India/Japan Security

There will be several lectures by Dr. Mohammed Badrul Alam , who is a professor in the Department of Political Science in the Faculty of Social Science at Jamia Millia Islamia University.
Here are the details of each:

 

Lecture 1

Date: May 1st

Time: 10:00 to 13:00

Topic: Nuclear Policy of India and Pakistan: A Comparative Analysis

Location: IIR New Briefing Room

Lecture 2

Date: May 2^nd

Time: 14:00 to 17:00

Topic: India, Japan, and the Emerging Asia Pacific Security Architecture: A Critical Overview

Location:First Conference Room, 13th floor, South Wing, General Building (That’s the Awesome Room^TM)

Lecture 3

Date: May 3rd

Time: 15:00 to 18:00

Topic: E-Government in India: A Critical Perspective

Location: Room 271201, 12th floor, Nouth Wing, General Building

Research Opportunities

Dr. Berman has been working on a project to get research funding and research opportunities for IDAS/IMAS students with various NCCU faculty members. There was a meeting to that effect last week, and he has begun inquiring about which professors might like to take part.

If you are interested in participating (and based on input from the past year’s student-body meetings, there seems to be a lot of interest), please think about your own research, as well as enlisting the participation of professors with whom you might already have a relationship and who would be a good fit for this project. Please have them send Dr. Berman any initial ideas about any possible research projects that they might want to pursue.

The project theme is broadly stated as research that helps to better understand, through theory and  empirical knowledge, the successful “efforts of small nations, ‘second tier’ cities,  and various (incl. disadvantaged) populations in dealing with the challenges of globalization.”  So, much can fit under this.

No commitment is needed at this time, only a statement of possible interest, or even just further questions.

I have attached a document with more details: Dynamics of Globalization in Asia-Pacific-8

 

 

Weatherhead Forum in Taipei

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University is organizing a lecture series in partnership with the Center for China Studies at National Taiwan University.

On May 2, Columbia University’s Murray Rubinstein will discuss “Non-Governmental, Person-to-Person Modes of Cross-Strait Interaction, 1987-2012″
It will be at 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM in the Second Floor, Administration Building, College of Social Sciences, National Taiwan University.

More details here.

All events are free and open to the public, all you have to do is register.

SEC/AAS Conference

the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies will be hosted by University of North Carolina at Wilmington, to be held January 18-20, 2013.

Proposals for individual papers or full panels may be submitted on the form located on their website at:

http://www.uky.edu/Centers/Asia/SECAAS/

You can also e-mail, fax, or post your proposals to Dr. Jieli Li, the 2013 program chair.

Phone 740-593-1373

Fax: 740-593-1365;

Email: lij@ohio.edu

There are three grants in the amount of $200 available for graduate students presenting papers, and preference will be given to those who must travel more than two hundred miles to attend. That means us!

Regardless of the method you select, please submit your proposal no later than October 31, 2012, to ensure full consideration and a place on the conference schedule.

TUP Lecture Series VI

There’s a conference coming up on the 30th — I can’t find much more information on it than has already been sent out, but here’s the nuts and bolts:

IIR Asian Perspectives (TUP Lecture Series VI)

 Speaker ：Prof. Benjamin J. Cohen

Topic   ：Power in a Changing World Economy: An Interim Report on a Joint US-Taiwanese Research Project

Date    ：April 30^th, 2012（Mon.）

Time    ：14:00 – 16:00

Location ：Room 271201, 12F, General Building of Colleges, NCCU

 The lecture is part of the NCCU Top University Program events and is hosted by Institute of International Relations, NCCU. If there are any questions, please direct them to topiir@nccu.edu.tw .

Paintball

OK, I want to gauge interest in a friendly game of paintball — I’m thinking mid-May, one bright, sunny Saturday morning or afternoon.

 

I’m thinking a friendly game of “capture the flag” between IDAS and IMAS … any takers?

 

We would probably need 8 or 10 players on each side.

 

Post a comment here if you are interested — if there is enough interest, I will take care of all the details.

Democratizing Taiwan

J. Bruce Jacobs, Professor of Asian Languages and Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, will be giving a presentation and discussion about his new book, Democratizing Taiwan.

It will be held on the afternoon of Friday, 20 April at 1430 in room B202 at the RCHSS at Academia Sinica.

From the promo for the talk:

“Taiwan—together with India, Japan and South Korea—is one of only four consolidated Asian democracies. Democratizing Taiwan provides the most comprehensive analysis of Taiwan’s peaceful democratization including its past violent authoritarian experiences, leadership both within and outside government, popular protest and elections, and constitutional interpretation and amendments. Using extensive field research including the conduct of many interviews with government and party leaders, journalists, academics and a wide variety of citizens over many years as well as substantial research into documents, newspapers and academic research, Professor Jacobs provides many new insights into Taiwan’s democratization. He also analyses areas in which Taiwan continues to face difficulties.”
The seminar will be held in English and chaired by Dr Paul JOBIN, Director of CEFC Taipei.
Contact: cefc@gate.sinica.edu.tw
French Centre for Research on Contemporary China – Taipei Office
Centre d’Etudes Français sur la Chine contemporaine (CEFC) – Antenne de Taipei
http://www.cefc.com.hk/taipei
Tel : (886-2) 2789-0873 – Fax : (886-2) 2789-0874

 

Books books books!

The catalogue of recently published books on the topic of Asia Studies from Cambridge University Press is hot off the presses — if anyone is interested, here she be:

http://downloads.cambridge.edu.au/asia/ecatalogs/asian_lowres.pdf
If there are any books on that list that you reckon we ought to have in the library holdings, and the NCCU library doesn’t already have it in stock, then keep in mind you can make recommendations.

You can go to this website to type in the books you’d like to order.

http://rams.lib.nccu.edu.tw/recommendation/

Just type in your ID and password, enter all the required information for the book you want to order, and then press the left selection at the bottom.

And of course if you have trouble with that (as doubtless I would!), send Angel an email with the name of the book, the ISBN number, the author and the publisher.

I see they still don’t list the Twilight trilogy…

Recipes

Well, I’m working on putting together the new issue of the Asia Pacific Newsletter, so if anyone has articles they’d like to me to publish: now is the time!

You might be able to help me out in a much easier, more fun way: I need four recipes to go in the recipe section. Last time we had recipes from Taiwan, Lithuania and Indonesia, and this time I’d like to offer recipes from other countries.

Any recipes you want to share? It’s all well and good to guard Grandma’s culinary secrets, but it’s a lot more fun to eat and share!

Please comment if you have any ideas.

Notes from an IDAS student in South Korea

I came to Seoul over a year ago to finish my last semester of courses at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS). The experience was excellent and it helped me shaped and narrowed down my research prospects for what was coming next: the dissertation. I highly recommend to complete part of your courses abroad in some other Asia-Pacific country, as NCCU offers various possibilities for to do so.

Thanks to my supervisor in IDAS, our IPE professor Dr. Poong from the IR Institute affiliated to NCCU, and her good connections with Yonsei University and Korean academia, I’ve made good contacts here in Seoul and so the possibility of me coming back this year to carry out my research here became a reality, as my dissertation took a South Korean focus to its regional leadership role in regards to the institutionalization processes occurring in the region.

I have been back and forth between Taipei and Seoul every couple of months for the last semester, (fortunately the two are not too far apart) which I think is necessary to keep closer touch with IDAS and NCCU, as well as with my supervisor there, who also comes to Seoul often for academic purposes. Here in Seoul while I prepare my qualifying exam I also work closely with professors from Yonsei University, who are giving me advice on my research proposal and design. One professor in particular has become my co-advisor and will be part of my dissertation committee.

I think all this is bringing valuable assets to my dissertation experience. To be sure, every case is different and unique, but to me it didn’t make much sense to stay in Taipei after the completion of all my required credits. I would recommend students to try to go away and carry out their research wherever that may take them. Because I came to Korea to finish my courses a year ago, that for sure was determinant in my case, but I think the IDAS program and school can do more to support and allow students go somewhere within the Asia-Pacific region and do their research. Funding is obviously the main issue to take into consideration. NCCU offers different forms of scholarships to which IDAS students can apply, as I did several times. The truth is resources are not enough, and more is needed to make this option available to other students that want to take their field research somewhere in Asia-Pacific that is attractive and exciting for them, like it happened to me with Korea.

In my view that would be the ideal for having a real international PhD experience, which is what many of us are looking for, by combining the IDAS program learning experience in Taipei with doing research in another country in the region, as long as it fits your research objectives.

 

- Jose Guerra Vio