This talk explores how countries and communities across Southeast Asia draw on their rich maritime pasts to navigate the challenges of global politics today. From ancient trade routes to modern heritage projects, the sea continues to shape how governments and communities express identity, independence, and sovereignty. By asking why prestige matters in international relations, the talk examines how maritime heritage becomes a tool for asserting status and legitimacy on the world stage.

Extending these ideas into the digital present, the talk then considers how data and artificial intelligence now shape whose (his)tories gain visibility. Just as colonial maps once defined whose knowledge counted, today’s data infrastructures and algorithms influence how maritime heritage is represented and valued. Through these parallels, the talk invites audiences to see Southeast Asia as a region that continues to chart its own course through shifting global currents: both maritime and digital.

Dr. Marina Kaneti is Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She specializes in complex systems analysis, focusing on the intersection of foreign policy, development, technology, and mobility.

She is currently engaged in two projects interrogating critical global challenges: “Racing with AI” examines the global competition for AI adoption, providing critical analysis of the social, political, and environmental costs of AI development and adoption in the Global South. “South-South mobility” investigates how transnational flows of people, knowledge, and resources among Global South countries reshape foreign policy agendas, governance frameworks, and diplomatic relations.

Dr. Kaneti’s research has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals, including Citizenship Studies, Journal of Global Ethics, Social Science Research, Sustainable Development, and Human Rights Review. She is finalizing two book manuscripts: “Mobility Power” theorizes how control over the meanings and norms governing global movement constitutes a fundamental mechanism for global hegemony. “The Inclusion Paradox” analyzes migrant political agency under conditions of extreme xenophobia, outlining strategies for overcoming exclusionary policies and politics.

Dr. Kaneti teaches elective courses such as “Geopolitics of Heritage,” “Century 21: Global (In)Securities;” and “Drones, Data, Drawings: Visual Politics in IR.” Previously, she taught the MIA Core Course on Global Governance and was the MPP Coordinator for the Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE). Occasionally, Dr. Kaneti also designs executive education curricula and engages in strategic consulting on AI ethics, gender equity, Sustainable Development Goals, NGO strategy, monitoring and evaluation, and policy innovation.

She is the recipient of the 2021 NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award and the 2020 LKYSPP Digital Educator Award.

Dr. Kaneti’s interdisciplinary expertise bridges academic rigor with real-world impact, informed by prior professional appointments as Project Manager at UNDP and Equity Trader on Wall Street. Most recently, her expertise and scholarly leadership is recognized through her roles as World Economic Forum Global Expert in Global Governance, Migration, and Pandemic Preparedness, and appointment as Vice Chair of the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee 35 (Technology & Development).

本次讲座主持为 Tansen Sen, Professor of History, Director of the Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai, and Associated Full Professor of History, NYU.

This lecture is co-organized by the Center for Global Asia, and the Digital Heritage Lab at NYU Shanghai.