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For any doctoral student, the first rite of passage (in a series throughout the entire program) is the qualifying exams (aka comprehensive).  For those who are not familiar with the system, it’s like board exam but you’re the only one doing it.  At NUS, it means two things: becoming an official PhD candidate and more importantly, an increase in the stipend. 

The past one year and a half was literally about preparing for the qualifying exam.  The final topic that I defended to my thesis committee went through at least 3 revisions as I found myself losing interest over ideas after just a couple of weeks. 

This time it’s finally final:

"Being Catholic: Youth Religious Identity, Generational Location, and Modernity in Contemporary Philippines"

Without being technical about it, the thesis will explore the ways religious identity is being constructed among undergraduates involved in Catholic student organizations in universities in the Philippines.  Such constructions will be viewed as a dimension of the youth’s generational location (or identity) which can be contextualized in the condition of modernity in Philippine society.  The thesis hopes to be an important contribution in the sociological study of religion in the world today by relating it to contemporary Filipino generation and modernity. 

I attribute the choice of this topic to the lively and oftentimes provocative conversations with Nathan, my colleague and friend in the PhD program.  Over lunch more or less a year ago, Nathan and I were talking about the condition of sexuality among young evangelical Christians in the Philippines.  At that time, I was toying with the idea of researching the spread of Protestant Christianity among migrant workers in East Asia (HK, Taiwan, Japan, S. Korea).  That conversation led me to combine two research interests which up until that time were virtually exclusive for me: religious identity and the youth.  It was not long before I fully articulated the cornerstone of my thesis: What does being Catholic mean to the modern Filipino youth?   

This was the content of the research proposal that I defended on May 08 to my thesis committee composed of Prof Bryan Turner (my supervisor), Prof Farid Alatas, and Dr Julius Bautista.  It went very well though there were some comments on my sampling that I have yet to resolve.  After an hour and a half of open discussion, they decided to pass me.

Prior to the oral defense was one whole week of answering two essay questions in the sociology of religion and sociology of generation. 

So when I heard "We’ve decided to pass you", it finally dawned on me that I was fully exhausted - and I even had to remind myself to smile and thank the committee.

After all, the entire semester was all about thinking about and writing the 16,000 - word proposal, reading countless pages of articles and books, and ruining my body clock along the way. 

Now I am more relaxed to recount the events and thank the people who have been most supportive and prayerful: my thesis committee, Nathan, my brothers and sisters in the care group and at Hope Church, and my family. 

But full glory and honor belong to the Lord.  In all things, I want Christ to have the preeminence:

• 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence (Colossians 1:15-18).

For the next two years, I will be out and about doing my research fieldwork in Manila, Cebu, and Davao, writing my doctoral dissertation, and teaching undergraduate courses. 

Meanwhile, as a reward for myself, I sold my Yamaha portasound and got a Korg x50, a dream come true!  I want to use it to develop my skills in playing the keyboard and if possible, even compose and arrange songs.  Yes, it can be connected to the computer!  Thanks to Reggie who bought my Yamaha and Maia who advertised the Korg sale in our egroup.