Keynote Speakers - EATS 2016 Conference

The conference organisers acknowledge the generous sponsorship of the Oriental Institute, Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic for the keynote session.

To download the powerpoint for the keynote speech click HERE. To download a copy of the published paper, click HERE.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Bruce Jacobs - Monash University

Professor Jacobs is an Emeritus Professor of Asian Languages and Studies at the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics of Monash University. He received his PhD from Columbia University. Before he started his postgraduate programme, he also studied Early Chinese History at National Taiwan University.

Prior to being appointed as an Emeritus professor in 2014, Professor Jacobs held various posts at the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. These include Graduate Research Coordinator, Chair of the Budget Committee, Associate Dean of Arts, Head of the School, Director of Centre of East Asian studies, Director of Taiwan Research Unit and ‘Concurrent Professor’ of History at Nanjing University.

Professor Jacobs is a veteran researcher in the field of Taiwan Studies. He received several grants for his extensive research on history, politics and society of Taiwan, including grants from the Australian Research Council, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. He also received grants from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education for promoting Taiwan Studies.

Professor Jacobs publishes widely on Taiwan-related subjects. In addition to numerous articles in academic journals, he is the author and editor of many books. The most recent publications include Democratizing Taiwan (2012, Brill), Local Politics in Rural Taiwan under Dictatorship and Democracy (2008, EastBridge), and (ed.) Critical Readings in China-Taiwan Relation (4 volumes, 2014, Brill). He also contributed to policy recommendation, such as Southern China in Transition: The New Regionalism and Australia (with David S. G Goodman et al), a report published by East Asia Analytical Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Australian government in 1992.

The manuscript of Professor Jacobs on The Kaohsiung Incident and Memoirs of a Foreign Big Beard is presently under review by a publisher. His current project is a History of Taiwan.

The keynote speech he delivers at the 2016 EATS Conference is entitled “The Powerful and the Powerless: Re-Examining and Reframing Taiwan's History”.