Heritage in
the post-COVID World

Adi Utarini is an Indonesian public health researcher and a professor of public health at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia. As an internationally established researcher, she focuses on researching disease control and quality of healthcare. She was one of TIME100: The Most Influential People of 2021. Her field of expertise is centred around disease control of dengue fever. She is known for pioneering the randomized controlled trials of the technique employing Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes, proving that it reduces the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.

During the pandemic, Utarini went through the loss of her husband from COVID-19. She held a virtual charity concert entitled, Life, Passion, and Music Volume 2: Tribute to Professor Iwan Dwiprahasto, where she performed the piano. All funds were donated to support the isolation facilities at the Tangguh COVID-19 Shelter and village shelters in Bantul Regency.

Her contribution to public health has earned her distinguished achievements including her selection as one of Nature's ‘Ten people who helped shape science in 2020’.

Frank Snowden is a historian and Andrew Downey Orrick Professor Emeritus of History and History of Medicine at Yale University. He specializes in the comparative history of epidemic diseases, the history of public health, the impact of emerging and resurgent diseases, issues in medical ethics, and bioterrorism. Snowden published Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present in 2019. In the book, he examines the ways in which disease outbreaks have not only influenced medical science and public health but also transformed the arts, religion, intellectual history and warfare. Snowden explains the ways in which social structures have allowed diseases to flourish.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, his commitment to exploring the social, cultural and political impacts of epidemics has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal for his historical expertise. Snowden argues that the COVID crisis not only reflects a society’s existing vulnerabilities it also presents an opportunity for transformational change. His book, The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900-1962, in 2006, was awarded the Gustav Ranis International Book Prize from the MacMillan Center at Yale in 2007 as he ‘best book on an international topic by a member of the Yale Faculty’.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa is an Ecuadorian academic, politician and diplomat. Former President of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, she has served as Minister of Cultural and Natural Heritage, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence. She has decades of experience in international affairs, defence and security, as well as sustainable development, the environment, climate change, gender equality and indigenous peoples’ rights.

Espinosa served as an advisor on biodiversity and indigenous peoples’ policy, and was regional director for South America at IUCN. She is Goodwill Ambassador of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latjn America and the Carribean (FILAC). As the President of the UN General Assembly, she launched the International Year of Indigenous Languages in February 2019 and spearheaded the high-level event on culture and sustainable development in May 2019.

Espinosa is deeply committed to promoting women’s full participation in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. She was the first woman to become Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations and the first female President of the General Assembly from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. She established the Group of Gender Equality Leaders to push for women’s leadership and joined GWL Voices for Change and Inclusion, an advocacy group for multilateralism and gender equality. During the pandemic, Espinosa joined as Commissioner and co-chair of the international Lancet COVID-19 Commission. She also co-signed the letter ‘What the G20 Should Do Now’, on the importance of taking measures for disadvantaged people in relation to COVID.

Salim Abdool Karim is a South African epidemiologist and professor of global health at Columbia University. He is also director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, and adjunct professor of medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Karim is known for his contribution to HIV prevention and treatment. He is also an inventor of patents used in HIV vaccine candidates and antibody-based passive immunization strategies. His TB-HIV treatment studies have shaped international guidelines on the clinical management of co-infected patients.

During the pandemic, Karim served as Chair of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19. As such, he contributed to implementing public health measures and managing the sanitary situation in South Africa. He also sits on the Africa Task Force for Novel Coronavirus. Karim is one of the most cited scientists by Web of Science. He also serves as Chair of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel, Chair of the WHO's HIV and Hepatitis Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, and he is a member of the WHO HIV-TB Task Force.

Krista Kim is a Canadian digital artist and creator of the Mars House, the first ‘metaverse home’ for sale. She creates large-scale abstract art inspired by light, and she studies the concept of digital consciousness. Kim is the founder of the Techism Movement, which recognizes technological innovation as an artistic discipline and brings together artists and engineers with a vision towards the future. She considers technology as a significant factor in determining our social behaviour and believes this should be applied to art. She also responds to society's over-reliance on technology by encouraging artists to promote digital humanism to create our digital culture.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Kim explored the potential of screens as digital instruments for well-being. She created 'Mars House', a completely virtual environment, and the first ever ’metaverse home’ for sale as a non-fungible token (NFT). The piece received global acclaim and reached the highest grossing sale of an NFT on SuperRare. It was shown at the Ethereal Aether exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, in 2021. Kim is dedicated to redefining digital technologies in the context of art and humanity. She developed the term ‘digital consciousness’ to describe the expansion of the human consciousness: from binary into the network and the metaverse. She also advocates for ‘digital humanism’, an effort to bring artists into the digital technology domain.

Ahmed Salman is an Egyptian senior immunologist-vaccinologist and a research leader working in Professor Sir Adrian Hill’s Lab at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford. Salman works to identify, design and assess new target antigens as vaccine candidates for infectious diseases caused by human and veterinary pathogens or cancerous diseases. Salman was part of the research group that helped develop the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, one of the most widely distributed vaccines in more than 170 countries.

Salman has worked on malaria vaccines and has three Plasmodium falciparum malaria vaccine patents. His research on this topic has shown that three previously underutilized antigens possessed superior protection to two commonly studied antigens. He is also a member of the British Society for Immunology, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network.

Jimmy Jean-Louis is a Haitian award-winning actor and human rights activist. Referred to as a ‘source of pride for Haitians’, he continues to promote the heritage and creativity of Haiti around the world. Jean-Louis won Best Actor at the Pan African Film Festival and was nominated for Best Actor at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2012 for his starring role in Toussaint Louverture, as well as Best Actor in a leading role for Desrances in 2020. He is best known for his role as ‘The Haitian’ in the hit television series, Heroes.

In 2008, he founded Hollywood Unites for Haiti, a charity organization that provides sport and culture education to underprivileged youth in Haiti. Following the 2020 earthquake, Jean-Louis raised funds for relief efforts. He was also named Ambassador of the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) for Haitian children. Dedicated to supporting his home country, he was named as Ambassador-at-large to Haiti in 2014. Following COVID-19, Jean-Louis used his platforms to sensitize the Haitian public about the pandemic. He created videos in which he encouraged people to respect sanitary measures to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Hoor Al Qasimi is an Emirati curator, and president and director of Sharjah Art Foundation. She works to make the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the centre of the region’s art scene, as well as a hub for dialogue between the East and West. Al Qasimi established Sharjah Art Foundation in 2009 to advocate for the arts in UAE. Under her leadership, the foundation has expanded its positive influence globally and supported artist and curator residencies in visual art, film and music. She also co-curated Sharjah Biennial 6 in 2003 and is the current Biennial director.

Hoor Al Qasimi was a board member for MoMA PS1 in New York (2010–2021) and a member of the Prince Claus Awards Committee (2016–2020). She is the current Chair of the Board of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, which was inaugurated in November 2019. Al Qasimi also serves on the board of directors for Kunst-Werke Berlin e.V. in Germany and is a board member of Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, Lebanon. She is also the Chair of the Advisory Board for the College of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Sharjah in UAE and a member of the advisory board for Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi.

Rana Dajani is a Palestinian-Jordanian molecular biologist, a Cmalakova Fellow at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, Virginia, a professor of biology and biotechnology at Hashemite University, Jordan, and an activist. Specialized in molecular cell biology, epigenetics and biomarkers of trauma among refugees, she is also interested in raising the health, education and social status of women and children in the region.

Dajani is dedicated to education for children. She established, We Love Reading, an organization that encourages reading among children so that they can lead change in their communities. Her commitment is recognized widely, with such honours as the Library of Congress Literacy Award for Best Practices, a STARS Impact Award, the Synergos Arab World Social Innovator award, a WISE Award, and recognition from IDEO.org as well as the recipient of the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize in 2017. Dajana also organized Three Circles of Alemat, a mentoring and networking programme for women academics, uniquely targeting women scientists, especially from underrepresented regions.

Dajani’s career has earned her numerous accolades worldwide. She has received the Order of Al Hussein for Distinguished Contributions of the Second Class, the King Hussein Cancer Institute for Cancer and Biotechnology award in 2009, a place in the U.S. Embassy’s Women in Science Hall of Fame in 2015, and the Jordan Star of Science in the biology category.

Zoe Butt is a curator and writer from Viet Nam with over two decades of international experience in the arts across public and private sectors. She was artistic director of the Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam’s first purpose-built space for contemporary art. Her practice centres around building conscious artistic communities and facilitating South-South dialogue.

Butt formerly served as executive director and curator of Sàn Art, an independent contemporary art space in Ho Chi Minh City from 2009 to 2016. She is also a former director of international programmes for the Long March Project, and former assistant curator of contemporary Asian Art at Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.

She is a MoMA International Curatorial Fellow, member of Asia Society’s ‘Asia 21’ initiative, and a member of the Asian Art Council of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She was also named ‘Young Global Leader’ by the World Economic Forum in 2015. In an interview with post at MoMA, she has shared her thoughts on the creativity of artists in the face of COVID-19.