IAFOR > The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS) > ACSS2025 > Speakers

Speakers

The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS) is a multidisciplinary conference held concurrently with The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH) and The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS). Keynote, Featured and Spotlight 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

VinUniversity, Vietnam
Jun Arima

University of Tokyo, Japan
Thomas G. Endres

University of Northern Colorado, United States
Kiichi Fujiwara

Juntendo University, Japan
Emiko Miyashita

Haiku International Association, Japan
Rebecca Olive

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia

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 ACSS conferences via the links below.

		ACSS2024
ACSS2023	ACSS2022	ACSS2021
ACSS2020	ACSS2019	ACSS2018
ACSS2017	ACSS2016	ACSS2015
ACSS2014	ACSS2013	ACSS2012
ACSS2011	ACSS2010

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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 (2023) | Climate Change Challenges and International, Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Perspective

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.

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

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