A quick word on the ICA conference

So, I'm back in the Philippines after a 6-day stay in Singapore (June 21 to 26) for the International Communication Association (ICA) annual conference. As very few people in my social circle seem to realize, I'm quite good in things other than music, thank you very much---and one of them is being a nerd.

In a nutshell, the week was spent mostly in a humongous and very fancy convention center in the middle of the city, attending presentations, chatting with other nerdy people, and... eating lots of food.

On the final day of the conference, our group presented our paper on participatory photography with the Dumagat tribespeople to an international audience of graduate students, professors, big-name celebrity academics, and other intimidating nerdy people. Despite a lot of cramming and pambobola (and horror for our group being the only people there without advanced degrees), our paper was very well-received(!).

There's a lot more here left unsaid, but to put it briefly, in those few days I spent in that conference (and of course the countless hours of hard, mind-numbing work that put me and my group in that conference in the first place) I've never been so fascinated with the academic world.... and at the risk of sounding cheesy, I think I've found what I'd like to do with my life. Just thinking out loud.

Pictured above: our very nerdy group, with media scholar Myria Georgiou