Dr. Jayeel Cornelio has been appointed starting June 1 the new Director of the Development Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University.  Dr Cornelio leads an interdisciplinary faculty whose wide expertise lies in development research and management in such areas as social entrepreneurship, microfinance, health, political economy, and governance.

Although his term has just started, Dr Cornelio has ambitious plans for the Development Studies Program.  He aims for one to expand the program’s expertise by introducing urban studies, disaster research, and religion as part of the development discourse and research among faculty.  In terms of course offerings, students can anticipate the inclusion of human geography as the fourth discipline that complements the teaching of economics, political science, and sociology in Development Studies.  In June 2015, the program will also launch the Ateneo Development Field School, an intensive class that immerses participants in a local community to conduct research and draw up policy papers to address contemporary issues of sustainable development.

Prior to taking up this new post, Dr Cornelio was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and adjunct lecturer at the University of Göttingen in Germany.  With Dr Nicole Curato, he is also co-investigator on the Humanitarian Technologies Project which investigates the role of media in the post-Haiyan recovery of Tacloban and Bantayan.