Heritage and Communication
Preservation, Production and Reproduction: Urban Heritage Transformation around the World
Visiting Fellow AY 2025-26
Dr Giovanna Puppin
Dr Giovanna Puppin is an Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at the University of Genoa. She previously worked as a Lecturer and Programme Director of the MA in Media and Advertising at the University of Leicester. In 2019, she led the AHRC-funded “CreAD: UK–China Partnership on Creative Advertising”. Since 2020, she has served on China’s IAI Awards jury. Her publications have appeared in international journals and edited volumes, exploring advertising, brand culture, Olympic visual identity, and China-Africa mediated relations. Her recent work investigates the revival of China’s time-honoured brands as forms of cultural heritage and the renewed circulation of iconic cartoon characters through contemporary cultural IPs, engaging with broader debates on cultural revival, nation branding, and global visibility.
Visiting Fellows AY 2024-25
Prof Timothy Clifton Winter
Timothy Clifton Winter is Professor and Research Leader of the Inter-Asian Engagements Research Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He was previously a Professorial Australian Research Council Future Fellow in Australia. Tim has led the development of heritage diplomacy as a cross-disciplinary concept and introduced geocultural power to the analysis of international affairs. Recent articles on these topics appear in International Affairs, Int Jnl of Cultural Policy, Int Jnl of Heritage Studies and Environment and Planning D. He has consulted for the World Monuments Fund, Getty Conservation Institute, UNESCO and others. Recent UNESCO projects include ‘maritimeconnects.asia’ and the podcast series War Heritage, both of which focus on Asia. His most recent books are Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty-First Century (University of Chicago Press 2019) and The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures (Oxford University Press, 2022).
Dr Yu Tao
Dr Yu Tao is an Associate Professor in Asian Studies at the University of Western Australia, where he coordinates both the Chinese Studies programme and the Social Sciences Honours programme. Trained in political science and sociology at Peking, Cambridge, and Oxford, his research focuses on the evolving dynamics of Global China, with particular attention to governance, religion, and heritage. A recipient of the Australian Award for University Teaching (Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning), Dr Tao also serves as Publication Officer of the Asian Studies Association of Australia and China regional editor of the Asian Studies Review. He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Asiatic Society.
Visiting Fellow AY2023-24
Dr Marcus Theodore Anthony
Futurist Marcus T Anthony earned his PhD in Policy Studies at Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast, and his current research focuses on preserving human authenticity in the digital age. His research spans modern reason and science, and traditional understandings from Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, and western wisdom traditions. Anthony is an Associate Professor of Foresight and Strategy at the
Beijing Institute of Technology (Zhuhai), where he explores future societies in China and globally. Anthony has over sixty publications, and his latest book is Power and Presence: Reclaiming Your Authentic Self in a Digitized World.
The Heritage and Communication Research Group explores the preservation, representation, and utilisation of cultural heritage, including the built environment (e.g., conservation, regeneration and revitalisation, economic growth and sustainability), creative industries (e.g., film and TV industries, new media technologies/social media) and identity-building through cultural representation (e.g., cultural diplomacy and nation-branding). This intersects with questions of identity, agency, and ownership in intellectual, political or economic terms.
Members’ recent and current research includes revitalising rural communities, the heritage sites in Suzhou Historical City, and the role of China’s creative industries in the nation’s attempt to refresh its image and to build international soft power.
The group builds on existing expertise in cultural heritage, including a strong track record in external funding both locally and internationally. This includes projects funded by the British Academy, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Chiang-ching Kuo Foundation, the British Council, National Social Science Fund of China, and funding through municipal and provincial governments in Ningbo, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Fujian.”
Members