The UP Diliman (UPD) Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts (DSCTA) has launched Speech Communication in the Philippines Now, the 25th volume and first issue of Philippine Humanities Review (PHR).
Co-edited by DSCTA Chair Oscar T. Serquiña Jr. and Charles Erize P. Ladia, an assistant professor at the DSCTA, this special issue features nine articles from paper presentations at the Freedoms of Speech in Asia Speech Communication Conference 2023.
Serquiña highlighted the significance of this issue by pointing out several key contributions.
“First, it is a record of another accomplishment of the DSCTA in 2023 [the speech communication conference]. That, too, was an accomplishment—that the Speech Communication Division carried out as part of its efforts to revitalize the discipline. Number two, this journal issue is a record of prevailing logics, interests, and visions of academics, scholars, researchers in the field today. We are not thinking that this would be the enduring direction of speech communication into the future, but we are offering it as a marker of how we are faring now. Number three, it is a record of collaboration—and I’m very proud of this—among speech comm-related programs across the system. It is the first time that UPD, UPLB [UP Los Baños], and UP Baguio (UPB) co-exist in one academic publication. And lastly, this is a record of our commitment to remain relevant and related as an academic discipline, not only in the country, but also across the world,” Serquiña said.
CAL Associate Dean for Research, Creative Work, and Publication Roselle V. Pineda shared, “mahalaga ang pagbabaybay at pagbabalik-tanaw upang tayo ay hindi mawaglit sa ating landas na tutunguhin. At ang pagbabaybay at pagbabalik-tanaw na ginawa ng edition na ito ng PHR ay isang napakahalagang pagbabalik-tanaw at pagbabaybay sa naging kasaysayan at naging karanasan ng speech communication dito sa ating bansa.”
Meanwhile, Ladia said, “I do hope that the title Speech Communication in the Philippines Now actually makes sense because we don’t ask about what’s next. We don’t ask where we are headed… I do hope that it helps us pin speech communication not only in its definition but how Filipino scholars understand and experience speech communication.”
The issue articles were described as touching on “the different pedagogical, theoretical, and methodological paradigms currently animating the discipline of speech communication in the Philippines.”
Opening the issue is Reflections on the State of Speech Communication at the University of the Philippines Diliman by Jose Carlo G. de Pano, PhD, an associate professor at the DSCTA and student affairs vice chancellor at UPD; Marielle Justine C. Sumilong; Ladia; and Christine Joy A. Magpayo. Sumilong and Magpayo are assistant professors at the DSCTA.
It is followed by The UPLB Speech Communication Identity: Weaving Humanities Roots, Institutional Practices, and Disciplinary Trajectories by Cheeno Marlo M. Sayuno, PhD; Carson Jeffrey O. Cruz; Jea Agnes Taduran-Buera; and Katrina Anne E. Blanco. They are from the UPLB Department of Humanities where Sayuno is an associate professor, and Cruz, Taduran-Buera, and Blanco are assistant professors.
Next are Localizing and Theorizing Speech/Rhetoric Studies in the Philippine University by Orville B. Tatcho, PhD, an associate professor at the UP Baguio Department of Communication; and The Possibilities of Indigenizing Rhetorical Theory by Cruz.
The fifth and sixth articles are Lo-fi Freedoms and the Anti-Aesthetic Photograph by Rex Sandro M. Nepomuceno, and Political Activism through Liturgical Performance: Teatro Ekyumenikal and the Ecumenical Counterpublic at the United People’s SONA by Junesse D.R. Crisostomo-Pilario. Both are assistant professors at the DSCTA.
Next is The Gender Trap: Performing Gender and Queerness as Reflected in Pink Peso Advertisements by Sherie Claire G. Ponce, an assistant professor at the DSCTA and is the graduate head of the speech communication program.
The eighth article is Queering Teacher Identity: Filipino LGBTQ+ Teachers’ Self-Disclosure of their Sexual Identity in the Classroom by Holden Kenneth G. Alcazaren and Jonalou S. Labor, PhD. Alcazaren is an assistant professor at the DSCTA, while Labor is an associate professor at the UPD Department of Communication Research.
The last article is Protection from Anti-Free Speech Persuasion: An Experimental Testing of Inoculation Strategy in Building Resistance to Persuasive Anti-Free Speech Messages among Filipino Youth by Karl Lewis L. Cruz, an instructor at the DSCTA.
The launch also had a panel discussion featuring Tatcho, Carson Jeffrey O. Cruz, and de Pano. It was moderated by Kate Ashlyn N. Dayag-Nonay, an assistant professor at the DSCTA.
Additional messages were given by UPD College of Arts and Letters (CAL) Library Head Librarian Jocelyn P. Basa and BA speech communication student Chezka Mayne C. Angara.
Also present at the launch were college officials including CAL Dean Jimmuel C. Naval and former CAL dean Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete, as well as CAL students.
Ladia announced that the journal’s second issue will contain six articles written by BA speech communication students from UPD, and another speech communication conference will be held in UPLB this year.
Printed copies of the journal were presented to the issue contributors and editors at the launch last Feb. 21 at the CAL Library.
PHR is a CAL refereed journal accredited by the Commission on Higher Education managed by the CAL Publications Program. According to the PHR website, it “publishes scholarly, critical and analytical works on various aspects of Philippine culture, the arts and letters, as well as creative works in the broad field of the humanities.”
For the online PHR Vol. 25, Issue 1 (2023-2024), visit https://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/phr.
