Local Organiser

Dr Lara Momesso is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for the BA Programme in Asia Pacific Studies at the School of Humanities, Language and Global Studies at UCLan. She is founder and Co-Director of the Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies at UCLan and founder and Co-Deputy Director of the Centre for Migration, Diaspora and Exile at UCLan. She has an extensive track record on her main research theme, marriage migration between China and Taiwan, and more recently she has turned her attention towards Asian migrant experiences in Europe, including Chinese diaspora in the UK, and social media and democracy in Asian societies. She is a Research Associate at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS (University of London, UK), an Associate Fellow at the European Research Centre on Contemporary Taiwan (University of Tuebingen, Germany).

Dr Ti-han Chang is a lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. Her research focusses on the contemporary eco-literature in Taiwan and its implication in the Asia Pacific region. Ti-han is particularly interested in postcolonial ecocriticism, which draws her attention to topics such as nonhuman agency, borders and nations, climate change and migration. At her home institute, she serves as the deputy head at the Centre of Austronesian Studies (COAST), and further contributes her research works through the Norther Institute of Taiwan Studies (NorITS) and the Centre for Migration, Diaspora and Exile (MIDEX). Externally, Ti-han serves as the treasurer and board member of the Francophone Association of Taiwan Studies (AFET) and is actively engaged as a member at the European Association of Taiwan Studies (EATS). Since 2019, she is engaged with multiple research projects which investigate the Pacific climate migrants and the narratives of the displaced. Apart from her journal publications on Taiwanese eco-literature, she also contributes online articles on more general environmental and literature topics for The Conversation and Taiwan Insights. Currently, she is preparing her monograph on contemporary eco-writings in Taiwan and an edited volume, “Identities on the Move: Exile, Migration, Diaspora and Representation”, with several colleagues from MIDEX.