Beyond the preservation of traditions, heritage is a practice of dialogue and an arena where cultural memory is negotiated. As technologies transform the way traditions are archived, performed, and circulated, new opportunities and risks emerge: heritage becomes a site of diplomacy and soft power, but also of contestation. Educational institutions are in a position to mediate the tensions between the monopolisation of digital memory and the need for pluralistic datasets and inclusive participation of diverse groups. Through research and education, universities can contribute towards ethical datasets and interpretations, as well as foster the next generation of digital humanists and social scientists capable of managing the rapid technological turn. This panel explores how digital futures and shared memory can open pathways for inclusivity, transnational dialogue, and social justice.

Biographies

Jervais Choo

Jervais Choo is the Deputy Director for Organisational Design and Innovation and currently heads the Innovation Programme office at the National Heritage Board (NHB) of Singapore. His division is responsible for business and digital transformation through creative solutioning and leads NHB’s digital heritage initiatives. Mr Choo has also held other portfolios with the NHB in the past decade, including Programme Director for the Singapore Heritage Festival and Singapore Night Festival, and Deputy Director of the National Museum of Singapore.

Lisa Lim

Dr Lisa Lim is Director of Engagement and Development for the UNESCO Chair in Environmental Leadership, Cultural Heritage and Biodiversity at VinUniversity, Vietnam. She previously held professor positions at universities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Sydney, and Perth.

Her interests centre on language contact and evolution, particularly Asian multicultural ecologies; issues of language shift, endangerment, revitalisation, postvernacular vitality, and intangible cultural heritage of minority and endangered language communities; the sociolinguistics of globalisation; and environmental linguistics. Her books include Languages in Contact (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and The Multilingual Citizen: Towards a Politics of Language for Agency and Change (Multilingual Matters, 2018), which was shortlisted for the BAAL Book Prize. Passionate about engagement and impact, Dr Lim’s Knowledge Exchange grants at the University of Hong Kong supported student-led research on linguistic minorities in Hong Kong. For this body of work, she won a Knowledge Exchange award, was featured in Time Out HK, and pitched at a TEDxWanChaiWomen Open Mic event. She is currently a consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary and has been writing a fortnightly ‘Language Matters’ column in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post since 2016.

David Ocón

Professor David Ocón is an interdisciplinary cultural anthropologist and historian who works on the intersections of Asian cultural heritage with preservation, AI and digitalisation, tourism, geopolitics, and sustainability. He also analyses cultural diplomacy and cooperation in the Asian region, particularly between China, Japan, South Korea, and the ASEAN countries, as well as with external parties like the EU.

Professor Ocón has over twenty years of experience in the arts, culture, and heritage sectors. As a practitioner, he has led departments within organisations such as the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF, Singapore), ENCATC (Belgium), and the Cervantes Institute (Beijing, China), where he was the Head of Culture.

He is currently affiliated with Singapore Management University, where he leads courses including Cultural Relations and Diplomacy in Asia, Urban Cultural Anthropology, and Cultural Heritage and Social Sustainability. He is also an associated faculty member within the School of Humanities at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His academic career includes previous positions at City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and James Cook University, Australia, and for over a decade, he has been a visiting faculty member at the University of Barcelona’s International Cultural Cooperation and Management Postgraduate Programme. Professor Ocón has authored numerous book chapters and articles, published in renowned peer-reviewed journals such as Sustainability Science, AI & Society, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, The International Journal of Heritage Studies, The Journal of Asian Public Policy, The Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, and the European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy, amongst others.

Tim Winter

Professor Tim Winter is Research Leader of the Inter-Asia Engagements Research Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He is the Lead Investigator of the international research project Heritage Diplomacy; connecting histories and futures, (2026-2030; 3.9 Million SGD). Professor Winter has led the development of heritage diplomacy as a cross-disciplinary concept and introduced geocultural power to the analysis of international affairs. His recent articles on these topics appear in Geopolitics, International Affairs, International Journal of Cultural Policy, and Environment and Planning D. His most recent books are Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century (University of Chicago Press, 2019) and The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures (Oxford University Press, 2022). His current work addresses the re-emergence of civilisational discourses across Eurasia, and how this speaks to current debates about a shifting world order. Professor Winter currently holds an h-index of 33.

Umberto Ansaldo (Moderator)

Dr Umberto Ansaldo is Professor of Linguistics and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at VinUniversity, Vietnam. As a linguist, he specialises in research on languages of Asia from a comparative and historical perspective. His publications advance an evolutionary framework of language contact that highlights the role of multilingualism and variation in language change. He previously worked in language documentation and researched endangered contact languages of the Indian Ocean.

As an educator, Professor Ansaldo has long promoted a student-centred, innovative, and interdisciplinary pedagogical philosophy. In his current role as Dean, he represents a governance style that emphasises meritocracy and transparency and fosters a culture of empathy and belonging. Away from work, Professor Ansaldo enjoys wining and dining and the practice of martial arts. He has lived and worked in many different countries prior to Vietnam, including Amsterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia.

Professor Ansaldo serves on IAFOR’s International Academic Board.

About the Presenter(s)
-Jervais Choo is the Deputy Director for Organisational Design and Innovation and currently heads the Innovation Programme office at the National Heritage Board (NHB) of Singapore.
-Dr Lisa Lim is Director of Engagement and Development for the UNESCO Chair in Environmental Leadership, Cultural Heritage and Biodiversity at VinUniversity, Vietnam.
-Professor David Ocón is an interdisciplinary cultural anthropologist and historian who works on the intersections of Asian cultural heritage with preservation, AI and digitalisation, tourism, geopolitics, and sustainability.
-Professor Tim Winter is Research Leader of the Inter-Asia Engagements Research Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
-Dr Umberto Ansaldo is Professor of Linguistics and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at VinUniversity, Vietnam.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule

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