Conferences are excellent venues for feedback from reactors and the participants. Paper presenters revise and improve their manuscripts based on the comments and recommendations.
Some would submit enhanced versions of their manuscripts to journal and book publishers. The manuscripts again undergo a review process but are more thorough and rigid.
This track is the usual way I take to publish scholarly papers, at least once or twice a year, amidst my busy work schedule.
The reviews by a panel composed of experts would take time, and authors must wait painstakingly. The reviewers would either recommend to reject or accept the manuscript without revision, or with major or minor revisions.
It pains to have a rejected manuscript, but only for a time because it can still be improved and submitted elsewhere.
Persistence, patience, desire to learn, and commitment to quality are virtues expected of authors to survive the politics of a time-consuming publication process.
In most universities, authors earn points for conference presentations, and other points for their publications.
These two dissemination platforms have different layers of scholarships, and require two incentives to sustain faculty enthusiasm.
However, some faculty contend themselves with either of the two—often, conference presentations are preferred, which are less rigorous. A few others maximize the gains of these two scholarships for promotion and cash incentives. They retire with the rank of full professor.
An example of a highly- anticipated conference by sociologists and other social scientists in the county, including undergraduate and graduate students, is what the Philippine Sociological Society organizes annually.
Attendance and paper presentations at PSS conferences promote research and publication culture, particularly among graduate students expected to publish scholarly articles as a graduation requirement, aside from the theses or dissertations.
The most noteworthy benefit is meeting and listening to prominent scholars whose works and names the students may have only read in journals or heard about in academic circles.
The Caraga State University in Butuan City in Agusan del Norte will host the 2024 PSS conference from Oct. 2 to 4.
The conference theme, Imagining (De)colonization: Reflections, Directions, Actions fits well with the host Institution’s location.
The place is known as a pre-colonial settlement, having existed before the Spaniards came. A museum in Butuan exhibits the Balanghai hull, which is the earliest watercraft known in the country, dating from about 320 AD.
Historical accounts describe Caraga, now used as a name of the region where Butuan City is, as originating from what the Spanish chronicler Antonio Pigafetta described as Calagan—the land of brave souls (calag) or people.
Interestingly, the Caraga Administrative Region was designated only in 1995, or 30 years ago, as the 13th region of the country through Republic Act No. 7901. It was not created through a plebiscite nor listed in the Ordinance of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
However, it exists and comprises provinces from other regions. These are Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte—formerly with Northern Mindanao or Region XI—and Surigao del Sur—formerly with Southern Mindanao or Region XII.
The provinces of Agusan and Surigao, comprising the Caraga Region, are geographically divided by mountains, and are culturally distinct. The people speak more than five languages, but Cebuano and Surigaonon dominate them.
However, these physical and cultural differences do not hamper the administration of the four provinces as one region to benefit from integrated development planning, and better delivery of government services.
Thus, every PSS conference I have attended outside the National Capital Region further offers learning opportunities about the surrounding places outside the venue.
In the forthcoming conference, I will present a paper on the colonial root of the political and administrative fission and fusion of Negros Island.
I will contextualize the developing story of the elusive one island-one region, now complicated by Siquijor Island’s inclusion.
The Caraga Region provides an excellent backdrop.
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