BAGUIA
Kyoto — Scholars of ethics, religion, philosophy, and psychology from around the world gathered in the city of Kobe from March 22 to 24 last week to share the latest research in a conference with the theme “surviving and thriving in times of change.”
The weather, changing from winter to spring was an apt backdrop to the gathering organized by the International Academic Forum at the Art Center of Kobe, a venue on a riverbank where cherry blossoms were awakening.
Some of the research findings that I found most interesting were disseminated during the poster presentation.
From the Philippines, a group of researchers, having used a loneliness scale and risk perception scale in a study of 298 Filipino adolescents reported that “great discrepancy in the quality of the parent-child relationship may promote patterns of loneliness” which leads to behaviors like drinking, engaging in sex, and smoking.
The researchers were Sherwin Castillo, Mary Mia Villanueva, Kristia Ysabel de Guzman, Athena Marie Castaño, and Aylin Victoria Apuan of Miriam College, and Aylin Bello of Miriam College and Ateneo de Manila University.
From Germany, scholars reported that the use of music during a caesarian operation “is an easy to implement measure against stress and anxiety.”
The conclusion was reached following an experiment in which 304 patients were shown to have lower levels of surge in the stress hormone cortisol, lower systolic blood pressure, and lower heart rates and therefore lower levels of stress and anxiety while going through caesarean section as music was being played.
The researchers were Philip Hepp and Markus Fleisch of Helios University Hospital Wuppertal and University Witten/Herdecke; Oliver Wolf of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum; Carsten Hagenbeck, Tenja Fehm, and Nora Schaal of the University of Dusseldorf.
From South Korea, scholars described the differences between males and females who experience alexythimia. Alexythimia is the inability to identify and describe one’s emotions.
The number of persons studied was 184. The results indicated that men and women with alexythimia exhibit weakened emotional intelligence.
In addition, they had problems empathizing with people who suffer. They also have borderline personality traits.
The researchers were Yoon-Kyung Kim, Sun-Woo In, Jang-Han Lee, and Ji-Won Hur of Chung-Ang University.
There were further interesting researches in the full presentations. Aaron Ben-Ze’ev of the University of Haifa, Israel’s well-attended presentation was titled “Is love best when it is fresh?”
He concluded by saying that “although the taste of fresh love is marvelous,” love takes time to become “profound” and “more nutritious” for the partners involved.
Theethavat Janevatchararuk of the Assumption University of Thailand questioned ethics in the new media in his presentation based on preliminary doctoral work titled “The Blank Moral Frameworks of the New Media Journalism Landscape.”
He called for a moral framework for online media and social networks.
I presented at the Prokoviev Hall in the panel on philosophy and the arts together with Sophie Masson of the University of New England in Australia and Jove Jim Aguas of our very own University of Santo Tomas. Sophie presented thought-provoking research on the use of liminal spaces in young adult novels.
Her presentation was a spin-off of her doctoral work which is in part by practice, that is, she is writing a novel while writing its poetics.
Liminal spaces are to certain degree inspired by purgatory, which is neither this life but not heaven, and yet is within “angel time.” I interacted with her at the end of her presentation to which I could relate based on the talk between Harry Potter and Professor Albus Dumbledore in a subconsciously located King’s Cross station and on much of the setting for Disney’s “Coco.”
Jove Jim spoke of the role of the arts in preserving and transforming our Filipino culture in times of change.
In the question and answer forum, he encouraged those who need to exercise social critique through art to be courageous in doing what they must.
My own research sprang from my postgraduate thesis. “Word from the Heart: Journalism, Relation, and Love” draws from Martin Buber’s concept of relation and Dietrich Von Hildebrand’s concept of love to guide journalists in developing public service, objectivity, autonomy, immediacy, and ethics.
Here is to hoping our educators and scholars will be granted more opportunities to spread their study findings and learn from peers in the borderless world of knowledge.