Lila Ramos Shahani - Straddling disciplines, straddling worlds

In this episode, Siri and I co-host a conversation with Lila Ramos Shahani. Lila was Siri's classmate at the Fletcher School’s GMAP degree programme in international affairs. I realise I rarely have the chance of speaking with someone so embedded in their country’s history, politics and society, in this case the Philippines, but also someone trying to shape their country’s direction towards greater inclusion and better governance.

Lila is an Expert and Associate Member of two International Scientific Committees of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), where she specializes in the Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites (ICIP) and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICICH).

During her tenure as Secretary-General of the Philippine National Commission to UNESCO, she and her team obtained four UNESCO designations for the country: in Intangible Cultural Heritage, Memory of the World and Creative Cities. 

Lila has taught at several universities in the Philippines and has worked for Oxford University Press and the United Nations (UNICEF and UNDP) in New York. She has a B.A. from Brown, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and is a doctoral candidate at Oxford.

Lila has a book chapter coming out soon, see Chapter 6, The Politics of Erasure: De-Commemorating "Comfort Women" in the Philippines, in Fallen Monuments and Contested Memorials,  Routledge.

Recorded on 1 December 2022.

Instagram: @at.the.coalface

Connect with Lila on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/lila-shahani-91a69370/.

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