The Oxford Taiwan Studies Programme was launched

The Oxford Taiwan Studies Programme, part of the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, was launched on 28th November. The launch conference saw a number of prominent academics and an audience of 80 people. It opened with a keynote lecture from Sarah Liu (Senior Lecturer in Gender and Politics at the University of Edinburgh) on ‘Too feminine to protect a country? The gendered experiences of soldiers in the Taiwanese army’, followed by a panel discussion on Taiwanese identity and nationalism. The panellists included Adina Zemanek (Lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies, Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies), Christopher Hughes (Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Department of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science), and Jonathan Sullivan (Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham).

The second panel on cultural politics and citizenship in Taiwanese society consisted of Po-Hsi Chen (Postdoctoral Fellow in Taiwan Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge), Chen-Yu Lin (Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries, School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University), and Lara Momesso (Senior Lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies, Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies, University of Central Lancashire). Shelley Rigger (Brown Professor of Political Science, Davidson College) delivered the closing keynote lecture on ‘Taiwan Studies and the future of Taiwan: What are scholars’ obligations to their research subject?’