Dr. Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador

Dr Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne and serves on various advisory boards and associations. She has recently been appointed as a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis of the New York University. A member of the International Conservation Advisory Panel for National Heritage Board, Singapore, she is also a member of the ICOM Working Group for the Museum Definition, and Secretary of ICOM Asia Pacific Regional Alliance. She contributes to the upskilling and professionalization of Philippine museums as Conservation Advisor to the Central Visayas Association of Museums.

Dr Labrador has a PhD in social anthropology and museology from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Museum and Gallery Management from City, University of London. An accomplished author with extensive publications on social anthropology, preventive conservation, and art history, her latest work, “Art in Limbo: Logistical challenges, cultural differences, and the complications of collections access during the pandemic” which is a chapter in a book, providing an insight into the complications of organizing an exhibition consisting of artworks from abroad caught during the global lockdown. She is an editorial board member of several journals, including Museum International (Routledge), Museum Management and Curatorship (Routledge), and the International Journal of Sociomuseology (University of Lusofona, Lisbon).

Prior to her current roles, Dr Labrador served as Deputy Director-General for Museums at the National Museum of the Philippines and spent many years as an academic at the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University. She is among a few people who have a marine species named after her. The Drilliola labradorae (from the Family Turridae), about 18 mm long, were named and accepted by the international community in 2021, thanks to scientists Guido Poppe and Sheila Tagaro.