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The North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) invites scholars, particularly young scholars, to submit proposals for our upcoming annual conference on June 21-22, at the University of California, Santa Barbara with the co-assistance of the Center for Taiwan Studies at UCSB and of the Institute of Taiwan History at Academia Sinica. Following the calls of multiple scholars from our 2012 conference, we invite submitters to consider how Taiwan’s situation—its own by itself or in relation to or in comparison with others, perhaps as a gateway, liminal space, node, or even method—makes contributions that scholars who pursue answers to parallel questions in other areas would profit from hearing. We encourage students of Taiwan to return to and reflect on their research, to its basis in Taiwan’s experience, to discover insight into how these may, whether originally the main focus of research, a footnote in it, or a previously unfinished thought, contribute in novel ways to larger debates.

As a larger goal for the conference, NATSA  hopes to begin to inspire the work and discussions that will continue to push Taiwan and Taiwan Studies towards critical, valuable engagement with the most pressing questions of the moment and of the future. NATSA 2013 challenges scholars to begin research that will place Taiwan (along with its people, their productions, anxieties, and challenges) at the forefront of theory. By joining this conference and speaking to your own discipline’s debates and discussions, we hope to create a node of exchange for disciplinary knowledge and advance. This will also give presenters the opportunity to place their work and conclusions before a group of other younger and experienced scholars intimately engaged with parallel issues, data, and events from quite different perspectives.

1. Anthropologies of Sovereignty, Value and Emotion

2. Legal Studies: Developing Taiwanese Jurisprudence – Transplantation, Adaption, and Creation

3. The Shadows of Empire:  Comparative Colonialisms in Taiwan

4. Literature and Language

5. The Documented Island

6. (In)securities Old and New

7. New and Emerging Socialities

Submission deadline: January 4th, 2013

Notification of acceptance by:  February 15th, 2013

Full papers due: May 13th, 2013

Conference Theme: Taiwan in Theory

North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA)

Center for Taiwan Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara

Institute of Taiwan History at Academia Sinica (中央研究院臺灣史研究所)