IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH) > ACAH2025 > Speakers

Speakers

The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities is a multidisciplinary conference held concurrently with The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences(ACSS) and The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS). Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. Registration for either conference will allow participants to attend sessions in both.

This page provides information about presenters. For details of presentations and other programming, please visit the Programme page.

  • Umberto Ansaldo
    Umberto Ansaldo
    VinUniversity, Vietnam
  • Jun Arima
    Jun Arima
    University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Thomas G. Endres
    Thomas G. Endres
    University of Northern Colorado, United States
  • Kiichi Fujiwara
    Kiichi Fujiwara
    Juntendo University, Japan
  • Suzan Husseini
    Suzan Husseini
    Waseda University, Japan
  • Marie Lall
    Marie Lall
    University College London, United Kingdom and Keio University, Japan
  • Fan Li
    Fan Li
    Stanford Social Innovation Review, Japan
  • Emiko Miyashita
    Emiko Miyashita
    Haiku International Association, Japan
  • Rebecca Olive
    Rebecca Olive
    Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia
  • Apipol Sae-Tung
    Apipol Sae-Tung
    IAFOR, Japan
  • Kyoko Uchimura
    Kyoko Uchimura
    Haiku International Association, Japan

Become a Speaker

Excellent plenary speakers are central to our conferences, ensuring that timely, innovative and engaging content is presented to our audiences around the world. If you would like to be considered for a speaking slot at one of our conferences, please apply below.

Apply to Speak

Previous Speakers

View details of speakers at past ACAH conferences via the links below.

ACAH2024 ACAH2023 ACAH2022
ACAH2021 ACAH2020 ACAH2019
ACAH2018 ACAH2017 ACAH2016
ACAH2015 ACAH2014 ACAH2013
ACAH2012 ACAH2011 ACAH2010
Umberto Ansaldo
VinUniversity, Vietnam

Biography

Professor Umberto Ansaldo is currently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at VinUniversity, Vietnam. He previously served as Head of the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University, Australia from 2021 through 2023, Head of the School of Literature, Art and Media at the University of Sydney, Australia from 2018 through 2020, and Head of the School of Humanities at HKU, where he taught from 2009 to 2018.

Professor Ansaldo’s disciplinary roots are in linguistics, specifically in the study of language contact, linguistic typology, and language documentation. He is the author of four books to date (with CUP, OUP, Routledge, and Stockholm University Press), has edited or co-edited 11 volumes and journal special collections, and has authored multiple journal articles and book chapters. His most recent publication is the co-editorship of The Routledge Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Languages (Routledge, 2021).

At HKU, Professor Ansaldo led the Humanities Area of Inquiry on the Common Core Curriculum Committee in HKU’s major revision of its curriculum (2010-2013), a time when, along with the University of Melbourne, Australia, HKU was leading in reimagining undergraduate curricula. As Chair of Linguistics, he was instrumental in establishing the Department within the top ten programmes in Linguistics (QS rankings), with the programme ranking at number one in Hong Kong.

At the University of Sydney, Professor Ansaldo sat on the University Executive Research Committee and led his School through a transformative period in terms of curriculum innovation and research engagement. He was in charge of overseeing the incorporation of the Sydney College of the Arts into the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

Professor Ansaldo has secured competitive research grants and leveraged industry funding for the advancement of the humanities and social sciences throughout his career. One of his proudest achievements was his role in securing financial support to develop and host an exhibition on language and the brain, the ‘Talking Brains’ exhibition at the CosmoCaixa in Barcelona, Spain in 2017. This type of engagement and championing of the Humanities is what Umberto is most passionate about.

Professor Ansaldo has lived and worked in Sweden, The Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong. and speaks seven languages, including Mandarin. He is well-acquainted with Asia and has conducted fieldwork in Muslim communities of the Indian Ocean, and has developed strong international networks in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Europe.

Panel Presentation (2025) | Peace Education in Times of Conflict

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2024) | Can Today’s Universities Contribute to a Better Future?
Jun Arima
University of Tokyo, Japan

Biography

Professor Jun Arima is the President of IAFOR, and the senior academic officer of the organisation. In this role, Professor Arima is the Honorary Chair of the International Academic Advisory Board, as well as both the Academic Governing Board and its Executive Committee. He also sits on the IAFOR Board of Directors.

Jun Arima was formerly Director General of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), UK from 2011 to 2015 and Special Advisor on Global Environmental Affairs for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan, from 2011 to 2015. He has previously held various international energy/environment-related positions, including: Head of Division, Country Studies, International Energy Agency (IEA); Director, International Affairs Division, Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, METI; and Deputy Director General for Environmental Affairs at METI’s Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau. In the COP (UN Convention on Climate Change) 14, 15 and 16, he was Japanese Chief Negotiator for AWG-KP.

Since 2015 Jun Arima has been a Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he teaches Energy Security, International Energy Governance, and Environmental Policies in the Graduate School of Public Policy. (GraSPP). He is also currently a Consulting Fellow at the Japanese Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). He is also Executive Senior Fellow at the 21st Century Public Policy Institute, Principal Researcher at the International Environmental and Economic Institute (IEEI), Distinguished Senior Policy Fellow, at the Asia Pacific Institute of Research (APIR), Senior Policy Fellow on Energy and Environment, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and was the Lead Author, the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).

Panel Presentation (2025) | Peace Education in Times of Conflict

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2022) | Climate Change, Energy Security and the Ukraine War
Thomas G. Endres
University of Northern Colorado, United States

Biography

Dr Thomas G. Endres is Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Colorado, United States, where he coordinates the university’s Communication Studies Extended Campus online degree completion program and teaches for the university's honours and leadership programs. In a career marked primarily by administrative (chair or director) responsibilities, Dr Endres found time to conduct research in the areas of pedagogy, popular culture, and the use of story to create rhetorical communities. He has published several dozen refereed articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, and an encyclopaedia entry, applying Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory to the study of such communities: examining diverse collectives such as single mothers, father-daughter dyads, laity in the Catholic church, and tattooed people. He is author and photographer of two books: ‘Sturgis Stories: Celebrating the People of the World’s Largest Motorcycle Rally’ and ‘My Costume, Myself: Celebrating Stories of Cosplay and Beyond,’ and co-author with Deanna D. Sellnow on Sage's 4th edition of ‘The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts.’ He has delivered more than 250 presentations, workshops, and keynote addresses across the United States and abroad, including presentations in Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. He lives in Greeley, Colorado, with his wife, Maki Notohara Endres.

Keynote Presentation (2025) | Turning the Faucet to Full: Expanding the Use of Bormann's Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) in Asian Humanities, Social Science, and Cultural Studies Research
Kiichi Fujiwara
Juntendo University, Japan

Biography

Kiichi Fujiwara is a Professor in the Graduate School of International Liberal Arts at Juntendo University and Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Japan. He taught International Politics at the Graduate Schools of Law and Politics and the Graduate School of Public Policy until 2022. Professor Fujiwara founded the Institute for Future Initiatives at the University of Tokyo, a university think-tank that engages in multidisciplinary approaches to global challenges. His publications include Remembering the War (2001), A Democratic Empire (2002), Is There Really a Just War? (2003), Peace for Realists (winner of the Ishibashi Tanzan award, 2005), International Politics (2007), Conditions of War (2013), A Destabilizing World (2020), and Predatory Imperialism (forthcoming). Professor Fujiwara is a commentator on international affairs and writes a monthly column for Asahi Shinbun. He is also a film buff, and serves as a film reviewer for the NHK.

Panel Presentation (2025) | Peace Education in Times of Conflict
Suzan Husseini
Waseda University, Japan

Biography

Suzan Husseini is a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Japan. Her doctoral research focuses on refugee-background students' integration and education pathways in Japan.

Ms Husseini is a Co-Delegate of EmPATHy, a youth organisation that includes Japanese students and people of refugee backgrounds with the aim of aiding forcibly displaced persons in Japan. She is also involved in Japan Bridge, a group that was initiated to support earthquake-affected families in Syria and Turkey and expanded its activities to advocacy in Japan.

Ms Husseini has over three years of experience working with international NGOs such as the Qatar Red Crescent and Global Communities. She also has nine years of experience as a translator, five years of experience working at the British Council, Japan, and is currently a project officer at Pathways Japan. Her work continues to bridge academic research with practical advocacy to support refugee empowerment through education.

Featured Interview (2025) | Harnessing Technology and Artificial Intelligence for Displaced Population Empowerment
Marie Lall
University College London, United Kingdom and Keio University, Japan

Biography

Professor Marie Lall is a South Asia expert, with 30 years of experience in the region specialising in political issues and education in India, Pakistan, and Burma/Myanmar. Her political research focuses on the domestic and foreign policy of South Asia. Her education expertise encompasses Education Policy, Higher Education, Teacher Training, and Language of Instruction. She has a particular interest in the linkage between national identity, citizenship, and education. She has authored over 100 publications, including 12 widely cited books.

In South Asia and internationally, she has been instrumental in providing thought leadership to development agencies, policy makers, and governments. She has worked with the World Bank, UNICEF, the British Council, AUSAID, South Asian philanthropic bodies, and government ministries.

Professor Lall is the former Pro-Vice-Provost for South Asia at University College London (UCL), United Kingdom, where she was instrumental in developing four UCL university partnerships with India‘s top-ranking universities in engineering, medicine, aerospace, and science. She is currently a Visiting Professor at Keio University, Japan.

Professor Lall completed a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE), and her MPhil from Cambridge University, United Kingdom.

Panel Presentation (2025) | Peace Education in Times of Conflict
Fan Li
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Japan

Biography

Inspired by the power of people with vision and determination to make the world a better place, Ms Fan Li has spent the last 20 years working to connect, engage, and catalyse innovators and change makers in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Ms Li founded Global Links Initiative with Mr Robin Rowland in 2003, a nonprofit organisation that fostered practical links among social entrepreneurs around the world. She was a founding member of the China-US Strategic Philanthropy Partnership (CUSP), a leading network that promotes research, exchange, and collaboration between the philanthropic sectors of China and the United States, and worked with CUSP from 2010 to 2016. Ms Li connected and advised partnership building in Japan and China from 2009 to 2012, which resulted in the first China-Japan social joint venture in sustainable farming.

Ms Li is co-editor-in-chief of Stanford Social Innovation Review China. She also serves as East Asia Regional Representative for Alliance magazine and East Asia Advisor for WINGS (Worldwide Initiatives for Grant-maker Support). She is currently based in Tokyo and runs the East Asia Social Innovation Study Group, a community of research, dialogue, and knowledge sharing on social innovation in East Asia.

Featured Interview (2025) | Harnessing Technology and Artificial Intelligence for Displaced Population Empowerment
Emiko Miyashita
Haiku International Association, Japan

Biography

Emiko Miyashita is a prominent and widely published haiku poet, as well as an award-winning translator who has given invited lectures and workshops around the world. She serves as a councillor for the Haiku International Association, as well as secretary of the Haiku Poets Association International Department in Tokyo. She is a dojin (leading member) of Ten’i (Providence) haiku group lead by Dr Akito Arima, and also a dojin of the Shin (Morning Sun), haiku group lead by Dr Akira Omine. From January 2008, until March 2010, she judged and wrote an English-language haiku column with Michael Dylan Welch every first Sunday in the Asahi weekly paper.

Haiku Workshop (2025) | What Is Haiku?

Previous Presentations

Haiku Workshop (2024) | What Is Haiku?
Rebecca Olive
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia

Biography

Dr Rebecca Olive is a Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Urban Research at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia. She leads the research theme of ‘Regenerative Environments and Climate Action’ at the Centre. Dr Olive also serves as the current President of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA). With a background in feminist cultural studies of sport and leisure, her current work explores how recreational sports shape our relationships to ecologies. In this work, she focuses on swimming and surfing to understand human relationships to coasts and the ocean, and has a growing focus on urban swimming including at beaches and in rivers and pools. She has a co-edited book, Women in Action Sport Cultures, and recently co-edited special issues in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Journal of Sport History, and Health and Place. Aside from academic publications, Dr Olive is active in community and public engagement, including community presentations and contributions to national and international media. You can learn more about this work at her website https://movingoceans.com.

Keynote Presentation (2025) | Swimming Together: World-Making with Everyday Practices
Apipol Sae-Tung
IAFOR, Japan

Biography

Apipol Sae-Tung is an Academic Coordinator at IAFOR, where he contributes to the development and execution of academic-related content and activities. He works closely with the Forum’s partner institutions and coordinates IAFOR’s Global Fellowship Programme. His recent activities include mediating conference reports for the Forum’s international conference programme and facilitating the IAFOR Undergraduate Research Symposium (IURS).

Mr Sae-Tung began his career as a Program Coordinator for the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He was awarded the Japanese Government’s MEXT Research Scholarship and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Japan. His research focuses on government and policy analysis, particularly on authoritarian regimes. He currently takes part in research projects on international student education in Thailand, Southeast Asian politics, Japan-Asia digital economy, and AI-language model training.

Mr Sae-Tung holds an MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from Thammasat University, Thailand, where he studied foreign policy analysis and Thailand-China relations. He also holds a BA in History from the same institution, with a focus on modern Western and Southeast Asian comparative history and historiography.

Mr Sae-Tung has interned for the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) in Japan, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Thailand. He served on the Lifelong Learning Team while with UNESCO, working specifically on projects enhancing education access through online platforms among Thai NEET individuals and supporting Myanmar migrant children, providing shelters and access to proper education along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Forum Discussion (2025) | TBA
Kyoko Uchimura
Haiku International Association, Japan

Biography

Ms Kyoko Uchimura is a haiku poet born in Tokyo. She earned a BA in Art History from International Christian University, Japan, and studied at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, from 1988 to 1989 as an exchange student. She worked for Christie’s art auction house from 1990 to 2014, contributing her expertise there for over twenty years.

Ms Uchimura began writing haiku in 2002, receiving the New Talent Award of the haiku group ‘Ten’I’, led by Dr Akito Arima, in 2008. She recently won first prize in the group’s essay contest in 2023. In 2013, she published her first haiku collection, titled ‘Venus’. She is currently a member of the Association of Haiku Poets in Japan.

Since 2014, Ms Uchimura has worked in an editorial role for Ten’I and the Haiku International Association since 2018, where she serves as a councilor and is responsible for editing the association’s quarterly haiku magazine, ‘HI’. She often writes short reviews for other haiku magazines. She has supported the administrative office of the Haiku UNESCO Promotion Council since 2018.

Haiku Workshop (2025) | What is Haiku?