography-adjacent scholars, practitioners working in geospatial industries, and partners that engaged in multiple publics, and based locally and abroad. The talk ranges from the sharing of research findings to pedagogical practices and field-based experiences. This month's Heo/Geo Lecture Series is facilitated by two research clusters at the UP Department of Geography: Human Geography (HUG) and Media, Literary Geographies, and Geohumanities (MELANGE). 

To participate in the event, click this link to register. You can also click this link: https://tinyurl.com/2t9b6b8t

Heo/Geo Lecture Series 2025-08: Trina Isorena on the consultative process towards landscape management and restoration

Consistent with one of the extension goals of the UP Department of Geography, which is to engage with local government units and communities, and forge partnership activities, this month's talk for the Heo/Geo Lecture Series highlights the partnership aspect in relation to landscape management and restoration. 

For the eighth Heo/Geo Lecture Series, this talk draws from the experience of the Protect Wildlife Project, which developed an iterative method for piloting and scaling up Payments for Ecosystems Services (PES) as a means of securing additional funding for landscape restoration and management. These case study landscapes are located in the watersheds of Mt. Mantalingahan Protected Landscape in southern Palawan, Mount Matutum Protected Landscape in South Cotabato, and Bataan National Park in Bagac, Bataan. The talk which will be presented by Dr Trina Isorena is titled Paying for Nature’s Work: Cost-Based Valuation Strategy to Support Local PES. The lecture is jointly sponsored by the Philippine Geographical Society and the UP Department of Geography and will happen on Friday, 29 August 2025 at 5:30PM PHT. 

The talk details the establishment of landscape-based PES systems starting from framework development, piloting, and replication to diversify the sources of funds for watershed protection, restoration, development, and management. It also includes the processes involved in setting up multiple PES agreements between watershed and protected area managers, as well as users and consumers of ecosystem goods and services. 

Dr Trina Isorena is currently a senior lecturer at the UP Department of Geography where she handled graduate and undergraduate courses on river systems and watersheds, as well as digital cartography. Trina specializes in natural resource management, spatial planning, and the application of GIScience to environmental governance. Her interests include rural water management, land cover change analysis, REDD+ national forest monitoring system, resource tenure, community-based natural resource management, indigenous peoples’ rights, and ancestral domain mapping.

In her role as the Protect Wildlife Project’s Spatial Planning and GIS Manager, Dr Isorena contributed to the interdisciplinary team that developed the said PES system.

The monthly Heo/Geo Lecture Series was first conceived as a Brown Bag Colloquium and later easing into Geography Webbynar during the pandemic period. It was later rebranded as the Heo/Geo Lecture Series to capture not only the multiplicities of the discipline's specializations, but also on how it is pronounced in light of the increasing directive to provide space for geography's vernacularisation. Formally, the Heo/Geo Lecture Series is a discipline-based hobnobs where geography (as well as geography-adjacent) studies, extension and community work, industry pep talks, and spatial practices come together to meet and discuss. Sponsored by the Environment and Development Geographies (EDGE) research group of the UP Department of Geography, the talk is in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals #6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), #11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), #14 (Life Below Water), #15 (Life on Land). 

To participate in Dr Isorena's lecture, please register via this link or just click this: https://tinyurl.com/6zwurcef 

Faculty & Staff Planning Workshop 2025 in Mataas na Kahoy, Batangas

The UP Department of Geography is currently in a 3-day planning workshop for staff and faculty. The workshop is being held in Mataas na Kahoy's Shercon Resort in Batangas.

                     Clockwise from left: KS, MS, FFH, MSM, JP, EG, MCH, DG, CB, DSA, CC, ACC, JRC, LAO, YL, VJA, ES, AG

The first workshop focuses on Quality Assessment and post-iAADs (Internal Academic Assessment and Development System) evaluation that tracks the department's academic and extension outputs consistent with its vision and goal. Two other workshops focus on graduate and undergraduate concerns ranging to admission and curriculum mapping. Faculty resources in relation to student demand will be assessed in terms of future recruitment. The graduate program (the current MS Geography and the proposed PhD program in geography) hopes to dip from the deep pool of faculty with PhDs. Finally, professional development including faculty development and succession plans will be reevaluated with the return of faculty with PhDs and new full-time and part-time (at least temporarily) hires.

Staff development involves streamlining everyday administrative tasks. The Department recognizes and appreciates the contribution of the department's non-teaching staff in relation to carrying out the complicated programming of everyday departmental activities.

The workshop also allowed time for the members of staff and faculty to perfect their synchronized swimming skills.

Photos & Video: YL & JP