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International Program

Our Institute plays a pivotal part in the International Institute for Cultural Studies, University System of Taiwan. This is a center composed of the faculties for cultural studies from four national universities: Chiao-Tung University, Tsing-Hua University, Central University, and Yang-Ming University. It aims to strengthen the cross-campus and international energy in teaching and research through collaborative efforts. We recruits the respective faculty of the four universities, conducting international seminars, enhancing international academic exchanges, holding conferences and workshops, and publishing collaborative books. 

Under the guidance of International Institute for Cultural Studies, the Visual Culture research group is cooperating with three other research groups: (1) Critical Theory and East Asian Modernity, (2) Contemporary Thought-Trends and Social Movements, and (3) Gender/Sexuality Studies. The full-time faculty at Yang-Ming university takes responsibility for incorporating the clusters of visual culture from the above four universities and making preparations for the Visual Culture group of International Program in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies at University System of Taiwan. 

The International Program in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies planned by the four universities has been examined and approved from the Ministry of Education in June 2012, and it is currently working on enrollment of foreign and local students. It is expected to receive the first batch of graduate students in August 2013. The Visual Culture group is cooperating with the other three research groups to actively promote the International Program in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. The international program joins faculties from four schools to provide courses and trainings for international as well as local students. The Visual Culture course cluster designed by Yang-Ming University will interpret various visual artifacts, including art, photography, television, film, advertisement, fashion, digital image, scientific image, from cultural and social perspectives. we primarily adopt and integrate the methodologies and practices of both art history and film studies. The keynote of our researches is interdisciplinary, and we apply our interdisciplinary approaches to other fields related to visual culture, such as critical theories, gender and sexuality studies, globalization studies, postcolonial studies, new media studies, history studies, and so on. Our scholars investigate a diverse array of topics from formal aesthetics, to historical implications, to social practices of visual cultures in the global context. The geographical center of our researches is of course Taiwan, from which we expand our studies to examine the complex and interconnected relationships among Northeast-, East-, and Southeast-Asia. The International Program in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies receives great support from University System Taiwan, and it is the only international program in humanities and social sciences.