Berkley Center

Christina Astorga, former Theology Department Chairperson of Ateneo de Manila, is currently Professor and former Chairperson of the University of Portland Theology Department. A recipient of several fellowships, she has been published in scholarly journals and was the best book awardee of the College Theology Society in 2014. Her current book project is "Postcolonial Feminism: Lifting the Veil of Asian Gender Resistance.”

Dr. Agnes M. Brazal is a full professor at the Department of Theology and Religious Education at the De La Salle University, Philippines. She is author of A Theology of Southeast Asia: Liberation-Postcolonial Ethics in the Philippines (2019), co-author of Intercultural Church: Bridge of Solidarity in the Migration Context (2015), and editor of eight anthologies on the topic of feminism, migration, cyber ethics, and social ethics in Asia.

Rev. Eleazar S. Fernandez is president and professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary, Philippines. Some of his most recent works include Teaching in a World of Violent Extremism (2021), Teaching for a Multifaith World (2017), and Burning Center, Porous Borders (2011). He is also professor emeritus at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

Dr. Ma. Marilou Ibita is an associate professor at the Department of Theology and Religious Education at the De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. She is also visiting professor of contextual hermeneutical approaches to the Bible at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (FTRS KU Leuven) in Belgium. Her primary research centers around biblical literature and Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Dr. Jamina Jugo is Lecturer in European Studies at Ateneo de Manila, Philippines. She was a Fellow of the European Leadership Programme, Brussels (2022) and worked for Missio, Aachen (2023-24). She enjoys intersectional and interdisciplinary work and hopes to discover more ways to build bridges between Asia and Europe. Jamina holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Goettingen.

S. Lily Mendoza is a Kapampangan-born Filipina and Full Professor of Culture and Communication at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Known for her pathbreaking work on the politics of indigeneity particularly within the Philippine diasporic and homeland contexts, she currently serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Babaylan Studies (CfBS), a movement for decolonization and indigenization among diasporic Filipinos.

Dr. James W. Perkinson is a Professor of Social Ethics at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary and lecturer in Intercultural Communication Studies at the University of Oakland in Rochester, Michigan. An activist in the struggle against water shutoffs, his most recent book is Political Spirituality for a Century of Water Wars: The Angel of the Jordan Meets the Trickster of Detroit (2019).