CGOTS 2021 Call For Papers

The Conference Group on Taiwan Studies (CGOTS) call for papers is up for the 2021 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), to be held September 30 – October 03, 2021, in Seattle, WA. The APSA conference theme is "Promoting Pluralism." Our official Related Group call for papers is posted below; it's also available in pdf format here. 

The deadline for submissions is Thursday, January 14, 2020 .

The 2021 American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting will be held from September 30-October 3, 2021, in Seattle, WA. The conference theme is “Promoting Pluralism.”

CGOTS invites paper and panel proposals on Taiwan’s domestic politics, cross-Strait issues, and international relations that are consistent with the theme of “Promoting Pluralism.”

This call for proposals opens in the midst of a political, economic, and social upheaval that portends significant transformations across the globe. The answers to what these global shifts mean for governments, nations, communities, and individuals are neither straightforward nor obvious, and the tools necessary to examine them are varied and expansive. More than ever, political science is positioned to address pressing questions of this moment and beyond, provided we embrace and promote the rich intellectual pluralism of our discipline – in methodology, methods, behavior, institutions, and perspective. In addition, we recognize that the diversity of our scholars in terms of racial and ethnic background, nationality, gender, sexuality, and gender expression, institutions and professional career stage contributes to knowledge and ways of understanding the world.

Perhaps the most well-recognized dimension of political science’s pluralism is methodological. Ours is a discipline rich in the usage of methodologies and methods from a range of fields. Such is only natural when considering a topic as complex and broad as politics. We have an epistemologically pluralistic profession, which we should encourage, protecting as an asset the strength of our divergent voices. Yet, most if not all of us have our preferred approaches, and, as a result, tacitly downplay others. But, it is this tension that makes political science so fruitful. The mix has translated into a discipline that is not only more open but also more scrupulous. Our discipline’s heterogeneous field of methodologies, methods, and theories is and should be a hallmark of political science and an opportunity to lead other social sciences. This is a crucial time for the discipline in terms of the expansion and acceptance of a range of methodologies and methods.

For the 2021 Annual Meeting, we encourage participants to consider questions about “Promoting Pluralism” in Taiwan, especially those that highlight diversity in methodological approaches and topics. We also welcome proposals attentive to various domestic and international challenges Taiwan is encountering in the COVID-19 global environment. It is the second year of President Tsai Ing-wen’s second term, and studies examining changes over the political landscape in Taiwan and its future direction is particularly desired. We encourage scholars to raise and study the following questions under the Taiwan context, including how citizens react to the global impact of COVID-19 in Taiwan; how to better understand the diverse social clusters and their respective political views and demands in Taiwan; how to utilize and demonstrate various methodological approaches to advance scholarly understanding of Taiwan politics; how to comprehend cross-Strait relations under Tsai’s second term; and how to incorporate the concept of diversity in scholarly research of Taiwan politics.

We also welcome proposals that utilize innovative and diverse approaches to understand how Taiwan positions itself under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy and the ongoing U.S.-China confrontations. Research investigating the dynamics of U.S.-Taiwan-China relations, the influences of China on Taiwan’s domestic and international politics, the impact of COVID-19 on Taiwan’s outward and inward trade and investment patterns, the potential changes between the cross-Strait relations during and after COVID-19, and the public perception on Taiwan’s foreign policy is highly desirable. These questions help the political science academe to better understand Taiwan under the global context and raise Taiwan’s international visibility.

Please send proposals to APSA: (https://connect.apsanet.org/apsa2021/related-group-calls/)

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Dennis Weng ([email protected]), CGOTS Coordinator. Travel support for CGOTS panelists is subject to the availability of external funding.