A PROFESSOR from the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) has been elected chair of a division of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), a government-backed association of researchers.
Prof. Joyce L. Arriola, former chair of the AB literature department and director of UST Research Center for Culture, Arts and Humanities, will serve a two-year term as head of the humanities division of the NRCP.
In an interview with The Flame, Arriola said she would prioritize the re-articulation of the nature and ethical grounding of humanities as a discipline at a time of widespread disinformation.
“I wish to reinvigorate the ethical grounding of the Humanities, Arts and Culture—particularly in the domains of Publication Ethics and Digital Media Ethics—in so far as the truth has become a casualty in this post-truth era and in this virtually-dominated media ecology that has been sadly hijacked by this mindless project of misinformation and disinformation,” Arriola said.
In her vision statement for NRCP, Arriola mentioned the need to “re-codify research ethics,” especially in relation to matters of intellectual property, freedom of information and data privacy.
Arriola also wants to look into the current assessment standards for research and how they can influence the Humanities.
“I am for identifying a research excellence framework that will address the nature and potentials of the disciplines in the Humanities while responding to the opportunities being offered by international indexing systems and collaboration,” she added.
Arriola finished a bachelor’s (1988), master’s (1995), and doctoral (2003) degree in Literature at UST. She also completed a master’s degree in communication major in journalism (1998) and a doctoral degree in communication (2013) at the University of the Philippines.
In 2021, Arriola was conferred the Teodoro F. Valencia Professorial Chair in Journalism. F – Fatima Baduria