Pengudang villager preparing a paving block for coral transplantation during a training activity. Pengudang village, Teluk Sebong, Bintan, Indonesia, 15 Feb 2025. Image by Henky Irawan.

Pengudang villager preparing a paving block for coral transplantation during a training activity. Pengudang village, Teluk Sebong, Bintan, Indonesia, 15 Feb 2025. Image by Henky Irawan.

Talk & Lecture
 

Tuesday Lecture
7 April 2026
6:30 – 8:30pm
The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore
Free with registration

About the Climate Transformation: Sustainable Societies Lecture Series  

The series returns for its second cycle in the Academic Year 2025-26. Each session features researchers from the Climate Transformation Programme, alongside contributors from other academic fields, as well as artists, architects and advocates. In this second iteration, the lecture series is framed with policy relevance in mind, with respondents from various government agencies, non-governmental organisations, and other relevant industries offering immediate commentary. 

From shoreline practices to shared knowledge:
a digital repository for coastal knowledge and practice 

Thursday, 23 April 2026 · 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Coastal ecosystems and communities across islands such as Bintan and Singapore face existential threats of climate change-induced sea level rise and ocean warming. Industrial development adds to these pressures that expose coastal communities to significant risks to resources and livelihood, and the loss of maritime and cultural knowledge. Introducing an on-going digital humanities project, the Repository on Coastal Ecosystems: Bridging Artistic, Scientific and Community-led practices in the Riau Archipelago, was developed under the Climate Transformation Programme. Drawing from the long-term engagement in Bintan, the project explores how such digital tools support the documentation of mangrove restoration and coral transplantation, and the circulation of coastal knowledge for a wider range of stakeholders. Referencing various onsite collaborations with community practitioners, researchers, and institutions in both Singapore and Indonesia, Professor Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore) and Research Fellow Joshua Gebert (Netherlands/Singapore), Climate Transformation Programme reflect on such platforms. Respondent Dr Ow Yan Xiang (Singapore), St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory, NUS, shares her scientific engagements with partners and communities in the region. This lecture is moderated by Angela Ricasio Hoten (Singapore), Climate Transformation Programme.

Tuesday Lecture 
23 April 2026
6:30 – 8:30pm 
The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore 
Free with registration

Join us online here: https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Kfm18lCzQsWnahwX6ule4Q

Credits

The Climate Transformation: Sustainable Societies Series is organised by members of the Climate Transformation Programme (CTP) Cross-Cutting Theme 1: Sustainable Societies research team, Principal Investigator Professor Ute Meta Bauer, research fellow Joshua Gebert and research assistant Angela Ricasio Hoten.

Sustainable Societies
Principal Investigator, Professor Ute Meta Bauer (NTU ADM)
Principal Investigator, Associate Professor Laura Miotto (NTU ADM)
Principal Investigator, Professor Dr Thomas Schroepfer (SUTD) 

This Lecture Series is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 3 grant [MOE-MOET32022-0006] for the Climate Transformation Programme.  

Contributors
Ute Meta Bauer
Ute Meta Bauer
Curator, Founding Director
Singapore

Ute Meta Bauer is a Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU). She is currently the Acting Director and Principal Research Fellow at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore); and is the Chair of the Masters in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices (MA MSCP) programme. Having served as the Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore for over a decade, her work as educator and curator over the past years has focused on Climates. Habitats. Environments. At the Centre, she curated and co-curated The Oceanic (2017/2018), Trees of Life. Knowledge in Material (2018), and The Posthuman City (2020). In 2022, she served as curator for the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia, featuring artist Shubigi Rao. Her recent large scale projects include the 17th Istanbul Biennial (2022), co-curated alongside David Teh and Amar Kanwar, and the artistic direction of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024. She is a Trustee of the Art Foundation TBA21 and a member of the Governing Council of n.b.k. Berlin. Bauer was recently conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Art and Design by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland.

Josh Gerber
Joshua Gebert
Research Fellow
Singapore, Indonesia, Netherlands

Joshua Gebert serves as Research Fellow at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University for the Climate Transformation Programme (2025–Present). Joshua is trained in architectural history and spatial planning in the Netherlands, developing a foundation in the intersections of culture, the built environment, and sustainability. He received his PhD in Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore in 2024, where he drew on cultural geography and critical heritage studies to examine the politics of heritage in Indonesia. His doctoral research explored how cultural engagements and artistic practices by local communities can contribute to decolonisation.

Ow Yan Xiang
Ow Yan Xiang
Scientist
Singapore

Dr Ow is a seagrass scientist who has been working on this charismatic ecosystem since 2012. She started as a marine plant physiologist when she did her PhD with James Cook University, Australia, where she fell for the beauty of seagrass meadows while studying how they respond to climate change-related stresses. In 2016, she came home to join the National University of Singapore as a post-doctoral research fellow, with the aim to understand seagrass beds in the local urban marine environment. Over the years, her pursuit of conserving and restoring seagrasses has allowed her to interact with various communities and stakeholders. This has made her appreciate that communication and engagement is probably the bigger part of a scientist’s role.

Angela Hoten
Angela Ricasio Hoten
Research Assistant
Singapore, Australia

Angela Ricasio Hoten is a research assistant at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University supporting the research projects Climate Transformation Programme (2024–2030), Developing and Evaluating Digital Tools for Participatory Climate Change Mitigation (2025–2026) and previously the Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (2023–2024). Angela holds a BA (Hons) in Environmental Studies and minor in Anthropology from Yale-NUS College, Singapore. She was also the undergraduate research assistant for ‘Lala Land: Singapore’s Seafood Heritage’ edited by Anthony Medrano, published by Epigram Books.