{"id":10299,"date":"2026-04-26T21:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/?p=10299"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:20:16","slug":"an-introduction-to-the-northern-institute-of-taiwan-studies-at-the-university-of-lancashire-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/an-introduction-to-the-northern-institute-of-taiwan-studies-at-the-university-of-lancashire-2\/","title":{"rendered":"An Introduction to the Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies at the University of\u00a0Lancashire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NorITS founder Professor Niki Alsford<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000The establishment of the Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies (NorITS) in 2018 was driven by a combination of structural, geographical, and academic factors that highlighted a clear gap within the UK\u2019s Taiwan Studies landscape. At the time, existing centers of Taiwan Studies, most notably at SOAS and the University of Nottingham, were concentrated in London and central England. This created a distinct geographical imbalance, limiting access for students and scholars based in northern England and reinforcing a regional divide in opportunities for engagement with Taiwan-focused research and teaching. NorITS was therefore conceived as a strategic intervention to address this imbalance. Its location at the University of Lancashire extends the reach of Taiwan Studies into northern England (and up to Scotland), providing a new regional hub to support students, foster research collaboration, and engage wider communities that had previously lacked direct access to such institutional infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000At the same time, the founding members recognized a growing academic and student interest in both Taiwan and the broader Asia Pacific region, reflected in increasing enrollment in and expansion of Asia Pacific Studies programs. Student numbers had increased from twenty-eight applicants in 2013\u201314 to over 100 students enrolled by 2017, and this trajectory provided a strong foundation for the inauguration of NorITS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000In this context, NorITS was not simply about geographic expansion, but about creating a multidisciplinary platform that could integrate teaching, research, and public engagement while positioning Taiwan as a critical lens through which to understand wider regional and global dynamics. A key pillar of this was a clear and intentional focus on Taiwan\u2019s Indigenous peoples within the development of NorITS, something that has been both intellectually and institutionally reinforced through cross-departmental collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000From the outset, NorITS was designed not simply as a standalone center, but as part of a wider ecosystem of Asia Pacific\u2013focused institutes, including the Centre for Austronesian Studies, also at the University of Lancashire. This collaborative structure allowed NorITS to move beyond a narrow, nation-bound approach to Taiwan, instead situating Indigenous experiences within wider transnational and oceanic contexts, something that enhanced both its academic distinctiveness and its capacity for meaningful international engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000Projects centered on Taiwan Indigenous cultures, such as the Indigenous art exhibition and partnerships with institutions like the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines and the British Museum, incorporated both research and public engagement. These initiatives reflect a sustained effort to foreground Indigenous knowledge, culture, and representation within Taiwan Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dedicated Teaching and Extra-Curricular Events<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000Taiwan-focused course modules such as \u201cTaiwan in the Asia Pacific\u201d gather interest among students because they provide a depth of engagement that is not commonly available elsewhere in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000Beyond this, NorITS provides various opportunities, both academic and experiential, for sustained student engagement outside the classroom. NorITS\u2019 academic ambitions and its willingness to do things a little differently are reflected in its characteristically eclectic portfolio of events, which have ranged from lectures, workshops, and book talks to film screenings, art exhibitions, and rock concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000One of the most significant initiatives to come out of NorITS has been the Taiwan Travel Seminar. Classroom teaching provides conceptual and analytical foundations, but the Travel Seminar translates this knowledge into lived experience by taking a small group of students to Taiwan, many of them for the first time, and providing them with the opportunity to engage directly with local communities, institutions, and cultural environments. This allows students to move beyond abstract understandings of the region, and lets concepts explored in modules, such as identity, governance, Indigenous knowledge, and social change become tangible and immediate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000This experiential dimension has been critical in deepening both intellectual curiosity and personal connection. Students frequently return with a heightened sense of purpose, and in several cases it has directly influenced decisions to pursue postgraduate study, including PhD research focused on Taiwan-related topics. Ultimately, this is where NorITS has had its most lasting effect, creating pathways into Taiwan Studies that simply did not exist in the north of England before 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Academic Events and Connections<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000NorITS has also hosted some significant international events including the International Workshop on the Landscape of Taiwan Studies and Korean Studies in 2018. This was notable because it brought scholars together who were working across regions and disciplines, reinforcing NorITS role as a space for comparative and interdisciplinary engagement and situating Taiwan within wider Asia Pacific debates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000Equally significant was hosting the European Association of Taiwan Studies (EATS) conference at ULan\u2019s Cyprus campus in 2022, an event that firmly positioned NorITS within the international Taiwan Studies community and demonstrated both a desire and ability to convene major scholarly networks beyond the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000Partnerships with other universities, both within the UK and internationally, have been enormously beneficial to the development and success of NorITS. Importantly, many of these partnerships have been shaped by the existing networks of NorITS members, meaning that the institute has been able to draw on long-standing academic relationships, letting collaborations develop organically on strong foundations of mutual trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000One of the most impactful outcomes of this focus on connections over formal mechanisms such as staff exchanges or co-supervision has been the sharing of resources through the creation of a Taiwan Hub between NorITS at ULan, SOAS and the University of Nottingham. This has enabled NorITS to pool expertise, materials, and knowledge across institutions, creating a more accessible and collaborative infrastructure for Taiwan Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Future of NorITS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000The future direction of NorITS remains grounded in its original mission to provide a platform for high-quality, interdisciplinary Taiwan Studies in the north of England, but it must also be understood in light of the broader challenges currently facing higher education in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000Despite continued and growing student interest in Taiwan, the institutional landscape has become more constrained. NorITS was, from its inception, largely supported through internal university investment rather than sustained external funding. This model allowed for rapid development in its early years, but it has also meant that the institute has been particularly vulnerable to structural changes within the sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000The loss of four core members of staff has had a significant impact. That these staff, who worked exclusively on Taiwan, were so desirable to other institutions challenges the persistent misconception that Taiwan-focused academics must necessarily be subsumed within broader China or East Asian Studies frameworks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000The experience of NorITS demonstrates that dedicated Taiwan expertise not only exists, but is both viable and in demand. At the same time, the relative lack of sustained support from Taiwanese government funding streams has meant that the scale of NorITS\u2019 activities is now more modest than in its earlier years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000Despite this, NorITS continues to endure and adapt, with one of the most important ongoing initiatives being the Annual Bruce Jacobs Memorial Lecture, made possible through the generous and continued support of his wife, Kim Jung-Sim. This lecture series not only honours the legacy of Jacobs, but also ensures that NorITS remains connected to leading international scholarship and continues to provide students with access to prominent voices in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3000\u3000Looking ahead, the future of NorITS will likely depend on a combination of strategic partnerships, targeted external funding, and a continued commitment to student-centered activity. Even at a smaller scale, its ability to inspire students remains strong because it offers a dedicated space for Taiwan to be studied on its own terms, and in a challenging academic climate, this distinctiveness is a strength worth sustaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editing by Josh Edbrooke<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u3000\u3000The establishment of the Northern Institute of Taiwan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,237],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-237","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10299"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10329,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299\/revisions\/10329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsc.ntnu.edu.tw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}