Five Arts and Letters mentors present papers at various conferences in Australia, Brazil, Taiwan, Switzerland

Asst. Prof. Marella Ada V. Mancenido Bolaños, Ph.D., of the Department
of Philosophy, Prof. Felicidad P. Galang-Pereña, Ed.D., of the Department
of Literature, Dr. Rachelle B. Lintao, of the Department of English, Asst. Prof. Rhochie Avelino E. Matienzo, Ph.D., and Prof. Franz Giuseppe F. Cortez, Ph.D., of the Department of Philosophy, were the five faculty members from the Faculty of Arts and Letters who presented papers
and attended conferences in international conferences that dealt with topics that range from teaching Philosophy, using memories to write, sea disputes as represented in Philippine and Chinese media, to the practice of ethics in business.

Bolaños in Australia Department of Philosophy faculty member Asst. Prof. Marella Ada V. Mancenido-Bolaños, Ph.D., presented a paper titled “Matthew Lipman’s Critique of the Standard Educational Practice
and the Case of the Teacher Education Program in the Philippines” during the biennial conference of the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools association held from July 9 to 11, 2018 at The Hale School, Wembly Downs, Western Australia and at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle.
The conference started with the In-Action day held at The Hale School, Wembly Downs, Western Australia. The in-action day showcased community of inquiry sessions which were participated in by lower and middle school students.

The sessions were facilitated by Peter Worley and Louise Gusterson. The second and third days were held at the University of Notre Dame, remantle where Sandra Lynch of the University of Notre Dame and Michael Hand of University of University of Birminghan delivered their keynote presentations.

In her paper, Bolaňos argued that Lipman’s critique remains relevant to this day because the problems of the standard educational practice remain unexamined. She likewise argued that Philosophy in Schools (or Philosophy for Children or Community of Inquiry) cannot be fully implemented in the Philippines precisely because the teacher training program lacks Philosophy courses that will prepare its future teachers to critically and reflectively facilitate the implementation of Philosophy in Schools.

Bolaños concluded that there is a necessity for colleges of Education to
once and for all revisit their curriculum and look into the possibility of adding more Philosophy courses which are to be taught by trained faculty members because a course in Logic and a diffused Philosophy of Education taught by untrained faculty members will not lead into the proper implementation of Philosophy in Schools.

Scholars affirmed that her observations and recommendations were indeed correct. Pereňa in Brazil To further her research interest on Memory Work, Prof. Felicidad P. GalangPereña, Ed.D., of the Department of Literature and Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Letters presented her paper titled “Teaching with HOPE: Written memories of Liberal Arts College Alumni
of their Unforgettable Professors” at the International Auto/Biographical Association (IABA) biennial world conference (IABA Brazil 2018) held at the Universidade Federa de Sao Jao del-Rei, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, enabling her to be included in the roster of IABA new scholars. A book
project is also being proposed for the selected papers of IABA Brazil 2018.
With the theme “Secret Lives: Hiding, Revealing, Belonging,” this conference “delved into questions of how lives become concealed by theorizing the ways in which we choose to keep secret and reveal our
lives; how non-authorial others shape life stories; imposed and sanctioned silencing; the passage of time as an erasure of lives; and the relationships between hiding, being hidden, revealing, and ideas of belongings.”
Pereňa’s paper, using the lens of phenomenology, endeavored to surface
narratives of student-teacher relations through memory work, the research
method developed by Frigga Haug within the women’s movement in the beginning of the 1980s, which underlying theory was pinned down by Small in 2007 as a social constructionist method with the self being socially constructed through reflection— memories.


The International Auto/Biography Association (IABA) is an interdisciplinary
international group founded in 1999 to create a way for researchers and cultural producers in the field of biography, autobiography and life writing to share their work. Since 2000, the members of IABA have held an international conference every two years in China, Canada, Australia,
Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.


The IABA is maintained by a group of senior scholars, most of whom have organized and overseen an IABA conference or event. It also has a close
relationship with important academic journals, maintaining several chapters that work in concert with the biannual IABA World conference and hold their own events: IABA Europe, IABA Americas, and IABA Asia-Pacific.

There is also the SNS Network for graduate students and new scholars who
want to discuss issues connected to the study of life writing. The conference held at the São João del Rei, Brasil is the eleventh biennial. The next conference will be held in Turku, Finland in 2020.


Lintao in Taiwan Assoc. Prof. Rachelle B. Lintao, Ph.D., of the Department of
English presented her paper titled “Representations of the Sea Disputes
in Philippine and Chinese Media” at the 28th Southeast Asian Linguistics
Society (SEALS) Conference in Wenzao Ursuline University of
Languages, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.


Lintao’s paper examined a cross-cultural perspective on how the top popular press in the Philippines and China portray an evaluative stance as regards the South China SEA tensions. The three-day conference brought
together more than 100 presenters from around the world stretching all the way from North America, Europe to Southeast Asia. The first and the only academic society in the world that focuses on research on the languages of South East Asia, SEALS is on the forefront of facilitating communication
among scholars and students considering that Southeast Asia is of extraordinary linguistic diversity. The society advocates the documentation, analysis and teaching and maintenance of South East Asian
languages.

Matienzo discusses his research on Boracay at the conference in Switzerland. Matienzo, Cortez in Switzerland Asst. Prof. Rhochie Avelino E.
Matienzo, Ph.D., and Prof. Franz Giuseppe F. Cortez, Ph.D., of the Department of Philosophy attended the International Conference on Managing and Teaching Business Ethics held in LassalleHaus, BadSchönbrunn, Switzerland.

The conference is the second in a series of the three international conferences on teaching and managing business ethics

The first which was held in June 2017 in Manila, Philippines focused on the SouthEast Asian participants while the third will be held in July 2019 in Santa Clara, California, USA.

More than 80 scholars and practitioners from 21 countries, particularly from Europe and Africa participated in the conference. The conference, whose aim was to explore “the challenges of doing business in an
ethical manner in the modern globalized world” in the light of the Ignatian tradition, focused on two points: first, academic exchange among professionals and scholars on business ethics; second, interactions between specialists and practitioners in corporations, in the spirit of
Ignatian formation.

The conference topics were on the challenges, practices and theories to
further enhance the practice of ethics in the business sector. There was also
an encounter with the actual business leaders, such as CEO Pius Baschera

of Hilti Corporation in Liechtenstein, Antoinette Hunziker-Ebneter, founder and CEO of Forma Futura Invest AG, Peter Zehnder, consultant at Egon Zehnder Professional Services, Eva Hauselmann, founder and manager of Despite Ltd., Consultancy, and Dorothea Bauer, founder and owner of Baur Consulting AG and a discussion on the ethical challenges theory xorporations and governmental institutions experienced. A corporate tour
to the 124-year old Victorinox Factory of the famed Swiss Army Knife with its CEO Carl Elsener personally welcoming the participants was part of the conference experience.


Matienzo of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, Department of Philosophy,
Graduate School and RCCAH presented his paper titled “Boracay, a Cesspool? A Reading of Laudato Si on the Best Island in the World,” and Cortez presented a paper titled “Reflecting together on the Vocation
of the Business Leader: A Suggestion for Classroom Engagement.”

The conference was organized by Tobias Karcher, S.J., Director of
Lasalle-Haus and Lasalle-Intitut in Zug, Switzerland, Kirk Hanson, Executive Director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the Santa Clara University in California and Oscar G. Bulaong Jr., Director of the Gov.
Jose B. Fernandez Jr. Ethics Center at the Ateneo de Manila University,
Philippines. The institutional organizers were the International Association
of Jesuit Business Schools, ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University
(URL) Barcelona and the Hochschule für Philosophie, München.
The conference also included a visit to the landmarks of Switzerland
such as the famous basilica of Abbey of the Our Lady of Einsiedeln (home of
the Black Madonna) and the hermitage of the medieval saint Bruder Klaus, a Swiss religious and political leader in Flüeli-Ranft, Switzerland overlooking the beautiful Alpine mountains.

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