Ann Heylen

Treasurer and EATS Board Member, 2010-2016; Treasurer, 2016-present

After completing my PhD in Chinese Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Catholic University Leuven (K.U. Leuven) in 2001, I became an associate researcher of Japanese Studies, K.U. Leuven (2002-2008) and obtained a post-doctoral research grant at Taiwan Research Unit, Ruhr University Bochum (2003-2004). In 2008 I took up a faculty position at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taipei and was appointed Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature, which in 2011 expanded into the Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature. In 2009, I became the Director of the International Taiwan Studies Center (ITSC), affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts, NTNU. I am also a Research Associate of the ERCCT, Eberhard Karls Universitaet Tuebingen. My involvement in EATS dates to the inaugural conference in 2004, and I am one of the founding board members. In 2010, I was elected to the Executive Board and have taken on the position as Treasurer, re-elected in 2012 and 2014. In addition to my academic teaching/research responsibilities, I am associate editor of the e-journal International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (IJAPS), USM, Penang, and editor-in-chief of East Asian Journal of Popular Culture (EAJPC), together with Kate Taylor-Jones and John Berra, to be published by Intellect, U.K.

My PhD thesis examined the history and nature of language modernization in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945). Its focus were three language reform movements that emerged throughout the 1920s and 1930s and argues that each of them presented a linguistic norm as an appropriate means to counter Japanese foreign language imposition and its cultural ideology. The monograph is published as Japanese Models, Chinese Culture and the Dilemma of Taiwanese Language Reform (Studia Formosiana 7, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012)

My research interests now cover three main areas: (1) Taiwan history and historiography; (2) Languages and Cultures of East Asia; and (3) European expansion history

Dr Ann Heylen is Professor in the Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature and the Director of the International Taiwan Studies Center, National Taiwan Normal University.