Center for the Humanities

National Sun Yat-sen University

In the past two decades, culture and inter-disciplinarity are the two keywords in the field of the humanities. Recent trends in the humanities include approaches of cultural anthropology, social history, global management and various methodologies in order to understand human conditions and to develop a dialogue with sciences. The humanities and social sciences are interrelated and interdependent. Culture, literature and arts represent society and its processes, and thus the study of these fields of human activity needs to be one of the priorities of institutions of higher learning as well as of society at large. The developments in the sciences and technology will be possible to integrate in society meaningfully only with the incorporation and maintenance of knowledge available in the humanities and social sciences. Similar to universities world wide where centers for the humanities and the social sciences have been established in order to provide a place and space for research and scholarship, the aims and scope of the National Sun Yat-sen University Center for the Humanities include work towards promoting interdisciplinary collaboration in fields of inquiry located within and outside of the humanities and social sciences; to develop the internationalization of the University; to work with scholars within and outside of Taiwan; to collaborate nationally and internationally with institutions of higher learning in research projects; to hold national and international conferences; and to disseminate the Center's results in research and academic activities.

The Center's foci in research and in its academic activities include Migration studies, Trans- and Intercultural Studies as well as Ethnicity and Diaspora Studies. The center sponsors projects and hosts conferences, lectures, forums etc. The Center's five-year project starting 2006 focuses on comparative migration and ethnic studies. The new project will launch in 2011. Research clusters include: migration studies, diaspora and maritime studies, studies on national languages and dialects, and cross-cultural studies, etc. Research projects are conducted by scholars from National Sun Yat-sen University, scholars from other universities in Taiwan, as well as scholars at universities abroad. This center also hosts international scholars to conduct research at the Center. The center's foundation year is 2006, following the administrative approval of the Ministry of Education and the Office of Research Affairs at National Sun Yat-sen University. The Center is with an International Advisory Board and a National Sun Yat-sen University Committee of Advisors.