In the 1990s the faculty of the Department of Art Studies cobbled together a makeshift publication called the Art Studies Journal (ASJ). We wrote and contributed our essays, not because we have something to say with much certainty but to question those very certainties - to go against the grain, to write and speak out of turn, as we considered our positions as educators and scholars amidst the urgencies of the times. With the first volume published in 1992 and the latest issue in 1994, the journal has had an almost three decade hiatus.
Today, the ASJ returns with the same reflexive questioning that animated the first volumes, but this time with a new set of challenges. What does it mean to write and speak out of turn in an increasingly market-driven and ranking obsessed academic environment? What do we do when we do art studies in our everyday lives amidst pressures to conform to the demands of an increasingly corporatized and managerial ecology of higher education?
As we welcome the revival of the Art Studies Journal with such unsettling thoughts, we invite you to join us for an intimate and provocative conversation with members of the faculty from the Department of Art Studies, who will reflect upon the publication’s and the Department’s past, present, and future directions.
The relaunch and public forum titled "Writing and Speaking Out of Turn: Where to, Art Studies?" will be held on 21 March at 1pm at the 1/F Lobby of the Jorge B. Vargas Museum. For more information on the journal, please visit: artstudiesjournal.upd.edu.ph.
