Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica

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.

Ellen Kao has a Double Ph.D. in Chinese Studies from Faculty of Modern Chinese Studies at Aichi University in Japan and Department of Political Science at Soochow University in Taiwan (R.O.C.). Her research interests lie in the linkages between international and domestic politics, and she focuses on two main research directions to understand the interactions among regime, political elites, and voters. On the one hand, she tries to understand the unidirectional or bidirectional influence of the international establishment on the political elite. On the other hand, she intends to understand the possible influence of political system and political culture on the behavior of political elites and voters.

Hsuan-Yu (Shane) Lin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the IPSAS and a Nonresident Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. His research is focused on how social media impacts international security, especially the escalation of crises. In his doctoral dissertation, he explores the extent to which social media provides leverage for political leaders to shape public opinion about foreign affairs. His research can advance our understanding of the validity of the democratic peace theory in the social media era. His research has been supported by the Fairbank Center at Harvard, the Democratic Statecraft Lab at the University of Virginia, and the Fulbright Foundation. He was a Predoctoral Research Fellow in the Harvard Fairbank Center. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia and M.A. and B.A. from the Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University.

Nguyen Cong Tung is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica. Tung received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University in 2021. His dissertation explores the influence of public opinion on Vietnam’s policy toward the United States and China. Dr. Tung’s primary research interests include East Asia and Southeast Asia international relations, China’s economic statecraft in Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s foreign policy, and language, translation and cross-cultural studies, among others. He is now working on (1) Vietnam’s foreign policy toward the United States and China; (2) U.S.-China Covid-19 vaccine diplomacy and regional responses; (3) linguistic turn in international relations; (4) Chineseness in Vietnam. Dr. Tung’s works have been published on The Pacific Review, Wenti Yu Yanjiu, East Asian Studies.

Cody Wai-Kwok Yau got his Ph.D. from the Institute of Political Science, National Sun Yet-sen University in 2019. He is currently working at Institute of Political Science as a Postdoctoral Fellow for the grant project, “International Principles as Security Discourse: “Chinese Characteristics” and the Stability of the Northeast Asian Region,” directed by Research Fellow Chang Liao at the same Institute. Cody is interested in Securitization Studies, East Asia Studies, and Hong Kong politics. His dissertation used Securitization as a theoretical framework to interpret how Beijing perceived a threat to its political security from democratization in Hong Kong after 1997, using text-mining techniques. By extension on this research framework, Cody introduces the view of “English School” from International Relations to unveil the political principles behind Beijing’s discourse of “Chinese Characteristics.” By doing so, Cody aimed to (1) understand Beijing’s view of international order and its security implication; (2) to develop the English School with Asian experiences. Cody also published articles on Taiwanese identity studies. Now he is working with Scholars in Taiwan and Hong Kong, studying the Beijing’s diplomatic thought of “partnership,” Taiwan’s securitization on China development, and the development of Hong Kong District Council.

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.