Dr. T.Y. Wang, University Professor and chair of the Department of Politics and Government, published a comment on the status of Taiwan studies in contemporary academic research. Wang and his co-author, Dr. Chris Achen of Princeton University, maintain that sinology may perhaps once have sufficed as an umbrella for Taiwan studies, but those days are gone. Taiwan has provided ample topics for scholarly research across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.
Voluminous studies have been generated on such important issues as languages, identity, environmental issues, LGBTQ+ people, social justice, democracy, and cross-strait relations, much of it done with an interdisciplinary approach. The field of Taiwan studies has grown to maturity. Numerous academic organizations in major universities around the world have been created dedicated to the study of Taiwan. Thus, the distinct institutional structures for Taiwan studies that have developed should be continued and strengthened. Journals dedicated to research on Taiwan should also be encouraged and strengthened, with the aim of making them as visible and widely cited as a flagship publication.
The comment was published in Taiwan Insight, an online blog hosted by the Taiwan Studies Programme at the University of Nottingham.
