The Taiwan Studies Lectureship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has published two English-language books on Aborigines and Aboriginal cultures of Taiwan, the Ministry of Education said on Monday.
The program, established in 2014, is a joint initiative of the ministry and the university, the Department of International and Cross-strait Education said in a statement.
This year, with the support of the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, which represents the ministry, studies from an international academic conference on Aboriginal studies, as well as from archeological fieldwork, have been published in books titled Indigenous Peoples, Heritage and Landscape in the Asia Pacific: Knowledge Co-
Production and Empowerment and Indigenous Knowledge in Taiwan and Beyond, the ministry said.
Indigenous Peoples was edited by Stephen Acabado, a professor at UCLA’s Department of Anthropology, and Kuan Da-wei (官大偉), a professor at National Chengchi University’s Department of Ethnology.
Acabado, Kuan and Chiang Chih-hua (江芝華), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Anthropology, had collaborated to launch the Taiwan Indigenous Landscape and History Project, the ministry said.
The project, which focuses on Atayal communities, conducted an archeological survey of Sqoyaw Village in Taichung’s Heping District (和平), it said.
The publication of the research seeks to help develop theories on the relationship between humans and the environment, and to explore land issues between Taiwanese Aborigines and the government, it said.
Meanwhile, Indigenous Knowledge was edited by Shih Shu-mei (史書美), a professor at UCLA’s Department of Comparative Literature, and Tsai Lin-chin (蔡林縉), a professor at National Chung Hsing University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature and Transnational Cultural Studies.
The book is based on articles that were presented at an international conference titled “Indigenous Knowledge, Taiwan: Comparative and Relational Perspectives” held at UCLA in 2018, the ministry said.
It infers the formation of Taiwan’s Aboriginal knowledge from different worldviews and considers how to place the study of Taiwan’s Aboriginal knowledge under a global research framework, it said.
It is also the first book to be published in the book series titled “Sinophone and Taiwan Studies,” the ministry said.
With support from various parties, it looks forward to UCLA developing into an important site for Taiwan studies, the ministry said.
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