SoSS holds First Graduate Research Colloquium
In celebration of SoSS week, the School of Social Sciences held the first SoSS Graduate Research Colloquium on 6 February 2013 at the Case Study Room, Social Sciences Building.
Ms Val Buenaventura, graduate student from the Department of Political Science hosted the event which gathered some 70 graduate students from the various departments of the School of Social Sciences. The colloquium began with an opening prayer led by Sr Belinda Revita, an MA student of Educational Administration. Dr Armand Guidote, Loyola Schools Associate Dean for Research and Creative Works, gave the welcome remarks.
The colloquium showcased the best research by graduate students that their respective departments have nominated for the Outstanding Graduate Research Awards:
Dr MendiolaTeng-Calleja (PhD Social-Organizational Psychology) for her dissertation "Intergroup Conversational Positioning during Wage Negotiations Within Collective Bargaining"
Dr Judith M de Guzman (PhD Social-Organizational Psychology) for her dissertation "Social Representations of Foreign Aid: Exploring Meaning-Making in Aid Practice in Sulu, Southern Philippines"
Mr Dino Vincent Paul A Concepcion (MA Sociology) for his thesis "Embedded Tunes: An Exploratory Sociological Study on Popular Music Consumption Among Selected Filipino Workers"
Ms Emily B Roque (MA Sociology) for her thesis "Survival Strategies of Street Homeless in Manila: Homelessness as a Way of Life"
Dr Celeste Gonzalez, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs presented the certificates of recognition to the four finalists.
Dr Ma Elizabeth Macapagal, SoSS Research Coordinator, announced the winners, namely, Ms Emily B Roque for the Outstanding Graduate Thesis award and Dr Mendiola Calleja for the Outstanding Graduate Dissertation Award.
Ms Roque's thesis represents a significant contribution to the literature on urban poverty. Her mapping of the spatial location of different kinds of homeless people is methodologically sound and of very practical use to social and development workers. Especially striking is her inclusion of gay/lesbian/bisexual homeless people, which is probably a first in the literature. The inventory of adaptive strategies of the urban poor and the modes of social construction of poverty/homelessness is also very theoretically compelling. The thesis adviser was Dr Liza Lim.
Dr Calleja's dissertaion analyzed the dynamics of actual labor-management interactions within collective negotiations over wages using conversation analysis. The author applied a complicated methodology in the study of negotiation. By focusing on the social meaning and structure of talk during wage negotiations, the study presents a fairly new and fresh perspective on an oft-studied topic in psychology. The study effectively used Positioning Theory and Conversation Analysis to understand collective negotiations. The dissertation adviser was Dr Cristina Montiel.
The colloquium formally ended with the closing remarks given by the SoSS Dean, Dr Filomeno Aguilar Jr.
