A Filipina professor and historian received the highest honors from Universidad Complutense de Madrid just recently.
Professor Dr. Ros Costelo achieved this during the defense of her doctoral thesis, entitled, “Public Works and the Spanish Colonial Agenda of Sanitation, Order, and Social Control in the Late Eighteenth Century to Nineteenth-Century Manila”.
According to the statement from the Embassy of the Philippines in Madrid, Spain, Costelo was given the mark of ‘Sobresaliente Cum Laude”, the highest possible mark that can be bestowed by the Spanish educational system.
Dr. Costelo’s thesis detailed how Spanish colonial policies helped or hindered the lives of Manilenos through the creation of public works such as water systems, public streets and lighting, slaughterhouses, public markets, and cemeteries.
RELATED STORY: LOOK: Filipino-American engineer part of successful NASA Mars mission
She was lauded for her original research and its contribution to the study of colonial life in the waning days of the Spanish empire in the Philippines.
Dr. Costelo, a native from Tunga, Leyte province in the Philippines, obtained her Doctorate in Contemporary History, with flying colors, and in a foreign country.
Her feat, according to the embassy, was a challenging one as she was faced with lockdown measures being implemented in Spain due to COVID-19 and she herself also contracted it.
“Then, I tested positive for COVID-19 while I was in the final stretch of thesis writing. Pero, laban lang! History has taught us many narratives of people’s responses to the challenges of the time. In the end, this achievement would not have been possible if not for the support and prayers of many people and institutions. I am beyond grateful. I just hope that my work can contribute to the fuller understanding of our nation’s story,” Dr. Costelo said.
READ ON: Filipino-American appointed by US President Biden as acting head of USAID
Apart from being a historian, Costelo is also a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Diliman History Department.
Ambassador Philippe J. Lhuillier also thanked Dr. Costelo’s support for the Embassy’s cultural events by sharing her skills as resource speaker and moderator in the virtual events.
“Dr. Costelo is not only smart, motivated, and hard-working, but she has a good heart and is always there to help towards advancing Philippine-Spain relations. I am certain she will continue to make the country proud.”
