Visiting scholar: Professor Lily Kong

Professor Kong is Provost at Singapore Management University, Singapore. Professor Kong is widely regarded as a thought leader in religion, cultural policy and creative economy, heritage and conservation, and national identity.

An award-winning researcher and teacher, Professor Kong has received five international fellowship awards including the Commonwealth Fellowship Award and the Fulbright Fellowship Award. Professor Kong has extensive experience and profile internationally through her academic work, serving as co-editor or member of international editorial advisory boards for more than 15 journals, and is sought after as keynote speaker for many international conferences. While visiting the university, Professor Kong held a masterclass titled 'From cultural industries to creative industries and back?' In this session Professor Kong discussed with graduate students, academics and industry professionals the complexities and confusions in the shift in discourse from "culture industry" to "cultural industries" and then to "creative industries." Professor Kong also gave a public lecture, titled 'Arts, Culture and the Making of Global Cities'. Here Professor Kong examined the urban imaging strategies undertaken in three major cities in Asia: Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In analysing the relative successes and failures of these cities, Professor Kong's talk offered a rich ethnographic detail drawn from her extensive fieldwork.