Honoring Our Past, Reckoning with Our Present, Priming Our Future: DSCTA at 65
Message from the Department Chairperson Dr. Oscar T. Serquiña, Jr.

Upholding the integrity of the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts (DSCTA) as a vital institution in the ecology of communicative and performative knowledge and practice in the country and the region is the top priority of my term. To accomplish this goal, I find it essential to honor our past, reckon with our present, and prime our future as an academic department that was established in the national university almost 65 years ago, and that continues to evolve amid the challenges and opportunities confronting the disciplines of Speech Communication, Theatre Arts, and Performance Studies, as well as our own faculty, students, and staff, especially at present time.
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Honoring Our Past
While at the helm, I wish to instill in all members of the DSCTA the historical importance of our institution and the social relevance of the study and practice of Speech Communication, Theatre Arts, and Performance Studies in and from the Philippines. I intend to carry this out through a) discussions that will elaborate on the institutional developments, curricular configurations, theoretical paradigms, and methodological approaches of the DSCTA over the years; b) initiatives such as academic conferences and collegial conversations with our alumni and our former faculty that will underscore the disciplinary formation and institutional genealogies of the DSCTA; and c) online or physical exhibitions of archival resources that can raise social awareness and understanding on the DSCTA’s longstanding contributions to Philippine academia, culture, and society.
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Reckoning with Our Present
How do we keep the DSCTA relevant to our times? How do we ensure that what we teach in the DSCTA (and those who take charge of them) remain abreast of the old, the ongoing, and the possible conversations in our fields or disciplines? How do we guarantee that our students continue to have a clear understanding of, sustained interest in, and responsive attitude towards the rigors of their academic programs?
One way of maintaining the integrity of the DSCTA is by knowing how the Department fares in an expanding academic environment such as the University of the Philippines (UP); in the fast evolving disciplines of Communication, Theatre, and Performance Studies; and, not least, in the continuously changing contexts of education in both national and global settings. A thorough and honest assessment of the DSCTA has to come about in the form of faculty-led curricular reviews; academic exchanges between the Department and its counterparts within and outside UP; and open dialogues between faculty and professionals in a range of industries.
Faculty members must not only excel in teaching but also contribute to the sustained production of specialized knowledges and to the active enactment of creative/critical social practices. I commit to support their efforts to improve their pedagogies and performances by joining pertinent seminars and training workshops; to enhance their academic profiles via enrolling in or finishing their graduate studies here or overseas; and to deepen and disseminate their disciplinary knowledges and practices through publishing and performing their own research.
Students must not only be academically and scholarly equipped but also socially engaged and professionally prepared. It is my commitment to strengthen the ties between the DSCTA and the student organizations connected to it, ensuring that the latter are not only represented but also, and perhaps even more importantly, involved in departmental programs and policies. I also commit to support extracurricular and non-curricular initiatives that can train our students in writing their own research and grant proposals, in putting together their own professional portfolios, and in making themselves more competitive within and beyond the university.
Lastly, administrative staff must not, in any way, feel left out in the DSCTA. Apart from allowing the faculty and students to carry on with their academic lives with confidence and comfort, they play a meaningful role in ensuring that the day-to-day systems and operations of the DSCTA remain smooth and problem-free. I pledge to provide them an enabling working environment, where each one of them feels valued in the process of making sense of the past and the present, on the one hand, and drawing the future of the Department, on the other hand. I hope to set up platforms that will duly underscore their invaluable individual expertise and institutional memories. Further, it is my commitment to back up any plan to enrich their skills, to encourage any desire to apply for incentives and awards, and to give time and space to plans they wish to see transpiring in the DSCTA workplace.
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Priming the Future
Though cut short, the term of Dr. Sir Anril Tiatco as my predecessor has floated helpful ideas that can move us closer to a probable institutional future. My commitment is to realize some of these ideas related to the fundamental mandates of the Department. The following, therefore, are the banner projects that the Department’s Executive Staff (DES) will strive to accomplish for Academic Year 2023-2024
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Academic
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Revitalizing the MA Speech Communication program
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Instituting new courses and reworking old ones under the Performance Studies track of the BA Speech Communication program
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Instituting Minor Programs in Theatre and Performance Praxes, in Applied Theatre and Performance, and in Rhetoric and Interpersonal Communication
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Research, Creative Work, and Extension Service
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Organizing the 2023 Speech Communication Conference
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Hosting the 2024 International Federation for Theatre Research Conference
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Spearheading talks on disciplinary and departmental formations and transformations; panels showcasing student-led research; and colloquia centering on faculty teaching, practice, and research/scholarship
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Jumpstarting teacher training workshops across Metro Manila and the country on Speech Communication, Theatre Arts, and Performance Studies
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Stabilizing the fiscal status and strengthening the administrative operations of Dulaang UP
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Administration
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(Re)training the teaching and administrative staff
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Securing and equipping academic/performance spaces
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Finishing the Rogelio Juliano Sentro ng Kasuotang Pang-entablado
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Sourcing funds for the possible rehabilitation of PH 132 or the Leticia H. Tison Room
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Publicity
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Initiating monthly alumni features
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Creating a DSCTA YouTube Channel featuring Faculty, Students, and their Areas of Concentration or Expertise
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To keep the institutional integrity of the DSCTA whole and intact, my generation of academics, pedagogues, administrators, scholars, researchers, and public servants has to seriously take stock of our past (that is, how the Department has come to be over the years) and thoughtfully make sense of our present (that is, how the Department exists and functions now). However, unless we wish to be tagged as either nostalgic or myopic, the task of building and rebuilding an academic institution does not certainly end here. As the custodians of the DSCTA tasked to simultaneously honor what has come before us and consider those that may come after us, we are indeed also responsible for tirelessly reworking the structures, securing the conditions, and cultivating the behaviors and logics that can, hopefully, prime our institution’s would-be present.
The task ahead is tall. And the call of duty is strong. While the problems, as with the possibilities, are many.
Allow no one person to carry our institutional blessings and burdens. The DSCTA is multiple. We proceed as a collective, in the first person plural.
