Melissa Borja is Assistant Professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan, where she is a core faculty member in Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies. She researches migration, religion, race, and politics in the United States and the Pacific World and is the author of Follow the New Way: Hmong Refugee Resettlement and Practice of American Religious Pluralism (forthcoming, Harvard University Press). An avid public scholar, Dr. Borja aims to improve public understanding of refugees through her work as an advisor to the Religion and Forced Migration Initiative at Princeton University and the Vietnamese Boat People project.

Derrick Yap joined the Franciscan Order in 2002 and took his Solemn Profession in 2008 and ordained as a priest in 2010. He obtained his Licentiate in Dogmatics and a Master in Formation from the Franciscan University of St Anthony (Antonianum) in Rome. Currently he is caring for the friars in Malaysia and Singapore as Custos and also the Spiritual Assistant to the Secular Franciscans in Singapore. He is also the Formator for Post-Novitiate Franciscan Students and also teaching theology at the Local Seminary. His passion is in Franciscan Spirituality and Formation.

Irfan A. Omar is currently Associate Professor of Theology at Marquette University where he teaches courses in Peace studies, Islamic theology, and interfaith dialogue. His research areas include Sufism and South Asian studies. He is the author of El-Khaḍir/El-Khiḍr: Le Prophète-Sage dans la tradition Musulmane (2021). He has edited several volumes including Interfaith Engagement in Milwaukee: A Brief History of Christian—Muslim Dialogue (2020, co-edited w/ K. Daly), Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions (2015, co-edited w/ M. Duffey), The Judeo-Christian-Islamic Heritage: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives (2012, co-edited w/ R. Taylor), and A Christian View of Islam: Essays on Dialogue by Thomas F. Michel, S.J. (2010).

Chung Kwang Tong (Wei Yi) is an ordained Taoist priest who is no stranger in the interfaith sector. He has participated in numerous interfaith engagements, both locally and internationally. He was ordained as a priest in Singapore in 2003, and received the higher ordination as a high priest in Hong Kong in 2009. Master Wei Yi is an appointed mediator with the Community Mediation Centre, and sits on several public and people advisory committees. He holds a Masters in Malay Studies from the NUS.

Justin Tse is Assistant Professor of Humanities (Education) in the Office of Core Curriculum and the School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University. He was lead editor of Theological Reflections on the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement (Palgrave, 2016) and is working on the manuscript The Secular as Sheets of Scattered Sand: Cantonese Protestants and Pacific Secularities (in preliminary agreement, University of Notre Dame Press). In addition to Big Questions, he teaches a module entitled Publics and Privates on the Pacific Rim.

Sandeep Singh is an Adjunct Faculty at the Office of Core Curriculum, SMU, and recently completed his PhD on Cold War literature in Southeast Asia, which also explored questions of postcolonialism and regionalism. His Masters was obtained at NUS and PhD from UNSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Sandeep received three teaching awards for graduate teaching at NUS between 2014-2016. He works in the intersection of literary studies and history, looking to facilitate an interdisciplinary dialogue between these disciplines.

Emily Wilcox is Associate Professor and Director of Chinese Studies at William & Mary. She is an international expert on Chinese dance and performance culture. Wilcox’s first book, Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy (University of California Press, 2018), won the 2019 de la Torre Bueno Prize© from the Dance Studies Association. Wilcox is co-editor of Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia (University of Michigan Press, 2020) and co-creator of the University of Michigan Chinese Dance Collection. Before joining William & Mary, Wilcox was Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan.

Jo Kukathas is an actor, writer and director and co-founder/ Artistic Director of The Instant Café Theatre Company, Malaysia (1989) best known for its political satire, its FIRSTWoRKS new play program and theatre reflecting Malaysia’s diverse ethnic, linguistic, religious, migratory composition. She has run arts spaces, produced/curated festivals, staged productions and toured and/or worked in Singapore, Brazil, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Indonesia. She believes in the need for a more egalitarian, empathetic society. She is an API Fellow (Asian Public Intellectual) and DDS Fellow (De La Salle Democracy Discourse) and also YBeeee, the fictional Deputy Minister of Moral Panic.

Theophilus Kwek is a poet, editor and independent researcher based in Singapore. He holds a MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from Oxford University, and has also written widely about citizenship and migration issues. He has published four full-length collections of poetry, two of which were shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. His poems, essays, reviews and translations have appeared in The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, Mekong Review, Hong Kong Review of Books, and elsewhere. Today, he serves as Poetry Editor of the Asian Books Blog, and supports the work of the Migrant Writers of Singapore.

Emily Soon is Lecturer of Humanities in the Office of Core Curriculum and School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University. Her research focuses on cross-cultural literary engagement between Asia and Europe in the premodern and modern eras. Her work on cultural inclusivity and student Shakespeare performances in late-colonial Singapore has been published in Shakespeare Survey, and her research on early modern literary exchange is forthcoming in Modern Philology and England’s Asian Renaissance. In addition to Big Questions, she also teaches the modules ‘Asia and World Literature: Beyond Orientalism’ and ‘Imagining the Self: Literature, Ethnicity and Gender in Asia’.

Sin Harng Luh is an established scholar in the areas of volunteer tourism and responsible tourism and have published in areas of ethical and responsible possibilities enacted in tourism, situated within the larger context of social initiatives like sustainable development, ethical consumerism, international volunteerism, and ‘first world responsibilities’ to the ‘third world’. Her current research looks at topics of Chinese outbound tourism, the Belt and Road Initiative and tourism from the Greater Bay Area, China, and Covid-19 pandemic response and recovery in tourism in Singapore.

Debbie Fordyce has been volunteering with Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) for 15 years. She established and coordinates the free meal program for low wage male workers unable to work due to injury or salary claims, and assists with casework, research, and public engagement.

Heng Yee Kuang is Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, The University of Tokyo, Japan. Yee Kuang graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a B.Sc. (First Class Honours) and subsequently PhD in International Relations. He previously held faculty positions lecturing at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; the University of St Andrews in Scotland, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Research interests include small state peace operations and UK-Japan defence cooperation. Recent publications include “UK-Japan military exercises and mutual strategic reassurance”, Defence Studies, Vol. 21 Issue 3 (2021)

Alvin Camba is Assistant Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University, the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security & Diplomacy, and the Center for China-US Cooperation. Dr. Camba has conducted in-depth research on Chinese capital in Southeast Asia, published numerous peer-reviewed articles in top development journals, and been awarded multiple best research paper awards by sections of the American Sociological Association. His work has contributed to widely-circulated policy reports, and been presented at the World Bank, AidData, and the US State Department.

Joshua Luczak is Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Education) at Singapore Management University. He completed his PhD at the University of Western Ontario and has held positions at Georgetown University, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Monash University, RMIT, and the University of Salzburg. He is an editorial and administrative assistant at Philpapers, a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy, and is currently writing a book on critical thinking and propositional logic. He works on topics in philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, climate science, ethics, logic, and philosophy of probability.