OpinionsPublic Engagement2012 anthropological memoirs

2012 anthropological memoirs

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The year 2012 ended for me with three articles in anthropology published in three different refereed journals outside of Silliman University. I co-authored with a colleague and a graduate student in anthropology in one of these articles. The long process the articles went through until they were published made these as major personal accomplishments, as well as for the Department of Sociology & Anthropology as it aimed to become a Center for Development in Anthropology of the Commission on Higher Education.

It has been worthwhile writing here, not only for the public to know what these articles are all about, but also that it may inspire administrators and college faculty to publish in refereed journals in their disciplines. These articles were results of researches that were not directly funded, but driven by inquisitiveness and persistence, while doing some other tasks and inspired by other readings.

Reading refereed-journals, and writing research articles are connected. I always tell my graduate students that one cannot write if one does not read about particular topics to determine knowledge gaps for researchers to fill up.

Therefore, reading precedes researching and writing quality paper. This also explains the program of CHED of providing on-line journal subscriptions to members of the Philippine Higher Education Research Network (PHERNet), of which Silliman University is a member.

Although anthropology is my disciplinary bias, I also read articles in the natural sciences and other social sciences so I can understand their language, and find the contribution of anthropology to these disciplines. But anthropology itself has several sub-areas that make this a complex field of study that examines culture not as a static phenomenon but as one that continuously interacts with other cultures and the environment.

If you had read all the 29 articles I had published here in MetroPost since June 2012, you may have noticed that although central to the theme is culture, the discussions were connected either to tourism, environment, service-learning, or quality of life of people in the margin. When I decided to start this weekly column, my major aim was to find meanings to some social and cultural issues that are sometimes taken for granted, and to raise people’s awareness about them.

Examples of these issues, which were the focus of the journal articles I mentioned earlier, are the conditions of overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, particularly the domestic helpers, and their annual staging of the Sinulog Festival. While I was in Hong Kong for four months as a recipient of the United Board Fellows Program, I did this study on Sundays to “kill” time, and to socialize with fellow Filipinos. But the research was not part of the expected output under the program; it was driven by a personal agenda that ultimately turned public.

From that research, the first article on Engaging with the Overseas Filipino Workers in Hong Kong: How was it Public Anthropology?” was published in Agham-Tao (vol. 18, pp. 1-18), a journal of the Anthropological Association of the Philippines. The second is titled The Sinulog Festival of Overseas Filipino Workers in Hong Kong: Meanings and Contexts published in Asian Anthropology (vol. 11, pp. 107-128). This is a journal of the Department of Anthropology of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Anthropological Society. In both articles, I am promoting the religiosity, skills, talents and creativity of OFWs to show that they deserve fair treatment while they are employed as domestic helpers.

The primary aim of the third article, from a separate research, is evident in its title, Strings of Pride: The Conservation and Transmission of Dauin’s Rondalla Tradition. This was published in Musika Jornal (vol. 8, pp. 104-131) of the Center for Ethnomusicology, University of the Philippines-Diliman. For this article, my co-authors Prof. Rolando V. Mascunana and Malcolm C. Hiponia did fieldwork during weekends, but without external funding. We were inspired by our collective desire to document the rondalla tradition of Dauin before it would be too late, and to have it widely-circulated.

Indeed, having an article published in a refereed, professional journal is not easy, but it is a great achievement once the manuscript passed the rigors of intensive review, particularly, when one almost gave up because he or she considered the reviewers’ comments as too harsh. I felt that way when I just started publishing, but I was able to overcome it, by treating constructively the reviewers’ comments and suggestions.

Allow me now to underscore to my colleagues in academia that everyone has the potential to engage in research and to publish, but practice and dedication to the craft is necessary to produce quality work and to be able to influence others.

This New Year is just the right time to set our targets on what and how many research articles to produce. Take note that our ability to meet deadlines and our personal targets, in addition to quality, are the measures of true scholarship. Happy New Year!

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