On August 21, 2017, a renewed Memorandum of Agreement for the Taiwan Studies Lectureship was signed by UCLA Dean of Humanities David Schaberg, Asia Pacific Center (APC) Director Min Zhou, and Rebecca Lan, Director of the Education Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, on behalf of the Taiwan Ministry of Education.
The UCLA Taiwan Studies Lectureship (TSL), initially launched in 2014, is a joint effort of the Asia Pacific Center and the Division of Humanities supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. The TSL aims to promote and broaden understanding of Taiwan’s politics, history, society, languages and culture. The agreement provides funding for Taiwan-related research and activities, courses, curriculum development, academic publications, conferences, seminars, and Taiwan Studies events on the UCLA campus.
The initial phase (2014-2017) of the TSL focused on connections between contemporary Taiwan and the classical tradition in which it is rooted. The second phase, beginning in 2017, will expand to examine Taiwan’s culture and identity in historical, global, and transnational contexts. The first event of fall 2017 will be a major international conference on the Musha incident of 1930, to be held on October 9–11.
The signing ceremony took place at the TECO office in Los Angeles. In addition to David Schaberg and Min Zhou, APC Executive Director Elizabeth Leicester and Assistant Director Aaron Miller also joined the ceremony. Benson Wang, Deputy Director General of TECO-LA, was invited as the attesting witness of the signing ceremony. In the past three years, the TSL has succeeded in expanding the study of Taiwan and its role as a locus of scholarship on the Chinese classics on campus. The TSL activities also promoted greater visibility and stronger ties between scholars in Taiwan and UCLA faculty and graduate students. Under this latest agreement, collaboration will continue for an additional three years through 2020, marking another exciting chapter for Taiwan Studies at UCLA.
Besides offering courses and lectures on Taiwan Studies, the TSL will continue to host visiting scholars and offer funding for graduate students and faculty to pursue research in Taiwan. It will also support the acquisition of unique databases of Taiwan archival material to augment the collections of the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library, which was recently designated as a Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies.
Adapted from news item "MOA on Taiwan Studies Lectureship renewed with University of California, Los Angeles" (TECO Los Angeles website)
Published: Tuesday, September 5, 2017