About Me

Pamela Joy (PJ) Capistrano

Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), Philippines.I got my PhD in Philosophy from the Université de Namur (Belgium) where I was associated with the Department of Sciences, Philosophies, and Societies. My thesis there grew out of my field research with the Land Use Change in the Uplands Impacts and Drivers (LUCID) Project, a multi-disciplinary development research project in Bukidnon, Philippines, funded by the Belgian Academie de Recherche et Enseignement Superieure (ARES).
My research interests are at the intersection of critical social theory, the capability approach, post/decolonial studies, and development praxis. I teach undergraduate and graduate classes on political philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and the philosophical foundations of the capability approach.
I was one of the recipients of the 2024 Ul Haq Early Career Scholarship from the United Nations Development Program-HDRO and the Human Development and Capability Association.
On a more personal note, I am married to an economist and a mother to a feisty, clever kiddo.Professional affiliations:
Treasurer and member of the Board of Trustees, Women Doing Philosophy; Treasurer and Executive Committee Member, Philippine Human Development Network.

Writing & Publications

Between Structure and Agency:
Structural Injustice in the Capability Approach, its Applications, and in the Structure of HYV Corn Farming in Bukidnon, Philippines (PhD Thesis)(forthcoming 2027)
Kelly Agra, Christine Tan, and Pamela Joy (PJ) Mariano Capistrano, "Philosophical (Mis)education as Deliberate Structural Injustice," chapter in Structural Injustice in Philosophy, Maeve McKeown, Milana Kostik, Seunghyun Son (eds.), Bloomsbury Academic."Agency, Global Capitalism, and Postcolonial Patronage: Provocations on Structural Injustice Through the System of Smallholder Corn Farming in the Upper Pulangi," in Thesis Eleven(July 2026) Rowena Azada-Palacios and Pamela Joy Mariano Capistrano, "Loób, kapwa and educational attunement: Reimagining relationality in the classroom," chapter in Teaching Ethically in the Global South, Nuraan Davids and Samuel Mendonça (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan.

Presentations & Lectures

Upcoming and Recent Conferences, Presentations, Public Lectures

10 June 2026
Public Panel: Decolonizing Philippine Philosophy (together with Jacklyn Cleofas and Ma. Lovelyn Paclibar), Decolonizing Knowledge and Power: The Philippine Context Summer School, University of the Philippines Baguio2 June 2026
"Agency, Global Capistalism, and Postcolonial Patronage," lecture shared through the Ferriols Resource Center for Philippine Philosophy12 November 2025
"Fieldwork in Philosophy? Existential Phenomenology, Critical Theory, and Field Philosophy," Interdisciplinary Research Methods in Philosophy (together with Rowena Azada-Palacios), Ateneo de Manila University31 October 2025
"Women, Motherhood, and Home: Grappling with Gendered Dwelling." Philosophy of the City Research Group Annual Conference, Busan, South Korea14 October 2025
"Sinugdanan: Philosophizing in the Field." Talakayang Alay sa Bayan (TALAB) alternative class program, Ateneo de Manila University27 November 2024
Public Dialogue on the Problematic Philosophical Canon, University of the Philippines - Baguio27 November 2024
Research Roundtable, Graduate Programs, Department of Philosophy, Ateneo de Manila24-26 September 2024
Structural Injustice and the Capability Approach, Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) 20th Annual Conference, Kolkata20-21 September 2024
(with Kelly Agra, PhD and Christine Tan, PhD) Philosophical (Mis)Education: Philosophy's Structural Foreclosures and the Paralysis of Critique, Philippine Society for Education and Philosophy 1st Annual Conference, University of Santo Tomas, Manila

Women Doing Philosophy (WDP)

Organization

Women Doing Philosophy is an association for Filipina women in philosophy, both within and outside the Philippines. I currently serve as its Treasurer and member of the Board of Trustees.