Call for papers open
The Call for Papers for the 2026 Asia Pacific Conference on Maritime & Underwater Cultural Heritage (APCONF-MUCH) is now open. The conference will take place from 26 to 31 October 2026 in Bali, Indonesia.
Among the many sessions planned, ODHN Co-Chairs Arturo Rey da Silva and Athena Trakadas, together with Cultural Heritage Framework Programme Project Manager Georgia Holly, are organising a dedicated panel on Empowering Ocean Sustainability through Marine Cultural Heritage.
Panel 2g. Empowering Ocean Sustainability through Marine Cultural Heritage: Asia-Pacific Perspectives on the Ocean Decade
Chairs: Arturo Rey da Silva, Georgia Holly and Athena Trakadas.
As the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) progresses, the role of Marine Cultural Heritage (MCH) has gained critical relevance in promoting just, inclusive, and culturally embedded approaches to sustainable ocean governance. This session explores how a humanities-led shift toward marine sciences is helping reframe our relationship with the ocean, with particular emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region, where MCH is deeply intertwined with environmental knowledge, community resilience, and identity.
Framed within the Cultural Heritage Framework Programme (CHFP)—an endorsed Decade Action—this session will highlight how MCH can inform, inspire, and influence the implementation of the Ocean Decade goals. It will showcase innovative pathways and projects that bridge heritage, science, and policy, while promoting Ocean Literacy through cultural narratives, traditional practices, and local knowledge systems. These initiatives underscore MCH’s relevance not only as a record of the past but as a tool for future-oriented ocean solutions.
Focusing on Asia-Pacific case studies, speakers will examine how MCH contributes to climate adaptation, capacity building, and inclusive policy-making, while also identifying existing barriers to its full integration in marine frameworks. The session will propose practical strategies to ensure that heritage is not treated as a peripheral concern but as a central component of sustainable ocean solutions.
By bringing together perspectives from marine archaeology, cultural heritage, ocean science, and policy, the session fosters a multidisciplinary dialogue on how the past can inform more equitable, informed, and resilient ocean futures. In doing so, it contributes to the Ocean Decade’s vision of a clean, healthy, and sustainably used ocean, grounded in both scientific knowledge and cultural understanding.
Submission details
Paper proposals are due by 20 September 2025, and notices of acceptance will be sent out approximately mid-November. Presenters whose papers are accepted are reminded that they are expected to provide a full written version of their paper to their session chair before 30 March 2026 for inclusion in the conference proceedings. For more information, please see the APCONF-MUCH website.
