Oxford Taiwan Studies Conference Focusses on Technology & Media Governance
A year after the inauguration of the Oxford Taiwan Studies Programme in 2022, an Oxford Taiwan Studies Conference was held at Saint Antony's College at the University of Oxford, on September 27, 2023. This international conference was jointly organized by the Education Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK and the School of Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford.
The theme of the conference was Technology and Multi-Faceted Change in Taiwan and Globally. It began with welcoming remarks by Andy Cheu-An Bi, the Director of the Education Division, Professor Paul Chaisty, Head of the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, and Dr. Rachel Murphy, Research Director Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and the Director of the Oxford Taiwan Studies Programme, Andy Bi spoke about the significance of this year’s theme. He emphasized the imperative need to stay abreast of developments in the rapidly evolving technological landscape, giving generative AI and digital media as examples. In the light of Taiwan's enduring role as a leading technological hub and semiconductor manufacturer, he stressed the need to examine the ramifications of technology for diverse aspects of Taiwan’s society, including cultural identity, education, and democracy.
Twenty-five scholars, one online, from various corners of the world—France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the UK, and the US—gave papers at four panels, each followed by a Q&A and discussion. Panel 1 was on Digital Transnational Communications and Connections; Panel 2 was on Business, Trade and Regulation; Panel 3 was on Civil Society and Activism and Panel 4 was on Social Welfare and Social Lives in Taiwan. Keynote addresses were given by Professor Lih-Yun Grace Lin from the Graduate Institute of Journalism at National Taiwan University, who is also a member of Taiwan’s National Communications Commission and Associate Professor Chun-Yi Lee, Director of the Taiwan Studies Programme at the University of Nottingham. Prof Lin’s was on media and democratisation in Taiwan, and Associate Prof. Lee‘s was on TSMC and Taiwan's pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain.
Among the more than forty attendees engaging in stimulating discussions was Dr. Jing Bo-jiun, a Taiwanese academic who joined the Oxford School of Global & Area Studies in autumn as the senior research fellow at the Oxford Taiwan Studies Programme . Dr. Jing has previously worked as a research associate at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, and more recently as a research fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy at its Asia Program and Stockholm China Center and Head of the Taiwan Studies Project.
The Oxford Taiwan Studies Programme was initiated and promoted by Dr. Nicole Lee, now Director General of the Ministry of Education's Department of International and Cross-strait Education, during her tenure as Director of the Education Division in the UK from 2019 to 2021. The programme encompasses academic research, teaching, and activities such as this conference, seminars, and workshops pertaining to a wide range of Taiwan-related topics in disciplines, including social sciences, politics, economics, and science and technology.
