North American Taiwan Studies Association
For those of you wondering where I have been, for the last week, I was attending the 9th Annual Meeting of the North American Taiwan Studies Association at Rutgers University in New Brunswick http://www.natsc.org/ where I spoke on the history of English language policy in Taiwan and the ROC.
NATSA is a relatively new organization whose goal is to promote the scholarly study of Taiwan. In the words of the organization "The North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) aims to promote Taiwan studies in general, to enhance interaction between the academia of Taiwan and North America, and to facilitate communication among graduate students and scholars concerning and conducting Taiwan studies. Among the objectives of the annual conference in North America is the publication of the research papers collected from the conferences. "
As the name indicates, most of the participants were doctoral candidates and young scholars just beginning their academic careers in North America and Taiwan, although there were participants from Canada, Europe, and Japan. I saw a lot of very interesting presentations that addressed the growing interest in Taiwan as a subject for scholarly study. These included presentations on urban geography, communications studies, aboriginal studies, and language policy in Taiwan. The range of scholarly interest in Taiwan indicates growing opportunity for contribution to the emerging field.
I think NASTA is a great organization for young scholars interested in Taiwan to become involved with. If anyone is interested in more information about NATSA and next year's conference, I'll see if I can help you.
6:21:31 AM 
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