The second keynote speaker is Prof Ramon Guillermo, who talked about "The problem of Intellectual Decolonization and the Construction of Autonomous Communication Communities (ACCs) in Southeast Asian Studies."
This discussion originates from an effort to combine the Malaysian sociologist Syed Farid Alatas’ concept of “autonomous social science” with the more explicitly communication-oriented approach in so-called social science indigenization established in the Philippines by Zeus A. Salazar and his Pantayong Pananaw (PP) school of thought. Taken in itself, such an interface is not without its complications particularly in the current context where neoliberal policies have taken over universities and deeply penetrated into the ethos of academic life. However, this intellectual dialogue becomes even more complicated when confronted with the emergent discipline of Southeast Asian Studies which requires academics to go beyond the limitations of the national imaginary both within and without the nation.
Ramon Guillermo is a Professor at the Center for International Studies (CIS) at the University of the Philippines – Diliman. He is engaged in a continuing dialogue with and critique of the ideas of Zeus A. Salazar and other proponents of “indigenization” in Philippine Social Science and Cultural Studies. His main areas of research lie in translation studies and the dissemination of radical thought in Asia. He is also a practicing translator, creative writer and novelist.
