Plenary Speakers

Plenary 1: Global Agenda for International Migration
Tuesday, 21 January 2025, 10.30-12.00 WIB (GMT+7), GSP UGM 2nd Floor

• Prof Ranabir Samaddar is the Director of the Calcutta Research Group, and belongs to the school of critical thinking. He has pioneered along with others peace studies programmes in South Asia. He has worked extensively on issues of justice and rights in the context of conflicts in South Asia.
• Dr. Sripapha Petcharamesree is the Director of the Ph.D. Program in Human Rights and Peace Studies (International) of the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies at Mahidol University in Thailand. Her research and expertise focuses on human rights, ASEAN/SEAsian studies, migration, including statelessness and citizenship, business and human rights, and international relations. She has spoken and written extensively about all of these issues.
• Prof. Susan Banki is Associate Professor in University of Sydney. Susan Banki studies the political, institutional, and social contexts that explain the roots of and solutions to human rights violations and social justice abuses. In particular, she is interested in the ways that questions of sovereignty, transnationalism, and citizenship/membership have shaped our responses to conflict and injustice, particularly examining institutions such as the international refugee regime, diasporas, and the humanitarian system. Susan’s focus is in the Asia-Pacific region, where she has conducted extensive field research in Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, Cambodia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Japan on refugee/migrant protection, statelessness and border control. Her current projects include: the work of diasporas in responding to acute crises at home; humanitarian responses to complex displacement contexts; and the role of creative arts in transnational activism.
• Prof. Antje Missbach (moderator) is a senior research fellow and lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at Monash University in Melbourne. Her research interests include the socio-legal dimensions of forced migration in Southeast Asia, border regimes, asylum policies and refugee protection in the Asia-Pacific, as well as diaspora politics and long-distance nationalism.

Plenary 2: (Re)conception of Urban Displacement and the Right to the City
Wednesday, 22 January 2025, 09.15-10.45 WIB (GMT+7), Faculty of Cultural Science UGM, 7th Floor Plenary Room

• Prof. Wiwandari Handayani is a professor at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Engineering – Diponegoro University. She has been actively involved in works related to urban sustainability and resilience since 2011. She was on the team of the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN)-Rockefeller program in Semarang City. Her research focuses on urban and regional resilience, mostly in the context of disaster risk management, climate adaptation, and governance. 
• Marco Kusumawijaya is a director at Rujak Center for Urban Studies.  His expertises focuses on the fields of architecture, environment, arts, cultural heritage, urban planning and development. He has worked with private sectors, governments, international and local NGO’s, international agencies such as the British Council, the World Bank and UNDP.
• Dr. Tular Sudarmadi, M.A., is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. With expertise in historical and prehistoric archaeology, his research focuses on cultural resource management, ethnoarchaeology, megaliths, and museology. He has contributed to numerous archaeological studies, including burial practices among Dayak Lawangan ethnic groups and heritage formation dynamics in colonial and postcolonial contexts.
• Prof. Bakti Setiawan (moderator) is a professor in Urban Planning, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. In 2001, he was appointed as the Director for Centre for Environmental Studies, Gadjah Mada University – a leading research center in the university. After four productive years in that center, he was then elected as the Director for the Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Architecture and Planning.

Plenary 3: Knowledge Production on Urban Displacement
Thursday, 23 January 2025, 08.30-10.00 WIB (GMT+7), Faculty of Cultural Science UGM, 7th Floor Plenary Room

• Prof. Itty Abraham is a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University since July 2022, July 2022, transitioning from his role as head of the Southeast Asian Studies Department at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His expertise lies in the politics of technology, with a particular focus on India, Asia, and the Global South. 
• Dr. Silke Lange is a creative practitioner, educator, and researcher. She has over twenty years’ experience in creative arts education in a variety of roles and organisations, across levels and subjects, and geographical borders. Her professional practice / research is predominantly of a collaborative nature, working at the intersection of educational practice and knowledge exchange. Silke is currently Associate Dean of Learning, Teaching and Enhancement and Reader in Hybrid and Participatory Pedagogies at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
• Baqir Bayani is a visionary refugee leader advocating for refugee self-determination in addressing displacement challenges. Witnessing the shortcomings of traditional refugee responses, he champions the empowerment of Refugee-led Organizations (RLOs) through equitable partnerships and the transfer of power and resources from non-refugee-led institutions. Baqir envisions a future where refugees take the lead in planning, decision-making, and implementing policies at local and global levels, ensuring rightful refugee participation and sustainable solutions.
• Dr. Lucy Fiske (moderator) is a Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Sciences at UTS. She was previously a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, and before that held lectureships at the Centre for Human Rights Education at Curtin University in Perth and the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University. Lucy comes to academia from a background of direct social work practice primarily with refugees and asylum seekers. Lucy’s practice experience continues to ground and shape her research and teaching, particularly in approaching issues of justice and rights from the perspective of people’s lived experiences and in conducting impact-oriented research.