The UST Faculty of Arts and Letters and the College of Social and
Media Culture (Wyższa Szkoła Kultury Społecznej i Medialnej) of Toruń,
Poland have completed the first round of journalism faculty exchanges under a multi-year academic and research cooperation agreement funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union.
The UST- WSKSiM exchange program Under the first inter-institutional
agreement between the two schools, is the exchange of faculty members who will deliver lectures before the students of the two institutions. Asst. Prof. Christian V. Esguerra, a faculty member under the UST Journalism program was at the WSKSiM to deliver lectures from November 27
to December 1, 2017. As the WSKSiM counterpart, the UST Faculty of Arts
and Letters hosted Dr. Monika Szetela of WSKSiM from March 2 to 7, 2018,
for a series of lectures delivered before undergraduate students of the Faculty of Arts and Letters and graduate students of the UST Graduate School.
The Memorandum of Understanding on Academic and Research Cooperation between UST and WSKSiM was signed on December 16, 2016 by UST Rector Very Rev. Fr. Herminio V. Dagohoy, O.P., and WSKSiM Rector Rev. Fr. Zdzislaw Klafka, CSsR.
Arts and Letters Dean Prof. Michael Anthony C. Vasco, Ph.D., said the initial
success of the exchange program compelled UST and WSKSiM, both Catholic
institutions, to renew and even expand the academic and research partnership.
Under a new agreement already in the works, its scope will be expanded to
journalism and communication, political science and culture studies, which means that at least three faculty members from Arts and Letters could possibly teach at WSKSiM.
Christian Esguerra lectures at WSKSiM Asst. Prof. Christian Esguerra lectured on the Philippine independence movement in the “Catholics and Independence” Polish National Conference at WSKSiM. Esguerra delivered four lectures before students at WSKSiM – “Media Under Siege,” “Catholic
Journalism,” “Catholic Journalism in the Philippines” and “Journalism Education in the Philippines.”
Esguerra also appeared in the television program “Unfinished Conversations,” broadcast nationally in Poland, and answered a number of questions from Polish viewers on the situation in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte.
Monika Szetela of WSKSiM lectures in UST Dr. Monika Szetela of WSKSiM
conducted a series of lectures delivered before Journalism students and Master of Arts in Communication students. Szetela, a journalist and journalism educator who heads the Journalism and Social Communication Department of WSKSiM, talked extensively about the history of
Poland as well as trends in European and Polish journalism.
Szetela, who also has training in political science, career counselling and
theology, is the editor-in- chief of a monthly youth magazine. She lectured on “Polish Media after the Transformation,” “Media in the Post-Soviet World” and “Media in Central Europe towards the Media in the
World.”
At the 2nd John Jefferson Siler Memorial Forum held on March 5, 2018 at
the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex.
