Jan Robert R. Go

Jan Robert R Go, PhD

Associate Professor of Political Science
on fellowship

jrgo1@up.edu.ph
Google Scholar | ResearchGate

Jan Robert R Go is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science, University of the Philippines Diliman.

Dr Go served as President of the Philippine Political Science Association (PPSA) from June 2023 to June 2025. Prior to this, he was the Managing Editor of the Philippine Political Science Journal (PPSJ)—the PPSA’s Web of Science and Scopus-indexed journal—from 2014 to 2023. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies (PACS) from 2022 to 2026. Since 2025, Dr Go has sat on the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC), representing the PPSA. Within the university, he held the positions of Associate Dean for Research, Extension, and Publications at the University of the Philippines College of Social Sciences and Philosophy from August 2022 to August 2024, and Department Graduate Program Coordination from September 2024 to December 2025. In 2025, he began serving as Associate Editor for Book Reviews of Asian Politics and Policy, a Scopus-indexed journal.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) from the University of the Philippines Manila and his Master of Arts (Political Science) from UP Diliman. His master’s research examined the politics of education decentralisation in a Philippine municipality. In 2017, he attended the Chinese Language Summer School at Peking University in Beijing, China. He received his doctoral degree in Political Theory from Central China Normal University in Wuhan in 2022. His first book, published by Palgrave Macmillan in January 2026, is based on his doctoral dissertation on the politics of participation in urban communities in Quezon City, Philippines, and Wuhan, China, during pandemic-related lockdowns.

Dr Go was one of the recipients of the 2026 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Fellowship of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Political Science at National Chengchi University. In 2025, he was a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Asian Studies (CÉTASE) and the Department of Political Science at the Université de Montréal, Canada. In 2024, he was appointed as one of the experts of the Hubei (China) Overseas Chinese Theory and Research Think Tank (2024 to 2027). He also participated in the 2023 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists, organised by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In 2021, he was selected as a fellow of the American Political Science Association (APSA) Asia Workshop, which focused on local politics and governance in East and Southeast Asia. He has been awarded the UP Diliman Centennial Professorial Chair in 2023, 2024, and 2025, the One UP Faculty Grant in Political Science (Local Politics) for Outstanding Research and Public Service (2019-2021) and the One UP Professorial Chair in Political Science (Political Theory) for Teaching and Research (2025-2027).

Associate Professor Go teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in Philippine politics, political theory, and political methodology. His research interests include local politics and decentralisation, grassroots politics in urban and rural contexts, the construction of political power, participation theory, and Chinese domestic politics.

Before joining the University as a full-time faculty member in 2014, Dr Go worked at the Emergency and Humanitarian Action unit of the World Health Organisation Regional Office for the Western Pacific. He was also a lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences of St Scholastica’s College in Manila.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Political Theory, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China, 2022
  • Master of Arts (Political Science), University of the Philippines, Diliman, 2013.
  • Bachelor of Arts (Political Science), University of the Philippines, Manila, 2009.

Research Interests

Local and grassroots politics; construction of power; the politics of participation; Asian and Philippine political theory; Chinese domestic politics

Select Publications

Courses Taught

  • POLSC 101: Introduction to Philippine Politics
  • POLSC 111: Qualitative Research Methods in Political Science
  • POLSC 120: Introduction to Political Theory
  • POLSC 125: Asian Political Thought
  • POLSC 126: Philippine Political Thought
  • POLSC 137: Special Topics in Comparative Politics (China)
  • POLSC 199: Research Design in Political Science
  • POLSC 201: Analysis of Philippine Politics
  • POLSC 210: Advanced Political Analysis
  • POLSC 220: Issues in Political Theory
  • Soc Sci 2: Social, Economic, and Political Thought