# North American Taiwan Studies Association

The North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit academic organization established in 1994. It is operated by Taiwanese students, North American doctoral students, and recent graduates who are interested in Taiwan studies. The NATSA annual conferences are the largest academic events on Taiwan studies in North America. The conferences provide scholars and Taiwan studies students a regular forum to meet and exchange intellectual ideas, and they also allow for researchers focusing on East Asia and beyond to receive dynamic feedback and broaden their academic horizons.

## Early history

When NATSA was founded, it was known as the North American Taiwan Studies Conference and was located on the web at www.natsc.org until August 2006 when it switched to its current address.

## Conferences

| Year | Location | Conference Theme | President(s) |
| 1994 | Yale University | Inaugural North American Taiwan Studies Conference | |
| 1995 | Yale University | History and Nationalism | Chia-lung Lin 林佳龍 |
| 1996 | Michigan State University | The Politics of Ethnicity and Identity | Jih-wen Lin 林繼文 |
| 1997 | University of California, Berkeley | Mapping the Terrain of Taiwan Studies | Chung-Hsien Huang 黃崇憲 |
| 1998 | University of Texas, Austin | Putting Taiwan in Global Perspective | Mei-Lin Pan 潘美玲 |
| 1999 | University of Wisconsin, Madison | Re-Imagining Political Community: Taiwan Facing the New Millennium | Wei-der Shu 許維德 |
| 2000 | Harvard University | Taiwan 2000: Envisioning a Pluralistic Future | Tze-Luen Lin 林子倫 |
| 2001 | Washington University, Seattle | Seeking Taiwanese Perspectives: Interdisciplinary Reflection and Dialogue | Chien-Juh Gu 辜千祝 |
| 2002 | University of Chicago | Power, Knowledge Production, and Agency: Towards a Critical Taiwan Studies | Hsiu-hua Shen 沈秀華 |
| 2003 | Rutgers University | Changes, Continuity and Contestations in the Taiwanese Society | Jeffrey Hou 侯志仁 |
| 2004 | University of Hawai'i, Manoa | Taiwan Studies in Comparative Perspectives | Jeffrey Hou 侯志仁 |
| 2005 | University of Colorado, Boulder | Difference, Democracy, Justice: Toward an Inclusive Taiwanese Society | Chun-Chi Wang 王君琦 |
| 2006 | University of California, Santa Cruz | Crossing the Borders, Fostering the Future: Taiwan Studies in the Intersections | Frank Cheng-Shan Liu 劉正山 |
| 2007 | University of Wisconsin, Madison | Taiwan in the Nexus of Empires | Huey-Tyng Gau 高慧婷 |
| 2008 | Washington University, Seattle | Translating the Political, Re-visioning the Social: What's the Next Turn for Taiwan? | Cheng-Yi Huang 黃丞儀 |
| 2009 | University of Texas, Austin | Locating Taiwan: Space, Culture and Society | Hsun-Hui Tseng 曾薰慧 |
| 2010 | University of California, Berkeley | China Effect: Securing Taiwan in an Age of Conflicts and Cooperation | Yi-tze Lee 李宜澤 |
| 2011 | University of Pittsburgh | The Trajectory of Taiwan in a Global Context | Hsin-Yang Wu 吳欣陽 |
| 2012 | Indiana University, Bloomington | Taiwan: Gateway, Node, Liminal Space | Chris Chih-Ming Liang 梁志鳴 |
| 2013 | University of California, Santa Barbara | Taiwan in Theory | Laura Jo-Han Wen 溫若含 |
| 2014 | University of Wisconsin, Madison | The Zeitgeists of Taiwan: Looking Back, Moving Forward | Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang 楊孟軒 |
| 2015 | Harvard University, Boston | Motions and the Motionless: (Dis/Re-) Connecting Taiwan to the World | Feng-En Tu 涂豐恩 |
| 2016 | University of Toronto | Taiwan Studies in Trans* Perspectives: Transdisciplinary, Transnational, and Transcultural | Ching-Fang Hsu 許菁芳 |
| 2017 | Stanford University | RE: Taiwan as Practice, Method, and Theory | Chi-ting Peng 彭琪庭 Hsin-hung Yeh 葉信鴻 |
| 2018 | University of Texas, Austin | Beyond an Island: Taiwan in Comparative Perspective | Shu-Wen Tang 湯舒雯 |
| 2019 | University of Washington, Seattle | Destabilizing Empires from the Margin: Taiwan Studies in Reflection | Eric Siu-kei Cheng 鄭肇祺 |
| 2020+1 | University of California, Irvine (online) | Keywording Taiwan | Ta-Yang Hsieh 謝大洋 |
| 2022 | George Washington University (D.C.) | Taiwan Studies in Application | JhuCin Rita Jhang 張竹芩 |
| 2023 | University of California, Irvine | Resistance and Resilience: Repositioning Taiwan | Chee-Hann Wu 吳稚涵 |
| 2024 | CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice | Taiwan Studies Matters: Worlding the Contested Frontier | Yung-Ying Chang 張詠瑛 |

## NATSA-initiated projects
### NATSA Professional Development Webinar Series

The NATSA professional development webinars started in August, 2017. The objectives of the series are:
* Enhance members’ professional skills
* Strengthen professional networks of members in the academia and the industry
* Promote NATSA to non-members
So far, topics of the NATSA professional developmental webinar series included: :
| Date | Topic | Guest speaker |
| 2017/8/12 | Life after PhD— Navigating Assistant Professorship | Chia-chen Yang (University of Memphis) I-chun Catherine Chang (Macalester College) |
| 2017/10/1 | Fieldnotes from Academic Job Markets | John Chung-en Liu (Occidental College) |
| 2017/11/4 | Connecting Science to Taiwan: Learning, Organization, and Action | Ting-chun Kuo (University of British Columbia) Yen-yung Chang (Caltech) |
| 2018/1/14 | Conferences: Participant Observation from an Anthropologist | Derek Sheridan (Brandeis University) |
| 2018/2/24 | Introduction of Instructional Technology | Elu Tu (Southern Connecticut State University) |
| 2018/3/30 | Taiwanese Studies in Europe: Research, Academia, and Job Market | Ming-yeh Rawnsley (SOAS) Adina Zemanek (Jagiellonian University) |
| 2018/4/8 | Job Application and Experience in Asia-Pacific Academia | Harry Wu (Hong Kong University) |
| 2018/12/9 | Getting Familiar with Quantitative Research(er) | Cheng-Tong Wang (Evaluation and Research Department of a national NGO) Chengshi Shiu (UCLA School of Nursing) |

### NATSA Podcast

NATSA Podcast
2019-2021 Season 1: Chats with Scholars
2021-2022 Season 2: 研究生轉運站

### Taiwan Studies Syllabus Project

Taiwan Syllabus Project

### Experts in Taiwan Studies crowd-sourcing project

Experts in Taiwan Studies

### Taiwan Studies Workshop Fund

Taiwan Studies Fund

### The Future of Taiwan Studies in a Post COVID world

Future of Taiwan Studies Post COVID
* Ep 1. COVID-19 and Governance Social and Global Solidarity
* Ep 2. How does the Hong Kong Security Law and "Decoupling from China" Impact Taiwan
* Ep 3. The Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Taiwan's External Relations: Views from Japan
* Ep 4. From Taiwanese-language Films to the Future of Taiwan Cinema