The UCLA Taiwan Studies Working Group 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. We are interested in 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. In addition to regular discussions of scholarly readings, we also host seminars by invited scholars and convene twice per quarter to share current research and members’ works-in-progress.

We are interested in recruiting members across all related disciplines and across the Southern California region. Join us! For those interested in joining the group, please contact:

  • Formosa Deppman, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature, UCLA: fdeppman@g.ucla.edu
  • Quentin Tan, Graduate Student, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA: quentan@g.ucla.edu

Co-Coordinators:

Formosa Deppman is a graduate student in the Department of Comparative Literature at UCLA. Her research interests center on theories of colonialism, memory, feminism, and public intellectualism during Taiwan's Japanese colonial period. With a particular focus on the figure of the cultural mediator, she explores how writers like Yeh Shih-tao and Yang Ch'ien-ho negotiate, translate, combat, support, or evade hierarchies of culture and colonialism in translingual literary spaces. Formosa also engages in comparative studies with Korean literature, and works with Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Japanese language materials.

Quentin Tan is a graduate student in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Quentin's research interests center on contemporary cultural productions and discursive formations in the Sinophone world. Drawing on insights from critical theory and Sinophone studies, he examines how contemporary articulations of Chinese identity and belonging draw their force from the dual mobility of capital and visual technologies.

 

 

Members:

  • Dan Chai - Sociology, UCLA
  • Chih-hen Chang - Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
  • Spencer C. Chen - Anthropology, UCLA
  • Tzu-chin Insky Chen - Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
  • Formosa Deppman - Comparative Literature, UCLA
  • Bowei Hu - Sociology, UCLA
  • Hsin-hui Lin - Literature, National Chengchi University
  • Faye Qiyu Lu - Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
  • Eddie Painter - Geography, UCLA
  • Lillian Ngan - East Asian Languages and Culture, USC
  • Kun Xian Shen - Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
  • Sandy Xu - Sociology, UCLA
  • Hsiu-Yu Yang - Sociology, UCLA

Published: Tuesday, August 29, 2023