Professor Srey Bandaul
Visual Artist, Co-founder
Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPSA)
Cambodia

Born in 1973 in Battambang Province, Cambodia, Srey Bandaul studied with the French artist Veronique Decrop from 1987 until 1991 in an art school, which she founded in refugee camp (Site two), Phare is the name of the association and also the school name that she founded at Thai border, the school is not a professional art school but more on therapy and melted students study in the huts and some time under the shadow of trees, The school moved to Battambang in 1994 after the peace agreement in Paris to stop the civil war in Cambodia in the year 1991.

In between year 1991 to 1993 Bandaul works and study at the soldier hospital in Phnom Penh and from 1994 with supported by his teacher Veronique Decrop and his 8 friends who is the formers arts students from Site Two, have found the art association Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPSA) a community-based, visual arts, apply art and performing arts school that provides educational and social support based in Battambang Cambodia with the mission to providing the good quality of arts vocational training, community contribution in safe environment with the vision PPSA Strongly believe in artistic power can change people and give the value on new creative and collaboration in professionalism.

Since 1994 Bandaul is a visual artist, arts teacher, and co-founder of (PPSA) Bandaul has extensively exhibited his works locally and internationally including Norway, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, New York, London, Istanbul, and Myanmar. He also has published two books: Looking at Angkor and The Land of the Elephants and 20 books illustration for wildlife. Moreover, Bandaul is now working on a memoir based on his life as a child refugee and advocated to the social un-justice through his arts.

Professor Liu Weidong
President
Nanjing University of the Arts
China

Professor Liu Weidong, is a Professor and doctoral supervisor of art history, the cheif editor of Art and Design, the standing deputy director of academic board and associate director of academic degrees committee of Nanjing University of the Arts. He is also the academic leader of fine arts (first-grade subject) of NUA.

Professor Liu Weidong is now the President and standing deputy decretary of Party committee of NUA.

His major research area includes: European art history, comparative study of fine arts between East and West, methodology of art history.

His major social appointments: vice chairman of the National Art Theory Teaching Advisory Board under the Ministry Of Education, committee member of China National Committee for MFA Education; member of Theory Committee of China Artists Association, director of Theory Commission of Jiangsu Artist’s Association; vice chairman of Jiangsu Critics Association; member of Jiangsu Steering Committee on Quality-Oriented Education of Higher Education Institutions; vice director of Jiangsu Pedagogy Sub-commission of Higher Education Teaching Research Institute.

Professor Liu Weidong’s major academic achievements: he published dozens of academic thesis on national art core journals and provincial academic journals, among which National image in art works is published in People’s Daily as an important theory. He also published more than ten monographs, including The Significance of Image, Kandinsky, Red Gallery (three books), East and West Art Talk, Between Drawing and Words, Foreign Art History, Bright StarsFine——Art in the Renaissance Period, Preface and Postscript, etc. , among which The Significance of Image won the second prize in Jiangsu province Eleventh Excellent Achievements in Philosophy and Social Science, Bright StarsFine——Art in the Renaissance Period won the second prize in the Fifth Excellent Achievements in Philosophy and Social Science of Universities in Jiangsu province; in 2012, Iconography and Research on China Art History won artistic key project of National Social Sciense Fund.

Assistant Professor Dr. Antonello Alici
Università Politecnica delle Marche
Ancona
Italy

Antonello Alici, architect, Ph.D., is the Chair in History of Architecture at Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, where he coordinates the International curriculum at the Doctorade School in Engineering Architecture. In 2016/2017 he has been Visiting Scholar at the Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies at University of Cambridge, UK, and Visiting Professor at the International Doctoral Programme in Architectural Heritage Management and Tourism at Silpakorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2012-2014 he has been the President of the Italian association of Architectural Archives, AAA Italia.

He is the Program Director of the summer school ‘The Culture of City. Understanding the Urban Landscape” that hold workshops in Matera (2012), Berlin (2013) and Ancona – Urbino (2014-2016), and will have a new series in Amandola, Marche region, with the topic “Living with Earthquakes. A strategic plan for earthquake prone regons”, july 2018.

His main research fields are the architecture and city in 19th and 20th century in Italy and the Nordic countries. He has been scientific coordinator of the research programme on the architectural archives in Marche region which has succeeded in protecting and studying more than 20 archives, relevant for the Italian architectural history of 20th century.

He is member of the ‘National Observatory for the Quality of the Landscape’ of the National Board of Culture in Italy. He was member of the jury of the ‘Bruno Zevi Prize’ 2013 for essays in Architecture and Theory.

In 2007-2010 he has been General Secretary of Italia Nostra, the national association for the protection of the cultural heritage, coordinating national campaigns on the landscape, historical towns, museums and archives.

His current research programmes are on the relations between Italian and British architects in the Post-war, on Aino and Alvar Aalto travels to Italy, on the Travels to the North of Italian architects in the post-war.

His main research interests are on the architecture and city in Italy and the Nordic countries in 19th and 20th Century. He has been scientific responsible for the research program “Social Housing in the second Post War: Sweden and Italy” with the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (Cooperlink 2009). He has promoted International seminars and conferences on the mutual influences between Italy and the Nordic Countries in Ancona, Roma and Stockholm.

At Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona he is responsible for the exchange programs with the Nordic countries and the research programs on the architectural archives and the studies on the contemporary city. He is member of the Research Center on the Landscape (CIRP). Since 2012 he is member of the Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Ca’ Romanino aimed to study and promote the work of Giancarlo De Carlo. The Fondazione has promoted symposia and study workshops in Urbino, Italy.

Professor Shiro Matsui
Department of Sculpture
Kyoto City University of Arts
Japan

Shiro Matsui is an international artist and educator who was born in 1960 in Nara, Japan.

Since his first solo exhibition in 1983, he has employed a diverse range of materials and techniques to capture his unique sense of humor and intellect. His projects play with our polarized ideas of interior versus exterior, what it means to be here, rather than there, and how space can be both full and empty at the same time. He invites visitors to directly experience his “spatial inversions” visually, and even to explore them physically.

Shiro Matsui has taught in the sculpture department at Kyoto City University of Arts (KCUA) since 1995, and in 1996 became involved in a joint research project between the university and the Japanese and American space agencies, JAXA and NASA. His first project “Dewy’s forest” in 2009, involved growing an ornate floating garden in zero gravity, and this was followed by his “Message in Bottle” missions in 2011 and 2013, carried out with the help of JAXA and NASA astronauts.

Professor Raymond Yap
Fine Art lecturer
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Singapore

Raymond Yap (b.1966) completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in fine art at the Wimbledon School of Art and Royal Academy of Art Schools. He was awarded several major prizes and scholarships. He is interested in the nature of paint and painting, and the potential of gloss paint as a medium for fine art. He continues to explore and experiment, balancing control and serendipity to achieve work that is unusual and unique. A Fine Art lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Singapore since 2008, he is still actively participating in exhibitions and conferences, and was recently invited to be a part of the Royal Initiative Project, held at the Bangkok Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre.

Dr. Fawzia Gilani-Williams
English Medium Teacher
MBK Cycle 1 School
Department for Education and Knowledge, Ministry of Education
United Arab Emirates

Dr. Fawzia Gilani-Williams serves as a global representative for the International Positive Education Network. She is a research fellow for the Eid Stories Institute for Literary Studies and Peace Research in the UK and works for the Department of Knowledge and Education in the UAE. Born and raised in the UK, Fawzia earned a Ph.D in Children’s Literature and Character Education from the University of Worcester. She is an internationally experienced principal, teacher and researcher. Fawzia’s areas of specialization include primary education, Islamic children’s literature, and creative writing. Her research interests are child identity and empowerment, character development, and Islamic literary theory. She has written a number of ‘mirror books’ and ‘window books’ to promote intercultural literacy, emotional development and social flourishing. She is the author of the Islamic fairy tale series produced by Kube, UK. Her titles include Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, which together underscore moral power, quiet heroism and multicultural cognizance. Fawzia’s recent book, Yaffa and Fatima Shalom Salaam, illustrated by Chiara Fedele was awarded a silver medal by the Sydney Taylor Book Award.

Ms. Sarah Laura Nesti Willard
Instructor of Fine Arts
United Arab Emirates University
United Arab Emirates

Ms. Sarah Laura Nesti Willard is a specialist in Animation and Illustration from Kingston University, UK. She was granted a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art of London, where she obtained a Master in Visual Communication in 2004. She initially worked as a free-lance illustrator in the United Kingdom and thereafter moved to Spain where she gained expertise as a Muralist Artist. She received commissions in Spain and Italy where she was also invited to exhibit and sell her work in different galleries. In 2009, she undertook a postgraduate course in education. Since then, Sarah has been working full time as an art educator in higher education. In 2014, she moved to the UAE, where she was approached by IAT/ADVETI schools administration to devise a curriculum for Creative Design. One year later she was asked to develop the curriculum and instructional guide book for Digital Animation (Blender). In 2017 Sarah joined the United Arab Emirates University, where she teaches Painting, Design, Animation, Art History and Art Criticism. She continues to illustrate and create artwork for different patronages.

Professor Dr Maurits Van Rooijen
Group Rector, Academic CEO
Global University Systems (GUS)
United Kingdom

With a career spanning several decades as an international educator and pioneer in the globalisation of education, Maurits Van Rooijen started as economic historian with a doctorate in Green Urbanisation at the University of Utrecht. He has held senior positions at universities across the globe, including Leiden University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Victoria University, Melbourne. Since September 2012, he has been the CEO (academic) and Group Rector at Global University Systems (GUS) the world’s first truly global higher education system reaching from Vancouver to Singapore and online (https://www.globaluniversitysystems.com/). Prior to this appointment, Maurits was Rector Magnificus and CEO of Nyenrode University in the Netherlands. From 1993 to 2009, he was (Executive) Vice-President for International and Institutional Development at the University of Westminster.

He is recipient of several awards including the Constance Meldrum Prize for Vision and Leadership in Education (EAIE 2013) and the Golden Insignia of the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (2015).