Plenary Speakers

We are delighted to announce the four plenary speakers for our Study Conference.

Adailton Alves da Silva

Elizabeth de Freitas

Fr Jose Ramon Villarin

Fr Pedro Walpole 

Short biographies:

Fr Jose Ramon Villarin SJ is Executive Director of the Manila Observatory. He also teaches with the Physics Department of the Ateneo de Manila University. He is coordinating lead author of "2024 Philippine Climate Change Assessment: The Physical Science Basis", which was written with Filipino scientists to evaluate the state of climate science in the country. He continues to chair Synergeia, an NGO dedicated to public education reform in the country. His past commitments include serving as president of the Ateneo de Manila University and Xavier University. He served as member of the National Panel of Technical Experts of the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines and was also lead reviewer of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in which capacity he led international audits of  greenhouse gas emissions of developed countries. As member of the UN Consultative Group of Experts, he helped build the capacity of developing countries to address climate change. He was also a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when the Panel received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with former US Vice President Al Gore. He holds a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from Georgia Tech and an MS in Physics from Marquette University.

Elizabeth de Freitas is a writer and Professor at Adelphi University. She works across disciplines, developing creative and critical research methodologies for the social sciences, including mapping and other spatial methodologies. Two of her current projects are focused on the affective atmospheres in contemporary school buildings, and another focuses on the colonial legacy of European mathematics in the Americas. With expertise in the history and philosophy of mathematics, her research explores the power of speculative thought in STEAM imaginaries, and the role of algorithmic thinking in control societies. Her work has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the US National Science Foundation, the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and the Spencer Foundation. Recent publications related to socio-ecology include: Rethinking social inquiry in the wake of science studies: Transdiscipline pursuits in times of climate change, information flows, and fading democracies. (de Freitas, E. & Weaver, J. (2020). Cultural studies-Critical Methodologies, 20(3), 195-202); New empiricisms in the Anthropocene: Thinking with speculative fiction about the future of social inquiry. (de Freitas, E. & Truman, S. (2020). Qualitative Inquiry. 27(5), 522-533.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1077800420943643). Why trust science in a trickster world of absolute contingency? The speculative force of mathematical abstraction. (de Freitas, E. (2020).DOI: 10.14426/cristal.v8iSI.278Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, l 8(1); Mathematics in the middle: The relationship between measurement and metamorphic matter. (de Freitas, E. (2021). Matter: Journal of New Materialism Research. 2(2), 1-24. https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/matter/article/view/35888)