The UST Research Center for Culture, Arts and Humanities (RCCAH) recently held a round table discussion with Prof. Jafalizan Bin MD Jali, a scholar from the University Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Malaysia. The discussion centered on “Oral History: Approach and Methodology in the Conduct of Interview, Transcription, Documentation and Analysis.” Prof. Jafalizan Bin MD Jali specialized in Information Management focusing on rediscovering and reinventing cultural heritage through digital humanities. The session was attended by academic officials of the Faculty of Arts and Letters and select faculty members of the University.
Oral history is a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. It is considered both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, beginning with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.
RCCAH Director Prof. Joyce L. Arriola, Ph.D., recommended the undertaking in line with the Center’s mission of “producing new knowledge in Filipino culture, arts and humanities by providing venue to emergent research that locates our nation’s identity and consciousness in a transnational imaginary and within a burgeoning technology-propelled public sphere.”
Enriching the visiting lecturer’s discussion were insightful observations from the chairs and coordinators of the different academic units of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, namely, Dr. Archie Resos, History; Dr. Jovito Cariño, Philosophy; Asst. Prof. José Arsenio Salandanan, Communication and Media Studies; and Mr. Felipe Salvosa II, Journalism. Other faculty members, Dr. Beyan Hagos, Media Studies; Dr. Robert Ampil, Filipino; Mr. Bien Mabbayad and Ms. Christine Ivy Alarcon-Nogot, Literature and Humanities, took the opportunity to engage the speaker.
RCCAH fellows from the Department of Literature and Humanities Dr. Felicidad P. Galang-Pereña, Dr. Luciana C. Lopez-Urquiola and Dr. Jeanette S. Perez-Grajo, organized a campus tour for the visiting lecturer.
Prof. Jafalizan Bin MD Jali is currently a visiting lecturer of De La Salle University (DLSU) and his visit to UST was endorsed by Dr. Fernando A. Santiago, Jr., Assistant Dean for Research and Advanced Studies of the DLSU College of Liberal Arts, with whom he conducted team teaching for undergraduate students on the same topic.
