About The Conference
The 2025 Graduate Student Conference, The Philippines in a Multipolar World, brought together graduate students, faculty members, and scholars to examine how the Philippines is navigating a world shaped by shifting power structures, geopolitical competition, migration, technological change, media, communities, and society.
Organized by the University of the Philippines Asian Center, the conference was open to the public, although the audience consisted largely of students and faculty members. As a PhD student in Philippine Studies, Ned Legaspi joined the conference not only to present his emerging work, but also to experience academic conference participation as part of his continuing journey as a scholar.
Within the conference, Ned presented “Bamboo Against the Current: Culturally Intelligent Storytelling in a Multipolar Media World.” The presentation explored a question emerging from his three decades of international media experience: how can stories remain rooted in culture while communicating meaningfully across different audiences and contexts?
Presented as part of the Asian Communities and Society panel, the paper marked Ned’s first academic conference presentation and an early public articulation of ideas that would later develop into a broader body of work on culturally intelligent storytelling, cross-cultural communication, and connection across cultures.
Engagement Details
Event: 2025 Graduate Student Conference: The Philippines in a Multipolar World
Organizer: University of the Philippines Asian Center
Date: May 31, 2025
Venue: GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium, UP Diliman
Presentation: Bamboo Against the Current: Culturally Intelligent Storytelling in a Multipolar Media World
Panel: Asian Communities and Society
Format: Academic Conference Presentation
Where the Conversation Began
On May 31, 2025, I walked into the UP Asian Center as both a media practitioner and a PhD student.
After exactly three decades in international media, I was familiar with presenting ideas in professional settings. An academic conference was different. I wanted to experience what it meant to present emerging work before a community of students and scholars, to place an idea within an academic conversation, and to learn from the questions and perspectives of others.
The idea I brought with me was still developing. It grew from questions accumulated over years of working across countries and cultures: Why do some stories travel while others do not? Why does shared identity not always lead to shared meaning? And how can creators communicate across cultural differences without losing what makes their stories distinctive?
That day, I presented Bamboo Against the Current: Culturally Intelligent Storytelling in a Multipolar Media World.
It was a beginning of a new conversation.
