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OTTAWA, September 14, 2011  —  The University of Ottawa and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) are pleased to invite you to the signing ceremony for the agreement on the Chair of Taiwan Studies between the University of Ottawa and the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, ROC.

Political events in Taiwan will impact Canada, largely because of the current increase in China’s influence around the world.

The Chair of Taiwan Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences will be headed jointly by Profs. Scott Simon and André Laliberté.

The Chair’s interdisciplinary activities will cover the fields of politics, anthropology, sociology, economics and development. The Chair will benefit not only the Canadian research community, but also decision makers, members of the media and the general public by raising awareness of the important place that Taiwan holds in East Asia and of its relations with China. Taiwan is the 16th -largest economy in the world, with a population of 23 million.

WHAT: Signing ceremony for the Chair of Taiwan Studies
WHEN: Wednesday, September 14, 2011, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
WHERE: Tabaret Hall, 550 Cumberland Street, Ottawa, Room 083

To encourage cooperation, information sharing and the transfer of knowledge, the Chair will offer courses in Taiwan studies and will host a series of lectures by the top researchers in this field from North America, Europe and Taiwan.

Professor Scott Simon, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, has done ethnographic research in Taiwan since 1996. From 2004 to 2007, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, he conducted a research project on the experiences of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples with development projects under the governments of both Japan and China. He has published two books about Taiwan, Sweet and Sour: Life Worlds of Taipei Women Entrepreneurs (2003) and Tanners of Taiwan: Life Strategies and National Cultures (2005).

Professor André Laliberté, School of Political Studies, has been researching the political situation in Taiwan and relations between Taiwan and China since 1992. He is the author of The Politics of Buddhist Organizations in Taiwan and of several chapters and articles in English, French and Chinese dealing with a wide range of topics: the transition to democracy, civil military relations, the participation of women in parliamentary life, inter-ethnic relations, the role of Taiwanese Buddhist associations in humanitarian aid, international development policy, relations between the two banks of the Taiwan Strait, regulation of religious affairs, and political responses to demographic issues in Taiwanese society.