The UCLA Taiwan Studies Working Group: Building Community Across Disciplines

UCLA Taiwan Studies Working Group Members with Asia Pacific Center Faculty and Staff

Contributors: Formosa Deppman and Quentin Tan

 The UCLA Taiwan Studies Working Group (https: //www.international.ucla.edu/apc/article/269091) (TSWG) is a collaborative and interdisciplinary group of graduate students that offers an intellectual space for the examination of enduring and emerging issues pertaining to Taiwan from a transnational perspective. The TSWG was formed with the goal of not only bringing Taiwan as an area of study in conversation with other modes of knowledge production but also in going beyond orthodox global divisions of intellectual labor by taking seriously the possibility of Taiwan as a site of theorization. Originally launched at UCLA in Fall 2022 by two former Taiwan in the World Post-Doctoral Fellows (https: //www.international.ucla.edu/apc/article/267573), Dr. Kevin Luo and Dr. Shih-chan Dai, TSWG has continued its activities under the leadership of two PhD students, Formosa Deppman (Department of Comparative Literature) and Quentin Tan (Department of Asian Languages and Cultures) who now serve as its co-coordinators. Dr. Shu-mei Shih (Department of Comparative Literature, Asian American Studies, and Asian Languages and Cultures) and Dr. Min Zhou (Department of Sociology and Asian American Studies; Director of UCLA Asia Pacific Center) serve as the working group's faculty advisors.

UCLA Taiwan Studies Working Group Project Workshop Meeting - June 4, 2024

Members of the Taiwan Studies Working Group engage in research on Taiwan Studies from multidisciplinary perspectives, provide coordination support for the UCLA Taiwan in the World (TiW) Lecture Series (https: //www.international.ucla.edu/apc/article/270198), and actively participate in events hosted by the UCLA Asia Pacific Center (APC) and other departments on campus. The TSWG has drawn a diverse membership across disciplines and fields of study, including political science, sociology, Asian languages and cultures, comparative literature, education studies, geography, and archaeology (to name a few). Throughout the academic year 2023-2024, the group convened twice per quarter at the UCLA campus, and provided a platform for members to share their current research and works-in-progress. Attendees had the opportunity to present their works, grant proposals, and research projects in collaborative workshops, during which they could receive valuable feedback from other members. As a result, many of the grant proposals presented during these meetings were successful.

TSWG members also regularly curate a selection of interdisciplinary academic papers for discussion during meetings, focusing on topics such as the politics of language in Taiwan, Taiwanese film, historical memory, and Taiwan’s democratization movements, and themes are chosen according to members’ interests and input. In addition to discussions of scholarly works, the Taiwan Studies Working Group also hosts seminars by invited scholars. In Spring 2024, the Taiwan Studies Working Group nominated Dr. Mei-Chun Lee from Academia Sinica to give a virtual guest lecture on "Checking Facts by a Bot: Crowdsourcing Facts through LINE Chatbot in the Rumorscape of Taiwan (https: //www.international.ucla.edu/apc/event/16751)", where she presented her research on digital anthropology and activism in Taiwan. 

UCLA TiW Lecture by Mei-Chun Lee - May 16, 2024
Chaired by Formosa Deppman and Moderated by Quentin Tan

The UCLA Taiwan Studies Working Group has created a valuable space for young scholars across related disciplines in the Southern California region to network, connect, and develop their work, and will continue to do so into the near future. Those interested in joining the group may contact the co-coordinators: Formosa Deppman (fdeppman@g.ucla.edu) and Quentin Tan (quentan@g.ucla.edu).