ABOUT THIS EVENT

Please join us for this online seminar event with Professor Adam Levine (Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, Brown University), Dr Vincenzo Bollettino (Director of the Resilient Communities Program, Harvard University) and Pamela Cajilig (RMIT University and Executive Research Director of Curiosity). This event is hosted by the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University and Brown University.

ABSTRACT

Located across the Pacific typhoon belt and ‘Ring of Fire’, the countries of the Southeast Asian region are known for their exposure to multiple environmental hazards. Since 2020, these tectonic and climatic hazards have unfolded alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, producing a wickedly complicated series of interactions between existing vulnerabilities to disaster, some of the world’s strictest public health measures, and a devastating medical and mental health crisis. Scholars and disaster practitioners have increasingly turned to notions of ‘complexity’, ‘convergence’ and ‘compounding’ to grapple with these novel interactions and their unpredictable outcomes. In this online event, leading international disaster researchers and activists reflect on the conceptual and practical challenges posed by the growing intersection of environmental and non-environmental hazards in the context of a still unfolding pandemic.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Adam C. Levine is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Services, Policy & Practice at Brown University. Dr. Levine currently serves as the Director for the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, whose mission is to promote a just, peaceful, and secure world by furthering a deeper understanding of human rights and humanitarian challenges around the globe, and encouraging collaboration between local communities, academics, and practitioners to develop innovative solutions to these challenges. He also serves as the Chief of the Division of Global Emergency Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Levine received his Medical Doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco and his Masters of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley before completing his specialty training in Emergency Medicine at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency in Boston. He has previously led research and training initiatives in East and West Africa and South and South-East Asia. His own NIH and foundation-funded research focuses on improving the delivery of emergency care in resource-limited settings and during humanitarian emergencies.

Dr Vincenzo Bollettino is Director of the Program on Resilient Communities at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Research Associate with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research and profession experience include disaster resilience, humanitarian action, civil-military engagement in emergencies, and humanitarian leadership. He has spent that past twenty years of his career at Harvard University in administration, teaching, and research. Current research focuses on disaster preparedness and resilience, humanitarian leadership, climate change, and civil military engagement during humanitarian emergencies. Dr. Bollettino has taught courses on research design, peace building, and international politics at the Harvard Extension School and is the author of publications related to disaster preparedness, climate change, humanitarian civil-military coordination, and humanitarian leadership. Dr. Bollettino currently serves as an Advisory Committee Member of the MSF Speaking Out Case Studies and is a former board member of ELRHA (Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance), and former President of the ACF International Scientific Council (Action Against Hunger).

Pamela Cajilig is a design anthropologist with a career spanning more than 20 years of experience in qualitative research and consulting at the junctures of disaster recovery, architecture, community health, women’s rights and education, and strategic communications. She is the Co-Founding President of Curiosity Design Research, a Manila-based design research firm that works with the private sector, civic society, and the public sector in developing context-responsive products and services. She is presently a PhD Candidate at the Humanitarian Architecture Research Bureau within the RMIT University School of Architecture and Urban Design in Melbourne. Her doctoral research project examines how Philippine artisanal fisherfolk in an estuarine island improvise upon their dwelling to thrive and survive in the face of climate extremes and limited political power. Pamela has organised and implemented numerous training sessions (with a strong focus on community resilience and participation) for disaster management professionals in Southeast and South Asia through her engagements as a Global Fellow of the Brown University Humanitarian Innovation Initiative and as an Associate of the Environment and Disaster Management Programme of the World Wildlife Fund USA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Architecture and Design at School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University. Pamela is also the Co-Founder and Executive Research Direcetor of Curiosity, an independent research-based design consulting firm that works with the private sector, civic society, and the government in designing more useful and meaningful products and services. Pamela is a global partner of the newly founded Displacement Studies Research Network, a platform based in Plymouth University in the UK that aims to provide avenues for displaced populations to be recognized and heard. She holds an MA in Anthropology and a BA in Communication Research from the University of the Philippines.

EVENT SCHEDULE

“Introduction” – Dr Will Smith

“Research in Humanitarian Emergencies: Why and How” – Professor Adam Levine

“Nuancing the Complexity of Disasters” – Pamela Cajilig

“Localizing Understanding of Disaster” – Dr Vincenzo Bollettino

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

11:00 am – 02:00 pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

08:00 am – 11:00 am (Singapore, Brunei, Manila)

Please join us via Zoom.