International Master's Program in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, University System of Taiwan (IACS-UST) breaks with existing modalities of higher education and ventures into cross-university alliances. As the result of these alliances, IACS enable the integration of research and teaching resources, admits both local and international students. Each year, the four UST universities enroll students separately, but all students enrolled in the IACS program are entitled to inter-university curriculum.
Using The International Center for Cultural Studies (ICCS) as the operative platform to facilitate international collaboration as well as cooperation among the four UST universities, IACS is privileged to be able to offer a curriculum that simultaneously benefits from inputs by the global academic community and from prolific local scholars based at all four UST universities.
The core curriculum covers subjects as diverse as Critical Intellectual History in Asia, East Asian Political Thoughts, Chinese History and Culture, Taiwan Literature and Culture, History of Modern Japanese Thoughts, Critical East Asian Cinema, Contemporary Migrant Workers in Asia, Gender Issues in Asia, Comparative Studies of the Democratic Movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Contemporary Critical Theory, and much more. Courses are grouped into five highlighted course clusters, which correspond with the five focal research clusters formed by the UST faculty members. All five clusters are devoted to inspiring original thought that reflects the uniqueness of each Asian culture without negating the relevance of inter-Asian commonalities:
Critical Theory and Asian Modernity
The cluster of "Critical Theory and Asian Modernity" is led by the Graduate Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies at National Chiao Tung University (國立陽明交通大學交通校區人文社會學系暨族群與文化研究所). It emphasizes inquiries into contemporary mechanisms of knowledge formation, adopting theoretical as well as contextual approaches to inter-regional and inter-cultural issues. Major concerns include nationalism, colonialism, post-colonialism, subjectification, biopolitics, the use of language and identity, historiography, state violence, globalization, and labor migration.
Contemporary Thought Trends and Social Movements
The cluster of "Contemporary Thought Trends and Social Movements" is led by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Tsing Hua University (國立清華大學人文社會學院). It studies contemporary thought-trends in an endeavor to get a handle on the empirical connections of these trends to inter-Asian cultural resources, historical experiences, and social realities. Through supporting concrete practices of social movements, it intends to explicate and advance the multi-layered, dialectical relationships between the “ideal” and the “real.” The cluster designs courses that cover three major themes: “East-Asian Civil Society,” “East-Asian Ecology,” and “Memories, Experiences and Visions of the Second World War.”
Gender/Sexuality Studies
The cluster of "Gender/Sexuality Studies" is led and organized by the renowned Center for the Study of Sexualities at National Central University (國立中央大學性別研究室). The cluster pays close attention to the trends and practices of gender/sexuality governance. Acknowledging strong ties between civilization and gender/sexuality governance, the cluster is interested in developing its critical interpretation of civilization/multiple modernity, analyzing the power maneuvers of gender/sexuality governance both on the local and on the global scale. It plans and organizes courses that interrogate gender/sexuality politics as they can be mapped locally, regionally, and globally from a distinct, localized perspective. With its main focus on the issue of knowledge/power, the cluster has investigated questions of agency, grassroots movements, and history as it delves into structural dimensions of gender/sexuality governance, such as those of law and policy.
Visual Culture
The Visual Culture program is organized by the cooperative effort of the NCTU Film Studies Center (交大電影中心), the NCU Visual Culture Research Center (中央大學視覺文化研究中心), and the NYMU Visual Culture research team (陽明交通大學視覺文化研究團隊). As a vital part of cultural studies, this comprehensive research field interprets various visual culture texts, such as art, photography, film, television, advertisements, fashion, digital images, image narratives and so on, from the perspective of culture and society. Combining the research methodologies and practices of art history and film studies, visual studies takes an interdisciplinary approach to encompass related fields such as critical theory, gender/sexuality studies, globalism, post-colonialism, new media studies, history, and so on. From a cultural and global perspective, the program puts Taiwan, Northeast Asia, and Asia on the international map and explores the aesthetics, historical meaning, and social practice of visual culture.
Media and Culture Governance
The cluster of "Media and Culture Governance" is currently led by the College of Communication at National Chengchi University (國立政治大學傳播學院). It is built on a transnational and interdisciplinary foundation that bridges institutions and faculties. Its core concept is inspired by the European Union's advocacy of "media and cultural governance," integrating cultural policy and cultural economics.
The cluster aims to foster cultural diversity, advocate for cultural policies, promote cultural creativity, and effectively manage cultural intellectual property. "Media and cultural governance" serves as the guiding principle for program planning at NCCU, aiming to cultivate future leaders in new media platforms and digital cultural industries. This program seeks to enhance the creativity and quality of cultural industries through media technology while laying the groundwork for expanding into the Asia-Pacific and international markets with derivative digital cultural economic activities.
