Lee, Javier, and Gallego appointed as UP Social Scientists

The Department proudly congratulates its three faculty members who were conferred the “UP Social Scientist” titles through the UP Social Sciences and Philosophy Productivity System (SSPPS). Prof. Aldrin P. Lee was appointed as UP Social Scientist III, while Assoc. Prof. Jem R. Javier was awarded the UP Social Scientist II title. Finally, Assoc. Prof. Maria Kristina S. Gallego was awarded as a UP Social Scientist I. 

The SSPPS “honors the exceptional research and academic achievements of faculty members and researchers in the social sciences and philosophy, and their unique contributions to social development and nation building.” Among the criteria for selection as a UP Social Scientist / UP Scholar are (i) research and publication, (ii) leadership in public service, and (iii) professional leadership. The current run had two batches: Calendar Year (CY) 2023-2025 and CY 2024-2026. Assoc. Prof. Javier was awarded for CY 2023-2025, while Prof. Lee and Assoc. Prof. Gallego were recognized for their contributions for CY 2024-2026. 

Prof. Lee was the president of the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) from 2021 to 2024, and currently serves as the editor-in-chief of the Philippine Journal of Linguistics. He is also a member of the Korean-Filipino Parallel Corpus Development project initiated by the South Korea’s National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원). Some of the publications that were produced as outputs of the project are “Translation Guidelines for Building a Korean-Foreign Language Parallel Corpus” co-authored with Asst. Prof. (Int’l) Kyung Min Bae and Senior Lecturer Maria Concepcion Loren Chua, and “A Parallel Corpus-Based Comparative Analysis of Korean and Tagalog Negation” co-authored with Ji Yeon Jeon and Jung Hee Lee and published in the Journal of Korean Language Education. 

Meanwhile, Assoc. Prof. Javier recently held administrative positions within the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP). He served as the coordinator of the Office of the Graduate Program from 2023 to 2024, and as the College Secretary from 2024 to 2025. He was also the editor-in-chief of The Archive journal from 2022 to 2025. His recent publications include “The Biblical, the Moral, and the Legal: Juxtaposing Filipino/Tagalog Translations of Biblical Passages and Local Views on Sex, Gender, and Sexuality” co-authored with Asst. Prof. Madilene Landicho (CSSP Department of Anthropology) and published in the book, Translation Studies in the Philippines: Navigating a Multilingual Archipelago, and “Tagalog linguistics: historical development and theoretical trends” co-authored with Asst. Prof. Elsie Marie Or and published in the book, The Routledge Handbook of Asian Linguistics. 

Finally, Assoc. Prof. Gallego led the first phase of the extension project, “Developing a community-led documentation project for Bugkalot.” She has published research articles on language contact and change, such as “The structural consequences of lexical transfer in Ibatan” published as a chapter in the edited book “Traces of contact in the lexicon: Austronesian and Papuan studies.” She served as Chair of the Department from 2022 to 2025. At present, she is the current editor-in-chief of The Archive journal, and is collaborating with PHIVOLCS on a project that documents local narratives on hazards and disasters in Babuyan Claro. 

Taos-pusong pagbati, Sir Aldrin, Sir Jem, at Ma’am Tina!

[Photo sources]

Prof. Lee’s photo was taken during the 2024 installment of the Maridette Molina Lectures in Linguistics, where he gave his talk on “A Grammar Sketch Outline Tailored for Philippine Languages: What Questions to Ask.” The lecture series is held in memory of Dr. Maridette Molina, an alum of the PhD program of the Department, where she wrote a reference grammar of Butuanon. Dr. Lee was her dissertation adviser.

Assoc. Prof. Javier’s photo is of a data elicitation session when he led a Linguistics 225 (Field Methods in Linguistics) class during the Midyear Term of Academic Year 2023-2024. The field activity was held in Manticao, Misamis Oriental, where students were trained in data gathering and fieldwork.

Assoc. Prof. Gallego’s photo was taken during an elicitation session in Babuyan Claro. She went to Babuyan Claro for fieldwork last 08 to 28 April 2026 as part of her collaboration with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) for the project “Documentation of Narratives on Toponyms, Hazards and Disasters (DALAN).”