Article Written By: David Josh Concepcion & Patrick Ryan Bello
On February 23, 2026, the UP Resilience Institute, headed by its Executive Director Alfredo Mahar Lagmay and Director for Institution Building Carlos Primero Gundran, held a meeting with the Critical Disaster Studies (CDS) Resilience Hub represented by its proponents Prof. JC Gaillard of the University of Auckland and Prof. Jake Rom Cadag of UP Diliman.
The proposed structure places the Hub within the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) in UP Diliman, with a core research team assuming leadership roles in research, teaching, and service.
The meeting centered on the CDS Hub establishment proposal, its rationale, and the allocation of funds to support its initial operationalization and sustainability in the long term. The CDS Hub was envisioned as a flagship research center on social science.
The Resilience Hub aims to emphasize local epistemologies, Indigenous perspectives, and lived experiences of affected communities. As for its objectives, it includes fostering dialogue among scholars, de-centering disaster research from purely academic standpoints toward people-centered narratives, promoting collaboration with international research collectives, and informing policy and disaster risk reduction practices both locally and globally.
The research will encompass crucial areas including climate change and migration, gender, development, climate justice and human rights, health and wellbeing, tourism, housing, local knowledge and heritage, and biodiversity.
Overall, the meeting provided a clear roadmap for establishing the CDS Hub and affirmed institutional support for its development. The allocation of initial funds is intended to kickstart administrative and research activities, enabling the Hub to build momentum toward sustainability.