Call for Cha-Time Speakers (Epi.3)

Cha-Time with SEACHA (Episode 3):
An Invitation to speakers under the theme
“Cooling the Earth with Cultural Wisdom”

Cha-Time with SEACHA is a monthly program of the Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance that addresses cultural wisdom and its role in the environment. Each presentation draws on the knowledge and experience of those engaged in cultural heritage issues in Southeast Asia. Talks are held virtually on Saturday afternoons. The program operates for 45 minutes plus 15 minutes for Q & A. Recordings of the previous series are available here.

Audience:
An international audience of 100+ viewers including SEACHA friends from around the world.

Call for Speakers:
For the third episode of Cha-Time with SEACHA, in light of the growing concerns on global warming, we invite the next generation of cultural heritage advocates whose work, study, or interests focus on environmentally-conscious conservation efforts.

Theme:
The Earth is more than just a planet; it is our beautiful and irreplaceable home. Our ancestors used to live so close to nature, that it is common for our culture to draw something from the environment surrounding them. Whether it is artistic inspiration for patterns, or a tradition and way of living designed to benefit not just humans, but also nature. However, as human civilization grows, nature has become further and further removed from our inventions, and our quest to ‘improve’ our civilization. Only when it reached the boiling point, with news of erratic season change and natural disasters and terms such as “climate change”, and “global warming” dotted our newspapers, did we finally look back and ask, “where did we go wrong?”.

The presentation areas suggested below are among the conference’s sub-topics, but we welcome other ideas under the theme of how cultural wisdom can play a role in cooling our Earth.

Suggested Topics:

• Indigenous knowledge system and practices (indigenous voices in conservation related to global warming, etc)
• Built Heritage (vernacular architecture, adaptive reuse, historic urban landscape, energy-saving building design, urban-design and place making for public area, and greening cities, etc)
• Way of Living (everyday practices, food and agriculture, local grassroots, culture-based initiatives, controlled consumption, circular economy etc)
• Policy (cultural governance, decarbonization, etc)

How to apply:

• Submit your CV, title, and description (200 words),
• Submit a 3 minutes video clip of yourself, explaining yourself and how you engage with the proposed topic and the key messages that you would like to deliver to the audience.
• Submit all requested documents and media to Ms. Jarunee Khongswasdi at [email protected] and [email protected]
• The call for speakers opens from now to 31 May 2023

Eligible applicants:

• Southeast Asian nationality
• Heritage advocates and professionals, whose study, work, or interests intersect with the suggested topics
• Cultural or environmental practitioner, activist, entrepreneur, or university student