The last week of June was also the last week of the semester, and this was not a moment too soon for many of us. There was, however, still time to squeeze in one more lecture series from a top academic - and it was certainly a case of saving the best until last! Despite the distractions of last-minute essay writing, clear blue skies, and World Cup football-induced hangovers, a committed group of students and staff took the opportunity to participate in a series of workshops and lectures from Prof.

A highlight for the end of the month of June, the Department of Social Sciences and the International Master’s Program of Asia-Pacific Studies (IMAS) had the honor to welcome Professor M. Shamsul Haque from the political science department of the National University of Singapore. It was the first event of a series of two lectures and two seminars on the topic of public administration in Southeast Asia. In his first event, called “A Critical Asian Perspective”, Professor Haque talked about existing theory models for public administration and its applications in

On Saturday, July 23rd the international programs (IDAS, IMAS, and IMES) of the College of Social Sciences of NCCU went to Keelung in a fun-filled year-end outing. As graduation was approaching for many of the current students, and as an easy way to relax after final exams, the staff of the I-programs diligently planned an itinerary for everyone to enjoy one last gathering with old friends and an opportunity to make new friends as well. The day started early in the morning at Songshan Train Station where professors, staff, and students

The era of digital technology has brought a radical change to the work of translators, where the principle of translation shifted from a process of dialectic and cultural exchanges to a mere corresponding of texts. Such radical changes, to most humanitarian researchers, herald a bleak future to humanities in which the huge information flood only sweeps us away from the shore of civilization, and innovations all smacks of algorithm and cloud computing. However, does technological progress merely go down to a universal Utopian as predicted by Huxley’s Brave New World—a

[alaya_dropcap]O[/alaya_dropcap]n June 15th, the College of Social Science Newsletter sat down with Jonathan Spangler (United States), who recently graduated with an academic achievement award from the International Doctoral Program in Asia-Pacific Studies (IDAS). During the interview with the CSS Newsletter, he mused about his time in the program, gave some practical advice on how to survive and thrive within IDAS, and talked about the most enjoyable parts of it and what he will miss the most. Jonathan had two main rules about how best to allocate your time and resources when

[alaya_dropcap]T[/alaya_dropcap]he College of Social Sciences was quite excited to interview Sergio Langarica (Mexico) and Mariia Morozova (Russia) from the IMES program, where they both recently graduated from in June. Mariia and Sergio’s opinions strike differences in their plans, however, their training in the IMES program has put them in the path to great personal and professional success. Mariia has said that she wants to start work here in Taiwan as soon as possible while taking Mandarin Chinese classes in the evening; while Sergio says that he would like to take a

[alaya_dropcap]O[/alaya_dropcap]ne couldn’t ask for better weather for a graduation ceremony for National Chengchi University’s College of Social Sciences. With a warm sun, puffy white clouds, and a gentle breeze, the graduation ceremony and weather strongly favored CSS’s latest graduating class. The ceremony was held on the 3rd floor of NCCU’s General Building of Colleges with generous amounts of free food and drinks for graduates and their family members. Traditional formalities were kept to a minimum. The Dean of Social Sciences and department heads were ready on stage to present diplomas and

[alaya_dropcap]A[/alaya_dropcap]fter all the excitement of graduation day finally subsided, the College of Social Science was happy to interview two students from the International Master’s in Asia-Pacific Studies (IMAS) program about their thoughts and time here at NCCU. Tomas Königs (The Netherlands) and Tyler Prochazka (United States) were kind enough to take time out of their celebrations and give interviews. Both Tomas and Tyler said they feel like graduating from NCCU was like the end of an era, and that it was an exciting journey along the road to finishing their thesis.

Conflicts among the Countries Involved with the North Korean Nuclear Crisis [alaya_dropcap]W[/alaya_dropcap]ith North Korea, South Korea, and the Trump administration making headlines recently about North Korea’s conciliatory efforts to establish better relations between itself and the rest of the world, it was with great honor that NCCU was able to have Dr. Ray Dongryul Kim speak about past and current events involving North Korea. Dr. Kim is an associate professor from the Department of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. The timing of his presentation was

[alaya_dropcap]O[/alaya_dropcap]n Monday, June 4th National Chengchi University hosted Taiwan Fellowship visiting scholar Prof. María del Mar Llera Llorente to give a conference on her work regarding the recent Catalonia Independence Referendum. Prof. Llera Llorente is a Spanish academic who is currently an associate professor at University of Seville, Spain. On October 1st, 2017 Catalonia, Spain held a referendum vote. With the question “Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?” Catalonians were supposed to participate in a free and democratic exercise to self-determine their