North American Taiwan Studies Association 2016 Annual Conference
Taiwan Studies in Trans* Perspectives:
Transdisciplinary, Transnational, and Transcultural
June 10-11, 2016
University of Toronto, Canada
Deadline of abstract submission: January, 08, 2016
Notification of acceptance: February, 26, 2016
Deadline of Registration: May, 13, 2016
We are pleased to announce that the 22nd North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) Annual Conference will be held from June 10-11, 2016. This year’s conference, titled “Taiwan Studies in Trans* Perspectives: Transdisciplinary, Transnational, and Transcultural,” welcomes scholars interested in studying Taiwan from all disciplines and explores how Taiwan—as a case, a theory, or even a method—can further transform current knowledge constructs toward an inclusive global vision.
Trans*, used in transgender studies as an umbrella term to include individuals seeking gender identities within and beyond the traditional male-female dichotomy, sheds light on an insightful and radical approach to Taiwan Studies. The asterisk in trans*, originating from computer science, serves as a wildcard character that stands for any words starting with trans, and symbolizes the openness and inclusiveness of the transdisciplinary community of Taiwan Studies. In line with this inclusive spirit, Trans* opens up new approaches to encourage scholars of Taiwan Studies to boldly transgress disciplinary boundaries and cull perspectives from various intellectual communities.
Of all the relevant trans* themes in this conference, participants are encouraged, but not limited, to set transdisciplinarity, transnationality, and transculturalism as a point of reference. Transdiciplinarity is not only a series of cross-disciplinary activities but also a transformation among contexts and the transcendence of multiple disciplines to create innovative context-based theories. Taiwan Studies from a transdisciplinary perspective offers a lens for researchers to examine, discuss, and understand issues in multiple contexts. Transnationality both emphasizes and questions the existence of universal values or a one-size-fits-all nation-state theory. It not only digs out the diversity derived from the uniqueness of local contexts, but also tries to clarify the imbalanced power structure among the units. Transculturalism, a theoretical concept that seeks to break the boundaries between different communal, cultural, societal, and national sectors. Additionally, a new framework is established in which participants are understood not as members exclusively belonging to particular groups but as constantly crossing categorical boundaries in a search for self-identity.
With respect to the events of 2015/16 in Taiwan, the importance and necessity of using the trans* lens to study Taiwan cannot be over emphasized: i.e. the controversies over the content of a history curriculum, the Ba-xian water park tragedy, the 70th anniversary of the Second Sino-Japanese War, economic slowdown and integration, Muslim immigrant’s Eid al-Fitr in Taipei Railway Station, debates on marriage equality and multiple families, nuclear power, damage from consecutive typhoons, the 2014 Taipei Metro attack, and the upcoming 2016 presidential election, to name a few.
As the very first NATSA annual conference to be held in Canada, we also welcome studies juxtaposing the similarities and differences between Taiwan and Canada on, but not limited to, First Nations/Indigenous issues, independence movements and nationalism, language and education, colonialism and post-colonialism, comparative elections, immigration, women and gender policy, LGBTQ+ protective legislation, and flirtations with neo-imperialism. Distanced from the world of uni- or bipolarity, the 2016 NATSA conference aims to record and catalyze the continuing and discontinuing trans* of Taiwan and Taiwan studies.