Academe related post, hehe. One of the things I had been looking forward to for the past year was going to conferences and presenting my researches. I had been absent-minded enough to erroneously submit my abstract to a nation-wide competition: The National Communication Research Conference 2013.
Thank goodness, it looks like they decided to make me into a special guest speaker instead. Since I seem to be the only research doctor with a paper in there — the rest are college students — they decided to not let me compete. I’m wondering what happened to the other graduate students’ (master’s and doctoral) submissions…
In any case, one of the things that excited me about this conference is not my speaking engagement itself. It’s the fact that His Excellency Former President Fidel V. Ramos was the inspirational speaker for this.
(Forgive the fuzzy photo, my Galaxy Note is not for zooming, haha.)
I was too young to have voted for him at the time but if he would be allowed to run for president again (and if he would like to run), I would vote for him.
Imagine my delight to find out that he is actually the ultimate nerd: master’s degree in civil engineering, master’s degree in national security administration, master’s degree in business administration, 28 honorary doctorate degrees from various local and international institutions. And these are just his educational attainments. The former president is so busy implementing many things throughout the country that his business card title is already too long. His accomplishments (not without its share of controversies) span decades, and are two centuries worth.
(With Dr. Florinda Mateo, Dr. Lourdes Portus and Dr. Elena Pernia.)
He has a strange sense of humor and I found myself laughing, especially when he told some bespectacled people in the audience that their eyeglasses were no good. He then proceeded to poke his forefinger through his own eyeglass frames to reveal that they didn’t hold glasses at all!
Ok, let me take a break from all that nerd fangirling to insert another ultra nerd, university heartthrob’s photo:
(Again, sorry for the blurry pic haha.)
That’s University of the Philippines Mass Communication Dean Roland Tolentino, whose manuscripts would make my nose bleed (especially the ones written in Filipino).
Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of myself for posterity’s sake. I will have to wait for official photos to come out. Will probably just edit this entry once I get the snapshots of my actual presentation and my acceptance of the special guest speaker’s certificate.
My topic, Filipino Women Social Gamers Co-Creating Images (you can read my abstract here), was actually a super chopped up version of my doctoral dissertation, which I reduced from 348 pages to 25 pages just for this conference. I had a lot of fun with the topic, I suppose because I could see that many of the participants could actually relate to the games I discussed. It also gave me an idea on how to shorten my presentation further and tailor it to fit a wider range of audience.
Whew! I was hella nervous but that actually felt good. I had always wanted to speak about things I’m passionate about, like my research and my advocacy. My previous speaking engagements had always been peppered with commercialization. (Well, I still am passionate about my job in the game industry but I’d really rather talk about the craft instead of advertising my wares in important nation-wide conferences such as this).
Hopefully, I’d be able to sit down with my editor so I can present my research findings on an international scale. If I manage that, then I have accomplished 2013 Goal #7 completely.
Jean Venturanza Lapa
February 17, 2013 at 8:12 pmJust by your narratives (without going through the whole dissertation), I am certain that your paper will be accepted for presentation (or for round table discussion) in an international forum. Please file an application soonest. Yours is a relevant topic in today's world. So proud of you!
Jean Venturanza Lapa
February 17, 2013 at 8:14 pmEven without going through the whole dissertation (just by your narratives), I believe your paper will land a place in an international forum….. Please submit an application. I have a friend whose papers (2 of them) were approved for an international conference in Michigan. Yours is a very interesting subject and very relevant in today's world.
skysenshi
February 17, 2013 at 11:49 pmThanks, Ma! There's one in Indonesia that I want to prepare for. But I need to find an institution that would fund me.