email: LlangcoMS@cf.ac.uk

Mark Oliver S. Llangco

Mark Oliver’s proposed study aims to explore and describe social representations of working lives by Filipino seafarers working on-board cruise ships. In everyday discourse, crewmembers of cruise ships are either portrayed as ‘perfect workers in a dream job’ or ‘exploited workers on sweatships’. By turning the analytic gaze towards how seafarers make sense, explain and represent their own working lives these circulating representations of work and life on-board ships can be moderated. Using Q-methodology and interviews the study considers how a sample of cruise sector seafarers cluster into shared viewpoints on organisational, occupational and non-work issues over the cycles of temporary employment. 

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.

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