Experts on heritage from Asia and Europe will gather at the historic Dutch East India Company building in Amsterdam on 2^nd and 3^rd September 2010 to discuss the multifaceted aspects of cultural heritage and recommend concrete, contextualised strategies towards development and social empowerment through cultural heritage.

The recommendations from this two-day Roundtable, The Cultural Heritages of Asia and Europe: Global Challenges and Local Initiatives will be presented at the 4^th ASEM Culture Ministers' Meeting (8-11 September 2010, Poznan, Poland), which will focus on the theme of “Heritage and the Challenges of the Present”. As the only permanent institution of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), the Asia-Europe Foundation has an important function in connecting reflections on the ASEM level with the concerns of civil societies in the two regions.

Jointly organized by ASEF and the International Institute for Asian Studies (based in Amsterdam and Leiden, the Netherlands), the Roundtable will bring together 20 academic and civil society experts from both regions including Corazon S. Alvina, Chairperson of the executive committee of the Asia-Europe Museum network (ASEMUS); Pernille Askerud, International Consultant; Dr. Gregory Bracken, Research Fellow, International Institute for Asian Studies; Delft School of Design; Dr. Gerard DIFFLOTH, formerly of the Ecole Francaise d’extreme-Orient; Dutch urbanist Cor Dijegraacht; Korean expert, Dr. Hazel Hahn, Prof. of History, University of Seattle; Arif Hasan, Director, Urban Resource Centre, Karachi;  British expert Dr. Michael Herzfeld, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University; Dr. Aarti Kawlra, Director, Rural Opportunities Production Enterprise, Chennai; Dr. John Kleinen, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam; Dinh Quang Le, Director, San Art Art Center, Hochiminh City; Dr. Keiko Miura, Professor, Waseda University, Tokyo; Suppya Nut, Director, Khmer Dance Project; Dr. Tansen Sen, Director, Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore; Dr. Nira Wickramasinghe, Professor of Modern South Asian Studies, Leiden University;   Dr. Willem Willems, Dean and chair of research, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University; and, Bing Zhang, Director, China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Beijing.

Further, the Roundtable will help the International Institute for Asian Studies identify potential research and policy-relevant topics focusing on global interaction and local agency in the areas of culture and the politics of cultural heritage in Asia.

For more details on the upcoming Roundtable, please visit: ASEF

For detailed programme, participant list and a background document please refer to:-

BackgroundDocument_EspositoGaulis

Roundtable_ Participants

Roundtable_Programme