Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica

Tae-Hun Jin is a Ph.D. candidate at National Chengchi University and is participating in the Ph.D. candidate training program at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica. His major is International Relations – Comparative Studies (Northeast Asia Region), with a strong interest in Comparative Politics, particularly the relations between South and North Korea, Cross-Strait relations, and Chinese diplomacy. Additionally, he is deeply interested in the process of knowledge production, especially how external factors influence the creation of knowledge related to regional studies. In this context, he is currently writing his dissertation on the evolution of North Korea studies in South Korea and China studies in Taiwan, focusing on changes in research methods and research topics.

Poyung Lin is a Ph.D. candidate and adjunct professor at the University at Albany, SUNY. His research interests include alliance politics, foreign policy analysis, and security studies. His doctoral dissertation focuses on reputation in alliance politics, specifically examining the contexts in which major powers reassure their protégés. He expects to graduate in the spring of 2025. His recent research centers on alliance cohesion, particularly U.S.-Taiwan security cooperation. His latest book review and research have been published in Taiwan Democracy Quarterly and Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik.

Andrea Prisca Kurnadi is a PhD candidate at Tunghai University’s Department of Political Science and a participant in the PhD candidate training program at Academica Sinica’s Institute of Political Science. Her main research interests include voting behavior, electoral systems, and populism. She is also interested in international relations themes such as technology and the environment. She is now working on her doctoral thesis on voting patterns in Indonesia, involving the high prevalence of split-ticket voting among voters in presidential and parliamentary elections.

Yu-Ceng Liao received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Houston in 2021, majoring in Comparative Politics with a minor in American Politics. He has served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Taiwan Studies Center of National Chengchi University and as an adjunct research fellow at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology. Due to his past research experience, he has also developed interdisciplinary research interests, including technology and politics and evidence-based decision-making. His current research topics and interests include case studies on party politics and policy legislation in parliament, how changes in electoral systems affect legislative behavior, the political behavior of political dynasties (second-generation politicians), temple culture and political participation in Taiwan, the impact of misinformation on public opinion and elections, using experimental methods to understand public attitudes and political behavior, and the development of artificial intelligence and its impact on political and social changes, etc. His work has been published in the Japanese Journal of Political Science, Taiwan Democracy Quarterly, Journal of Electoral Studies, and Soochow Journal of Political Science.

Ding-Yi Lai is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS). He received the Ph.D. in the Department of Social Welfare from National Chung Cheng University in July 2022. Ding‐Yi Lai’s research interests include comparative welfare states, comparative authoritarianism, and quantitative research methods. His dissertation investigated the influence of the distribution of power between regime leaders and elites on welfare development. His work has published in International Journal of Social Work and Social Welfare, Journal of Asian Public Policy, and Journal of National Development Studies.

Yi-Nung Tsai is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS). His dissertation explores on the sex-imbalance in China’s rural population during the 1980s from the perspective of fertility governance in authoritarian regimes. His research has been supported by the Fellowships for Doctoral Candidates in the Humanities and Social Sciences (IPSAS), Fellowships for Doctoral Candidates Writing Thesis of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. His research also focuses on the long-term negative consequences resulting from the early party-state system of the Chinese Communist Party and the large-scale political movements during Mao Zedong’s era. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from National Chengchi University in 2021 and was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University.

Dr. Huang-Ting Yan is an Academia Sinica Postdoctoral Scholar in the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS). He received the PhD in Government from the University of Essex (2020). He is a political scientist and a social epidemiologist interested in the link between political institutions, socio-economic outcomes, and public health, with a specific focus on semi-presidentialism, comparative authoritarianism, health expenditures and policy, and geriatric epidemiology. His dissertation addresses the question of which factors shape outcomes in autocratic regimes, and, in turn, what influences the survival of democratic regimes in light of their authoritarian legacies. His current research focuses on (1) government survival in semi-presidential regimes; (2) leadership dynamics in dictatorships; (3) political dynamics and the physical and mental health of people. Dr. Yan’s work has appeared in political science and public health journals including International Political Science Review, European Political Science Review, International Journal of Public Health, and European Journal of Public Health. His research has been funded by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China, the University of Essex, and the China Medical University Hospital, among others.

Byung-Bae Park received his doctoral degree in political science from the National Chengchi University in 2021. His dissertation investigated the factors which accelerated cooperation between Chosŏn Korea and Ming China, and those which decided the degree of cooperation by using two-sided market theory and alliance theory. Byung-Bae Park’s research interests include East Asia IR, Inter-Korean Relations, Korea Politics and Comparative politics.