About the Southeast Asian Fellowship (SEAF) Webinar Series 1
How are digital technologies reshaping Southeast Asia, and whose visions of the future are taking form? Presented by the Centre for Digital Education Futures (CENDEF), Open University Malaysia, this webinar series introduces the projects of its Southeast Asian Fellows for 2026–2027. The Fellows share work in progress exploring how the region’s diverse histories, cultures, and social realities intersect with digitalisation, including artificial intelligence. Across the series, audiences are invited to consider how choices made today open up some futures while foreclosing others, and how alternative possibilities might emerge from local knowledge, human imagination, and commitments to equity. Each session offers an opportunity to engage with the Fellows’ developing ideas and join a conversation about Southeast Asia’s sociodigital futures.
S E R I E S A T A G L A N C E
I Banteay Chhmar: Data, Memory, and Heritage
Dr Ros Sayumphu
International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies (ICAIOS), Indonesia
Meeting ID: 927 1592 9505 | Passcode: CENDEF
19 November 2026 | 10:00 am (Malaysia time; UTC+8)
II Who Calls You Back? Khwan, Care and Thailand’s Digital Future
Dr Nitipat Pholchai (Ong)
International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies (ICAIOS), Indonesia
Meeting ID: 945 2793 6380 | Passcode: CENDEF
19 November 2026 | 2:00 pm (Malaysia time; UTC+8)
III Hallucinating the Heroine: The Thousand Faces of Algorithmic Memory
Dr Myra Mentari Abubakar
International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies (ICAIOS), Indonesia
Meeting ID: 934 4375 7516 | Passcode: CENDEF
24 November 2026 | 10:00 am (Malaysia time; UTC+8)
IV When Accessibility Arrives Late: What Visually Impaired Adults in Malaysia Tell
Us About Timing and Participation
Christina Mary Richard, Dr Hazrul Hizam Karim, and Dr P. Kangathevi Ponnudorai
Open University Malaysia, Malaysia
Meeting ID: 996 5848 1605 | Passcode: CENDEF
26 November 2026 | 10:00 am (Malaysia time; UTC+8)
V The Living Algorithm: Autonomy, Presence, and Precarity in Manila’s Transit
Dr Shari Eunice T. San Pablo
University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), Philippines
Meeting ID: 921 1584 9479 | Passcode: CENDEF
26 November 2026 | 10:00 am (Malaysia time; UTC+8)
WEBINAR I
Banteay Chhmar: Data, Memory, and Heritage
Dr Ros Sayumphu
Cambodia University of Science and Technology, Cambodia
Abstract
Digital technologies are increasingly shaping how societies produce, access, and interpret knowledge. As information moves across digital platforms, the relationships between people, places, identities, and cultural practices are continuously transformed. While technological advancements create new opportunities for communication, participation, and knowledge sharing, they also raise critical questions about representation, accessibility, and power. Digital systems are not neutral; they influence which perspectives become visible, whose voices are amplified, and which forms of knowledge remain overlooked. Understanding these processes is essential for examining how digital transformation reshapes social relationships, cultural identities, and everyday experiences in contemporary Southeast Asian societies.
WEBINAR II
Who Calls You Back? Khwan, Care and Thailand’s Digital Future
Dr Nitipat Pholchai (Ong)
Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Abstract
Thailand is moving schooling, banking, health and government services onto digital platforms. These systems can notice users and act on them, but no one in them is answerable to anyone. This session examines what is lost in that shift. It focuses on khwan, the life essence that, in Thai and Lao belief, leaves a person after shock or loss and must be called back by others. Khwan rituals have served both institutional hierarchy and protest. Drawing on a 2026 practice-based project, it asks: can these rites be reworked into reciprocal care, and what would that reveal about digital systems?
WEBINAR III
Hallucinating the Heroine: The Thousand Faces of Algorithmic Memory
Dr Myra Mentari Abubakar
Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Abstract
This talk follows Acehnese commander Cut Nyak Din (1848–1908) across three archives: a 1905 Dutch capture photograph (KITLV 4356), a 1964 state portrait, and modern AI image generators. It centres on “fluent substitution”: when asked for an under-represented historical figure, AI tools do not return a blank but a confident picture of someone else. The presentation introduces an audit testing whether this substitution is gendered and previews the upcoming REXPERIENCE.KL installation.
WEBINAR IV
When Accessibility Arrives Late: What Visually Impaired Adults in Malaysia Tell Us About Timing and Participation
Christina Mary Richard, Dr Hazrul Hizam Karim, and Dr P. Kangathevi Ponnudorai
Open University Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract
Accessibility can be available, but still arrive too late for visually impaired adults to take part in the learning moment that matters. Drawing on conversations with 17 visually impaired adults in Malaysia, this webinar examines how delayed access shapes participation in everyday learning. Participants described joining activities after others had moved on, needing extra time before they could begin, and working around systems that were not ready for them. These experiences raise a simple but important question at the heart of the study: how do visually impaired adults describe the effects of delayed digital access on their participation in learning?
WEBINAR V
The Living Algorithm: Autonomy, Presence, and Precarity in Manila’s Transit Ecology
Dr Shari Eunice T. San Pablo
University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), Philippines
Abstract
Modern cities often assume technology can fix public transport, but traditional jeepney drivers in Metro Manila tell a different story. Drawing on field conversations, this talk explores why drivers avoid smartphone apps and digital maps, relying instead on street memory, verbal agreements, and fair terminal lines. However, while jeepney drivers keep control of their working hours, passenger loads are dropping as commuters shift to ride-hail apps. Connecting these field realities, this session shows how drivers keep moving through human skill and community trust without touching a screen.