【Article by International College of Innovation】
The International Program on Austronesian Studies (IPAS) has successfully completed its first semester in the Fall of 2021.

IPAS was instituted under the NCCU International College of Innovation (ICI) to provide students with a comprehensive and holistic outlook of Austronesian peoples through the perspectives of geo-politics, culture, social economics, and indigenous studies. The certificate program and its courses are offered to NCCU and any university belonging to the University System of Taiwan (National Central University, National Tsing Hua University, and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University). Graduate students (PhD and masters levels) as well as third and fourth year bachelor students from any of these schools can apply to the program or enroll in any of its individual courses.

In the Fall 2021 semester, the following courses were offered by IPAS:

1. The Anthropology of the Asia Pacific (Lecturer: Prof. Niki Alsford, University of Central Lancashire)
2. Literature and Literacy in the Austronesian Region (Prof. Alexander Adelaar, The University of Melbourne).
3. The Languages of the Pacific: History, Linguistics, Sociology, and Politics (Prof. Lecturer: Rik De Busser, National Chengchi University)

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the first two courses were offered fully online. For Dr. Alexander Adelaar’s course on Austronesian literature, however, there was a fieldwork component involving a visit to Tainan in a Siraya community. There, the students had an extensive exposure to a lengthy and still ongoing effort to reclaim Sirayan language and culture through the formal educational sector. In the visit, the students saw how primary schoolchildren are being taught the language in a creative manner utilizing music as well as digital technologies.

Aside from the visit to a Siraya community in Tainan, two other field excursions were organized under the program. The first was a visit to the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines at Shilin District, Taipei. In the visit, students were given a fully guided English-language tour of the museum by the curator himself. Shown were cultural artifacts of various Austronesian indigenous peoples in Taiwan and the stories behind them. After the museum tour, the students were brought to the nearby Indigenous People’s Park which hosts some statues where discussions on indigenous peoples’ historical experiences were continued. The day was capped with a dinner in a Filipino restaurant at the Zhongzhan District in Taipei.

The third field excursion took place at the Taipei Expo Park upon invitation of one of the program’s research assistants, a PhD student who comes from Ifugao, the Philippines. The occasion was an ethnic-themed Christmas Party of Ifugao migrant workers. In the event, NCCU and IPAS participants learned how to do Cordilleran and Ifugao native dances which also included lunch with Filipino cuisine.



Spring 2022 Enrolment

Enrolment is currently ongoing for the 2022 Spring Semester. The following are the courses offered in the IPAS:

1. Seminar on Ethnic Development: Austronesian Culture and Environmental Governance
(Prof. Kuan Da-Wei & Prof. Chen Yui-Shiuan, National Chengchi University)

2. Ethnobotany of the Asia Pacific
(Prof. David Holm, National Chengchi University)

3. Comparative Indigenous Law
(Prof. Guy Charlton, University of New England)

4. Archeology of Taiwan and the Southeast Asian Maritime Worlds (Prof. Stephen Acabado, University of California, Los Angeles)

5. Austronesian Studies Capstone Project (With Fieldwork Component) (Prof. Rik DeBusser, National Chengchi University)

For more information on the above courses, please visit our website:
International Program of Austronesian Studies丨https://reurl.cc/12Kry8
FB Page 丨https://www.facebook.com/ipasnccu