• Liberal and Creative Arts and Humanities (AH) in Higher Education (HE) is historically exclusionary (e.g. Annetts 2018; Starkey 2013). Black Lives Matter 2020 have revealed continued inequity in arts HE (Orr 2021; Tan 2021; 2020) & HE (e.g. UKRI 2020; Bhopal 2020; Adelaine 2020). Diverse political, socio-economic threats include austerity cuts, governmental drive towards ‘useful’ (sic) or more ‘profitable’ (sic) degrees, national metrics like TEF with emphasis on employability & transferable skills; funding cuts in the arts industry exacerbated by Covid & new cost of living crisis. 
  • Since my first invited lecture in 1994, I have dedicated my life to advancing creative approaches to teaching/learning centred on EDI (equity, diversity and inclusivity). My endeavours respond to barriers stated, as well as to contribute to UNESCO’s call for ‘new social contract’ for HE as ‘public good’ by 2050 (2021). As artist-teacher-practitioner, I specialise in what I term ‘tentacular pedagogy’. This comprises curating innovative, inclusive, internationalised, student-centred, research-inquiry-based interventions & environments,  prioritising applied and transferable creative intelligence, promoting art school spirit & skill of independent & creative thinking, giving students the permission to play, take risks, think bold & act entrepreneurial, be agile & adaptive, & to be equipped with transferable skills that enable diverse applications in cross-sectorial boundaries, within & beyond creative arts HE globally
  • I craft multi-modal, anti-colonial, internationalised, inclusive methods and contents to counter siloed, elitist approaches, instigate novel & meaningful synergies linking scholarship, industry demands & society, and prioritise learning from/with communities excluded from HE, & working with professionals & sectors outside HE
  • I have worked in >200 HEIs BA-PhD  as Examiner, Programme Leader, Lecturer, Tutor, Visiting Lecturer, Visiting Artist worldwide, in, across and beyond established & emerging disciplines and areas in Liberal and Creative Arts & Humanities: Fine art, visual art, media art, design, architecture, geography, social science, higher education, creativity, arts-health, health humanities, neuroscience, performance, theatre. Within Creative Arts: Practice, theory and histories of fine/visuals art(s), film/cinema and culture; expanded, related areas of fine art media, film/video art, art education, socially-engaged art, installation, performance/live art, curatorial practice, professional practice, live projects. More generally: practice-led research, interdisciplinary making and thinking, and engagement with non-western body-mind poetics, external/public engagement, networking, EDI 
  • Liberal and Creative Arts and Humanities (AH) in Higher Education (HE) is historically exclusionary (e.g. Annetts 2018; Starkey 2013). Black Lives Matter 2020 have revealed continued inequity in arts HE (Orr 2021; Tan 2021; 2020) & HE (e.g. UKRI 2020; Bhopal 2020; Adelaine 2020). Political, socio-economic threats include austerity cuts, governmental drive towards ‘useful’ (sic) or more ‘profitable’ (sic) degrees, national metrics like TEF with emphasis on employability & transferable skills; funding cuts in the arts industry exacerbated by Covid & cost of living crisis
  • Since my first invited lecture in 1994, I have dedicated my life to advancing creative approaches to teaching/learning centred on EDI (equity, diversity and inclusivity). My endeavours respond to barriers stated, as well as to contribute to UNESCO’s call for ‘new social contract’ for HE as ‘public good’ by 2050 (2021). As artist-teacher-practitioner, I specialise in what I term ‘tentacular pedagogy’. This comprises curating innovative, inclusive, internationalised, student-centred, research-inquiry-based interventions & environments,  prioritising applied and transferable creative intelligence, promoting art school spirit & skill of independent & creative thinking, giving students the permission to play, take risks, think bold & act entrepreneurial, be agile & adaptive, & to be equipped with transferable skills that enable diverse applications in cross-sectorial boundaries, within & beyond creative arts HE globally
  • I craft multi-modal, anti-colonial, internationalised, inclusive methods and contents to counter siloed, elitist approaches, instigate novel & meaningful synergies linking scholarship, industry demands & society, and prioritise learning from/with communities excluded from HE, & working with professionals & sectors outside HE
  • I have worked in >200 HEIs BA-PhD  as Examiner, Programme Leader, Lecturer, Tutor, Visiting Lecturer, Visiting Artist worldwide, in, across and beyond established & emerging disciplines and areas in Liberal and Creative Arts & Humanities: Fine art, visual art, media art, design, architecture, geography, social science, higher education, creativity, arts-health, health humanities, neuroscience, performance, theatre. Within Creative Arts: Practice, theory and histories of fine/visuals art(s), film/cinema and culture; expanded, related areas of fine art media, film/video art, art education, socially-engaged art, installation, performance/live art, curatorial practice, professional practice, live projects. More generally: practice-led research, interdisciplinary making and thinking, and engagement with non-western body-mind poetics, external/public engagement, networking, EDI 
  • I have helped to establish Media Art as HE subject in Singapore, through my role as Video Art BA Programme Leader (LASALLE College of Arts, validated by Goldsmiths). This built on my track record then as ‘media artist to look out for’ (Japanese journal Art It, 2005’), Singapore’s foremost video artist’ (Contemporary Art in Singapore 2005), expert advisor for government bodies (Infocomm Media Authority Singapore 2007-2012, Ministry of Education, Culture, National Arts Council)
  • Why, what, how and whom I teach draws on my own upbringing under Singapore’s ‘hothouse’ educational regime, which emphasised hierarchy, rote-learning with ‘teachers as sage’. With working-class parents who both left school without qualifications, I have been lucky to attain full-scholarships to undertake studies in Chicago, Tokyo and UK which strengthen dedication to widening participation & internationalisation. My own late and surprising neurodivergence diagnoses (ADHD, autism, dyslexia & dyspraxia) after PhD at UCL Slade School of Fine Art further fortify inclusive & socially-engaged pedagogical ethos 

See also Keynotes and Exhibitions for more, and for providing training for peers & professionals through keynote lectures and masterclasses. For the rest of my CV, click here.

  • 11/2022-10/2026: External Examiner, BA Fine Art, Sheffield Hallam University
  • 2023: PhD External Examination, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds
  • 2023: PhD External Examination, Dance, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
  • 2022: LUCA School of Arts, Belgium
  • 2021: Postgraduate Research, Kingston School of Art, Kingston University 
  • Since 09/2019 – current: Senior Lecturer. Programme Leader Creative Arts Leadership MA. Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. Teach across BA, MA, PhD in Fine Art, Curating, Performance, staff and student training (on networking, higher education, creativity, research, EDI). Provost’s Road to 2030 invited Academic Advisory group member, Race Equality Activities Planning (REAP) Founder and Co-Chair, Advisory board member for Centre for Race and Anti-Racism, Disability Forum member, Departmental EDI co-lead, Faculty EDI group member
  • Since 2018- current: King’s College London: Affective Disorder MSc (Convenor: Dr Patricia Zunzsain): On Creativity & Affective Disorder. Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN)
  • Since 2018- current: King’s College London: Education in Arts and Cultural Settings MA, School of Education, Communication and Society (alumni includes Turner Prize winner 2021 Tom Wells) (Convenor: Dr Anwar Tlili). 2 sessions: What will a Neurodiversity-led 2050 look like? and Practice, Movement and Play in Learning, both for the module ‘The Arts, Culture & Education and Learning, Participation & the Southbank Centre’
  • Since 2018- current: St Georges University London & Birkbeck, Global Health Humanities Msc (Convenors: Dr Deborah Padfield and Prof Annie Bartlett), on ‘How to Think about Running‘. For Postgraduate module Finding a Leg to Stand On: Clinical, Critical and Creative Approaches to the Human Body. Part of Open Spaces, which brings medicine, science & healthcare into dialogue with the humanities, arts & enterprise
  • 2022: Decolonising Teaching and Research in Literary Studies (doctoral training), part of SOUTH AFRICAN MODERNISM 1880-2020, AHRC-Funded Research Project by Dr Jade Munslow Ong
  • University of Salford.
  • 2020, 2019: Reading University
  • 2019: Invited Speaker, Hai Sing Catholic School, Singapore
  • 2019: Birkbeck, University of London
  • 2019: Plymouth College of Art
  • 2018: Paris School of Arts and Culture, University of Kent, France
  • 2018: BSc Nursing, Guy’s Hospital, KCL
  • 2018: MA Art & Science seminar, Central Saint Martins, University Arts London
  • 2018: King’s Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, KCL
  • 2018: Workshop with neurodivregent children from Lyndhurst Primary School, South London 
  • 2017: MFA, Goldsmiths University. Invited by Professor Michael Newman
  • 2014-7: External Assessor. Art Education BA, Singapore Institute of Management University. Vice Provost Prof Cheah Horn Mun praises ‘exemplary thoroughness’ and ‘admirable professionalism’. Examined: BAE207 Art & New Media Technologies, BAE203 Study of Visual Images, BAE101 World Art & Social Spaces
  • 2014-7: Peer Supporter to colleagues on PhD studies, CPD and research. Leeds Arts University
  • 2015: University of Helsinki. Invited by Sirpa Tani, Prof of Geography & Environmental Education
  • 2014: Tutor, Open College of Arts. Drawing Skills, History of Art I: Western Art, Visual Studies: Understanding Visual Culture
  • 2013-4: Tutor, Tutor for AFHEA portfolio submissions, Psychology & Language Sciences, School of Life & Medical Studies UCL
  • 2013: Critical & Historical Studies Programme, Royal College of Art
  • 2010: Visiting Assessor, Visiting Lecturer. Foundational Course, London College of Communication, UAL
  • 2010: School of Art, Design & Media, Nanyang Technological University
  • 2008: Lecturer and Digital Consultant, School of the Arts, Singapore
  • 2008: Silliman University, Dumaguete, Philippines 
  • 2006: School of Film & Video, Edith Cowen University, Perth, Australia
  • 2006: Photomedia, School of Arts, Australian National University, Canberra
  • 2006: School of Contemporary Arts, University of New South Wales, Australia
  • 2005-9: Full-time Lecturer. Faculty of Media Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore (validated by Goldsmiths University). Pathway Leader, Video Art. Dean Wolfgang Muench (2009): `She instigated and implemented major changes for the for the academic and artistic direction of the Video Art Pathway, resulting in a new and improved course design that matches international quality standards. Kai established herself as an excellent leader and respected team worker’. Supervised Fine Art MA theses. Additionally: delivered lectures, seminars, tutorials at Puttnam School of Film & Fine Art See details
  • 2004: Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan
  • 2004: Tokyo Film College, Tokyo, Japan
  • 2001: LASALLE College of the Arts
  • 1998-2001: Full-time Lecturer. School of Film & Media Studies, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore. Film History, Film Theory & Aesthetics, 16mm filmmaking, Storyboarding for Set Design. Hone agility in teaching in lecture theatre of 200 learners, conducting 1-to-1 tutorials, communicating with parents, inspiring cynical young adults. Creative intervention: School was foremost institution for media production in Asia. Students learnt about & made classical cinema, advertisements & TV drama, but played safe. Propose & successfully run Experimental Film Projects unit to open up space for exploration in creative dialogue with key taught modules which focused on classical production. Give students the permission to play, fail and explore. Student Bertrand Lee went on to win Cannes International Film Festival Award for film Birthday (2006), enhancing institution’s international profile. 
  • 1994: LASALLE College of the Arts