Speaker(s): Dr Creighton Connolly, Professor Roger Keil, Dr Deirdre McKay, Dr Rita Padawangi | What is the relationship between urbanisation and infectious disease? How do cities and their hinterlands respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? What is the role of civil society in tackling the livelihood challenges in urban and rural areas during the pandemic? This panel will explore the impact of COVID-19 on changing relationships between cities and their hinterlands in global urbanisation processes, and the position of cities, small towns and rural areas in thinking about post COVID-19 urban futures, with particular emphasis on Southeast Asia. Creighton Connolly (@Creighton88) is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies and the Global South in the School of Geography at the University of Lincoln. He researches urban political ecology, urban-environmental governance and processes of urbanization and urban redevelopment in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Malaysia and Singapore. He is editor of Post-Politics and Civil Society in Asian Cities, and has published in a range of leading urban studies and geography journals. Roger Keil (@rkeil) is Professor at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. He researches global suburbanization, urban political ecology, cities and infectious disease, and regional governance. Keil is the author of Suburban Planet and editor of Suburban Constellations. A co-founder of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA), he was the inaugural director of the CITY Institute at York University and former co-editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Deirdre McKay (@dccmckay) is Reader in Social Geography and Environmental Politics at Keele University, and Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Studies UK (ASEAS UK). Dr McKay’s research draws on both social/cultural geography and social anthropology to explore people's place-based experiences of globalisation and development. Her fieldwork is in areas of the global South and also with migrant communities from developing areas who have moved into the world's major cities. Much of her work has been conducted with people who originate in indigenous villages in the northern Philippines. Rita Padawangi (@ritapd) is Senior Lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences. Her research interests include the sociology of architecture, social movements and participatory urban development. She co-coordinates the Southeast Asia Neighbourhoods Network (SEANNET), an initiative for urban studies research and teaching, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation through the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). She is the editor of the Routledge Handbook of Urbanization in Southeast Asia. Hyun Bang Shin (@urbancommune) is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, and Professor of Geography and Urban Studies in the Department of Geography and Environment. This event is part of LSE's public event series - COVID-19: The Policy Response. The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (@LSESEAC) is a multidisciplinary Research Centre of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). It develops and fosters academic and policy-oriented research, drawing on a rich network of experts across disciplines at LSE and beyond, while serving as a globally recognised hub for promoting dialogue and engagement with Southeast Asia and the world. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19