IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film (MediAsia) > MediAsia2023 > Speakers

Speakers

Keynote, Featured and Spotlight Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. This page provides information about presenters. For details of presentations and other programming, please visit the Programme page.

  • Michael Menchaca
    Michael Menchaca
    University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States
  • Jennifer Cutler
    Jennifer Cutler
    Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, United States
  • Virgil Hawkins
    Virgil Hawkins
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Helen Johnson
    Helen Johnson
    University of Brighton, United Kingdom
  • Namie Kawabata Wilson
    Namie Kawabata Wilson
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Brian Victoria
    Brian Victoria
    Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, UK
  • Delio Wilson Zandamela
    Delio Wilson Zandamela
    Osaka University, Japan

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.

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Previous Speakers

View details of speakers at past MediAsia conferences via the links below.

MediAsia2022 MediAsia2021 MediAsia2020
MediAsia2019 MediAsia2018 MediAsia2017
MediAsia2016 MediAsia2015 MediAsia2014
MediAsia2013 MediAsia2012 MediAsia2011
MediAsia2010
Michael Menchaca
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States

Biography

Michael Menchaca is Chair of the Department of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He specialises in distance education, and has designed, implemented, and coordinated online and hybrid programs for over 20 years. He served as editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education: Technologies and Education Special Edition. He was an IT specialist for many years in the public and private sector. He currently teaches and conducts research in the areas of online learning, technology integration, and social justice with technology.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Art and Media Creation in the Era of Artificial Intelligence
Jennifer Cutler
Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, United States

Biography

Jennifer Cutler is an associate professor of marketing and computer science at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Her research, which blends advances in social psychology, artificial intelligence, and quantitative marketing to extract insights about consumers and brands from social media, has received awards from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the National Business and Economics Society, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Jennifer is on the governing board for Northwestern’s cognitive science program, and teaches a variety of courses on analytics, AI, and digital marketing to MBA students, PhD students, and executives from around the globe. Furthermore, she has worked on AI and consumer research solutions with companies including Microsoft, IBM, Meta, and Adobe. Her research and insights on the digital landscape have been published in outlets including Marketing Science, the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, and Scientific American. Jennifer received her PhD in Business Administration from Duke University, and her ScB in Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences from Brown University.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Consumer Connections in the Age of AI: Unleashing Potential, Navigating Challenges
Virgil Hawkins
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Virgil Hawkins is a professor specialising in world affairs and the news media, and is based at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University. He obtained his PhD in international public policy from OSIPP, where he focused on international politics, conflict, the UN Security Council and the news media. He proceeded to work for five years for a non-governmental aid organisation, primarily in Cambodia and Zambia, before returning to the university as a faculty member. He has written and edited a number of books, including Stealth Conflicts: How the World’s Worst Violence is Ignored (2008), and Communication and Peace: Mapping an Emerging Field (co-edited, 2015). His work focuses on furthering our understanding of how and why the vast majority of the world remains relatively uncovered by the news media.

To these ends, he has since shifted his focus to work at a more practical level. He co-established the Southern African Centre for Collaboration on Peace and Security (SACCPS) in 2010, which is a network that has brought together researchers and practitioners working on these issues throughout the region. He went on to establish Global News View (GNV), a large-scale media project that 1) analyses trends and deficiencies in the coverage of the world by the Japanese news media, and 2) attempts to compensate for those deficiencies by providing analysis of the state of the world in places that are undercovered.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | International News Coverage and The Role of Independent Media

Previous MediAsia Presentations

Featured Presentation (2019) | Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right
Featured Presentation (2017) | Introduction of Osaka University’s Global News View Database
Helen Johnson
University of Brighton, United Kingdom

Biography

Helen Johnson is a Principal Lecturer in Psychology, Co-Director of the Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at the University of Brighton and Principal Investigator for the AHRC Everyday Creativity Research Network. She is a significant contributor to critical social science, creative research methods and spoken word scholarship. Her work focuses on participatory and arts-based research innovations, applications of the arts in enhancing health and wellbeing, and exploring spoken word communities and practices.

With over 20 years’ experience as a spoken word artist, Helen has a unique perspective in her field. Her work extends beyond research, with active contributions to academic citizenship, community-university partnerships, public engagement, and consultancy. Her 'collaborative poetics' method and network offer a transformative approach to underpin this wide-ranging practice, using spoken word and creative writing to enhance individual and community wellbeing, build critical resilience, and reshape academic research to better serve communities, especially marginalised ones.

Her partnerships with scholars and artists span globally, including significant collaboration in Canada and the U.S.. Current research projects include enriching understandings and applications of everyday creativity, decolonisation in the context of everyday creativity and creative research methods, and community-university partnership work exploring collaborative processes and resource development.

Plenary Presentation (2023) | Democratising Research at the Intersection of Creative Methods and Everyday Creativity
Namie Kawabata Wilson
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Namie Kawabata Wilson is a graduate student at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University. Before joining OSIPP, she received her bachelor’s degree at the School of Human Sciences at Osaka University.

Namie Kawabata Wilson specialises in media studies, focusing on US election coverage. Her past research includes analysis on the claim of a ‘liberal’ media bias in the American mainstream media. Her current research analyses how the mainstream media covers Vice President Kamala Harris compared to former White male vice presidents.

Namie Kawabata Wilson has also written articles for Global News View, the independent media research organisation at Osaka University. She served as the President of the International Student Conference (2019-2020), a summer program for students around the world to discuss solutions for global issues. She was the host and organiser of the Global Youth Conference on Fully Autonomous Weapons (2020-2021), working with Human Rights Watch and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to submit a proposal of recommendations for the Japanese government.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | International News Coverage and The Role of Independent Media
Brian Victoria
Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, UK

Biography

Brian Victoria is a native of Omaha, Nebraska and a 1961 graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. He holds a MA in Buddhist Studies from Sōtō Zen sect-affiliated Komazawa University in Tokyo, and a PhD from the Department of Religious Studies at Temple University.

In addition to a second, enlarged edition of Zen At War (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), Brian's major writings include Zen War Stories (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003); an autobiographical work in Japanese entitled Gaijin de ari, Zen bozu de ari (As a Foreigner, As a Zen Priest), published by San-ichi Shobo in 1971; Zen Master Dōgen, coauthored with Prof. Yokoi Yūhō of Aichi-gakuin University (Weatherhill, 1976); and a translation of The Zen Life by Sato Koji (Weatherhill, 1972). In addition, Brian has published numerous journal articles, focusing on the relationship of not only Buddhism but religion in general, to violence and warfare.

From 2005 to 2013 Brian was a Professor of Japanese Studies and director of the AEA “Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions Program” at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, OH, USA. From 2013 to 2015 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan. His latest book, Zen Terror: The Death of Democracy in Prewar Japan was published by Rowman & Littlefield in February 2020. Brian is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies and a fully ordained Buddhist priest in the Sōtō Zen sect.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | To Whom Do the Senkaku (Ch. Diaoyu) Islands Belong and Why Should We Care?

Previous Presentations:

Keynote Presentation (2022) | The “Zen” of Zen Gardens: Fact or Fiction?
Keynote Presentation (2021) | 'Holy War' as Portrayed in Japanese Films, 1937-45
Delio Wilson Zandamela
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Delio Wilson Zandamela is a PhD student at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University, from which he holds a masters degree. He has previously served as a political advisor to the National Youth Council President in Mozambique and an international relations officer at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique.

His research focuses on the determinants and nature of national and international media coverage, in particular how armed conflicts are covered. He has written on peace journalism and is currently researching the coverage of conflict in Mozambique. He has also written for Global News View (GNV), the independent media organisation at Osaka University.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | International News Coverage and The Role of Independent Media