Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
Pages 28-42 | Vol. 1 No. 2 | 2021
Institutionally Speaking: Speech Departments and the Making of a Philippine Eloquent Modernity
Oscar Tantoco Serquiña, Jr.
University of Melbourne, Australia & University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines
[email protected]
Abstract: This essay initiates a historiographical account of speech departments in the University of the Philippines (UP) and Silliman University. Founded in 1959 and 1965, respectively, these academic formations are the two existing bastions for the comprehensive and disciplinary study and practice of speech/speech communication in the country and the rest of Asia. This essay explores a) the use of speech as the organizing principle of scholarly inquiry in the Philippine modern university, b) the pedagogies composing Philippine speech curricula, c) the performances enacted by speech programs in UP and Silliman University, d) the speaking subjects that speech departments seek to develop, and, finally, e) the relationship of these institutions to what may be termed as an eloquent modernity. Some pertinent questions concerning the nature and the future of the discipline of speech/speech communication in a postcolonial nation like the Philippines comprise the essay’s conclusion.
Keywords: speech/speech communication, Philippine academic departments, institutional histories, the University of the Philippines, Silliman University
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