The Dean of Arts, Prof. Iorapuu Tor has said that the Faculty journal, the Jos Journal of Humanities “must come back to life”.
He made this statement during his opening speech at the second edition of the Faculty of Arts Seminar at the faculty building, Naraguta Campus on the 2nd of February, 2017.
Prof. Tor added that all papers presented in the faculty seminar series will be considered for the journal.
He also appealed to the staff present that any of them can be selected into the editorial board and he hopes they will heed the call.
He congratulated the Coordinator of the Faculty of Arts Seminar, Prof. David Jowitt and his committee for the work done so far and also the presenters of the second edition of the series.
The welcome remark was said by Prof. Jowitt who formally announced the presenters while the Chairperson of the event and Head of Department of Mass Communication, Dr. Sarah Lwahas represented by Dr. James Ashiekpe laid out the procedure of presentation, questions, comments and responses.
The presenters, Judith Tiri, a lecturer with the Department of Mass Communication and Philip Imade, an ex-student of the Department of Mass Communication made their presentation titled Reporting Sporting Activities of Women: A Comparison of Vanguard Newspaper Reportage in 2015 and 2016.
According to the lead speaker, Judith Tiri, The Vanguard reports do not prioritise female sports either on their front page or back page and gave instances of the underreporting of major female sporting events.
Tiri also revealed that the study showed that there is the religious prohibition for women in sports, the local media dominated by men which is also a global problem, few women in the media are publishers, reporters and editors and a gender bias.
“There is a marginal space for women and a dominant space for men”, Tiri said as she concluded their presentation.
Responses came from the audience which ranged from constructive criticisms, recommendations, clarifications and technical flaws in the paper.
Among them are that of Prof. Tor who described the presentation as “lively and an important perspective not only about gender but scholarship”.
Dr. Ruben Embu, the HoD of the Department of Theatre and Film Arts said that “awareness is key and gender studies are important” as a way forward.
The HoD of the Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, Dr. Ihoma Akinremi said the seminar was “enlightening and indicting”.
Both presenters, Judith Tiri and Philip Imade responded to the observations made about the presentation and said they really appreciated the comments and Tiri said “it will be helpful when developing the paper”.
Prof. Jowitt, in his closing remark, thanked the Chairperson of the seminar and announced that the next seminar will be on the 9th of February, 2017 by Dr. Jeff Doki of the Department of English Language.
Other senior staff of the Faculty present at the seminar was the HoD of Mass Communication, Dr. Sarah Lwahas, Prof. Elizabeth Nyager, Prof. Sati Fwangshak and Dr. Ademiju Diran Bepo among other academic and non-academic staff that attended the seminar.
Photo Credit: JM
