The conference The Indigenous Knowledge, Taiwan: Comparative and Relational Perspectives held by NTNU and UCLA, took place in UCLA on May 11th to 12th. Outstanding scholars around the world gathered together for a prosperous talk about indigenous issues. The relationship between both universities has become stronger.
The conference is an annual event of UCLA-NTNU Taiwan Studies Initiative, coordinated by Prof. Shu-mei Shih. 16 papers will be published in two days and there’s also a Writer’s Forum. The discussion is about Taiwan’s Indigenous people and will be expended to those who live in America, Mexico, Okinawa, the Philippines and Australasia.
In addition to scholars from NTNU and UCLA, many other professors from other universities in Taiwan and the states This conference is unprecedentedly the biggest with the most diverse topic in indigenous studies in the USA.
Vice Provost for International Studies and Global Engagement Cindy Fan, Dean of Humanities David Schaberg, Director of Asia Pacific Center Min Zhou and Director Rebecca Lan from the Education Division of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office all attended the conference.
Prof. Cindy Fan gave an opening speech and in her speech, she thanked NTNU for the great work for fostering the friendship of NTNU and UCLA. UCLA-NTNU Taiwan Studies Initiative, in particular, has set up a model for International communication. The conference is a good example that experts with different backgrounds can take part in cross-disciplinary discussion.
Tibusungu ‘e Vayayana (Wang Ming Huey), associate professor at the Geography Department and Deputy Minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples presented a traditional blessing ceremony to the event and gifted UCLA with the book Historial Atlas of Indigenous Taiwan, 1624-1944.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public research university in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, United States. It became the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the second-oldest undergraduate campus of the ten-campus University of California system. It offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines.UCLA enrolls about 31,000 undergraduate and 13,000 graduate students, and had 119,000 applicants for Fall 2016, including transfer applicants, the most applicants for any American university.