Hearts of Freedom – Promotion in Thailand
Above photo: Her Excellency Ms. Ping Kitnikone, Ambassador of Canada to Thailand (left), attends the opening of the Hearts of Freedom – Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees exhibition at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on February 19, 2026 with Dr. Stephanie Stobbe (middle), HOF Researcher and Curator from Canadian Mennonite University, and Ms. Tammi Sharpe (right), UNHCR country representative to Thailand.
In our latest Bulletin (number 114, February 2026), Mike Molloy presented a comprehensive summary of the promotion activities following the release of Hearts of Freedom: Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees late last year.
One of the authors (and a professor at Canadian Mennonite University), Stephanie Stobbe, has just returned from Bangkok—where the Embassy of Canada to Thailand and UNHCR jointly hosted Hearts of Freedom‘s traveling exhibition, a book event, and a film screening at Chulalongkorn University. Stephanie reports:
The opening of the Hearts of Freedom: Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees exhibition events in Bangkok went extremely well. It was co-sponsored by the Embassy of Canada to Thailand, the UNHCR, and Chulalongkorn Univeristy’s Political Science/Nelson Mandela Centre. Air Canada sponsored the flights.
The Canadian Ambassador to Thailand, Ms. Ping Kitnikone, was very supportive and gave a wonderful introduction at the opening event. The Dean of Political Science, Dr. Siriprakob, and UNHCR’s country representative, Tammi Sharpe, also delivered excellent speeches.
We were also supported by Dr. Jittiang from the Faculty of Political Science, Mr. Liam Kirkpatrick from the Canadian Embassy, and Imen Moncer from the UNHCR.
I introduced the Hearts of Freedom project and spoke of its various outcomes before facilitating the following activities:
- A walk-through of the Hearts of Freedom exhibition and stories from each panel;
- A viewing of the Zoom video recording that had Mike Molloy and me making a presentation about the development of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement programs as background to the book;
- Readings from the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian chapters of the book; and
- A question and answer session with me (in my capacity as the Hearts of Freedom researcher and exhibition curator), Tammi Sharpe (country representative, UNHCR) and Harold Wulf (IRCC, Canadian Embassy, Bangkok)
There were excellent discussions and questions in the question and answer session, as well as in the student session.
The audience was comprised of members of the broader diplomatic community (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa), UN agencies, government ministers, non governmental organizations, universities, faculty, and university students (from such faculties as political science, international relations, and anthropology).
