Mark Oliver S. Llangco

Mark Oliver’s proposed study aims to investigate the relationship between cruise ship work and the possibilities and limitations of a cosmopolitan-transnational identity-belonging of seafarers. He argues that a study on how cruise ship work is organised in relation to intersectionality of identites of seafarers can be used as an entrance to think about notions of simultaneity (i.e. life of in-between-ness relative to work sites and the homeland) and cosmopolitan sociability (competence and feelings of being-at-home-in-the-world). Specifically, he is interested in how different ethnonational categories of workers across a range of occupational statuses on board make sense of work relations and work organisation of cruise ships.  As a starting point, he begins with the case of Filipino seafarers who remain to be demographically relevant in the overall workforce of world cruise industry.  To empirically examine these issues, he intends to conduct a research voyage and gather biographic narratives of seafarers.

Pre-Cardiff Occupation:
Before coming to Cardiff, Mark Oliver went to the University of Birmingham (UoB) as a Ford Foundation International Fellow (2009–2011) to pursue his MPhil in Sociology. His research focused on the transnationalised belonging of second-generation Filipinos in London.

He has eight years of teaching experience – as an instructor in the Philippines (UPLB) and as a teaching assistant in the UK (UoB). When he was in Birmingham, he received the “Excellence in Graduate Teaching Assistance Award” from the Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) for his service as seminar tutor in the Year 2 undergraduate module, “Data Analysis and Research Design”. At present, he is a Nippon Fellow (2011–2015) at Cardiff University’s Seafarers International Research Centre pursuing his PhD in Social Sciences.

Other:
During his first year of fellowship (2011-12) at Cardiff, Mark Oliver completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Social Science Research Methods (with Distinction).  At present, he is currently preparing for his first PhD progress review which includes writing a review of literature and developing a research design.  For academic year 2012-13, Mark is one of the postgraduate seminar tutors of the Cardiff School of Social Sciences and will be part of teaching team for the Year 1 undergraduate module 'Introduction to Social Science Research'

Mark Oliver was born and raised in Calamba City, Laguna. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Sociology, magna cum laude, from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in 2002. His research area is on Filipino migration particularly the identities of children left behind, the second and later generations, and the seafarers.