Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica

Dr. Kuan-chu Chou graduated from the Department of Diplomacy at National Chengchi University. He specializes in the intersection of technology and international relations, with a particular focus on U.S.-China technological competition, the evaluation of national technological capabilities, and the impact of emerging technologies on the global order. His doctoral research centered on constructing indicators for assessing national technological power and comparing the technological capabilities of major powers, revealing how technology shapes international power dynamics. In addition, his research delves into the role of technological development in advancing technological progress in developing countries and the significance of emerging technologies in international cooperation and competition. Dr. Chou’s representative works include academic articles on U.S.-China technological power assessments and comparative analyses of technological capabilities in Brazil and Mexico, published in leading journals such as Issues & Studies. He is also an active participant in international conferences, including the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting and the Taiwanese Political Science Association Annual Meeting, where he shares insights on technological development and international cooperation in science and technology.

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, State University of New York. His research interests primarily focus on alliance politics, foreign policy analysis, US foreign policy, and security studies. His dissertation examines the effect of reputation in alliance management, with a particular emphasis on reputational costs and reassuring allies. He is expected to graduate in the spring of 2025. His latest research focuses on policy conflicts within alliances, using U.S.-Taiwan security policy as a case study. His research and book reviews have been published in The Pacific Review, Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, and Taiwan Journal of Democracy.

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 inInternational Journal of Social Work and Social Welfare, Journal of Asian Public Policy, and Journal of National Development Studies.

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.