AEI-TECO Special Seminar
Looking South: Comparing the Regional Policies of Taiwan and South Korea

Professor Dr. Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao is Chairman of Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation; Adjunct Research Fellow/Professor of Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica; Chair Professor of Hakka Studies, National Central University; and Senior Advisor to the President of Taiwan since 2016. His current research areas include: middle class, civil society and democracy in Asia; social transition to de-carbonized society in Taiwan; comparative Hakka studies in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. His most recent book publications are: Sociology of Decarbonization: The Public Opinion and Challenges of Taiwan’s Net- Zero Transition (co-author, 2024); Writing Taiwan’s Third Sector History (co-editor, 2023); Three Divides: Transformation of Hakka Ethnic Politics in Taiwan (co-author, 2022); The Many Faces of Taiwan’s Cultural Diplomacy (co-editor, 2022); The Ethnic Relations of Hakka Belts in Taiwan and Malaysia (co-editor, 2022); China Impact: Attitude Changes in Taiwan and Hong Kong (co-editor, 2022), and The Volatility and Future of Democracies in Asia (co-editor, 2022).

Professor Dr. Alan Hao Yang is Executive Director of Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF). He also serves as Executive Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taiwan, a member institution of the Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies (SEASIA). He teaches at the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies (GIEAS) as a Distinguished Professor of Southeast Asian Studies. Dr. Yang engages in Track II diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific. His research interests cover ASEAN regionalism, disaster governance, border politics, and resistance politics in Southeast Asia.

Dr Karl Chee Leong Lee is Senior Lecturer in the Institute of China Studies (ICS) at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the Universiti Malaya, Malaysia, and Expert Advisor to Market Research Future. He is a specialist on Taiwan’s soft power and quasi-state relations with Southeast Asia.

Dr. Nur Shahadah Jamil is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of China Studies (ICS) at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Her research interests include East Asian security, China's foreign policy, South China Sea dispute, Xinjiang, regional multilateralism and Malaysia's external policy.

Sana Hashmiis a postdoctoral fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan, and a fellow at the Houston-based George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations. She is an affiliated scholar with the Research Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs in Japan. She was the Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs fellow at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020, and is a former consultant in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India.

Sera Yun currently serves as a Grants & Co-Financing Management consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, USA. She holds a master's in international commerce from Seoul National University and has previously worked at the World Bank's Korea Green Growth Trust Fund.

Jan Vincent Galas is currently an Associate Professor at College of Business and Economics at Chung-Ang University. Jan completed his MA and PhD in International Studies at Sogang University in South Korea. His research interests focus on ASEAN and East Asian studies, particularly in the intersections of constructivism, strategic culture, and theories of development, communication, and cooperation. Jan is also an international debating consultant and have worked as a debate coach or trainer in East Asian countries.

Jojin V. John is Assistant Professor at the School of International Relations and Politics (SIRP) at Mahatma Gandhi University, India. He is also Hon. Director of the Korea Centre at SIRP. Previously, he was affiliated with the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, as a research fellow and coordinated several India-Korea Track 1.5/2 Dialogues.

Dr. Nurliana Kamaruddin is currently Deputy Executive Director (Academic & Student Affairs) at the Asia-Europe Institute, Universiti Malaya and Senior Lecturer at the Department of East Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya. She obtained her PhD in International Studies specialising in Development Cooperation from Ewha Womans University. She specialises in international security and development cooperation with an area focus on East Asia.

Aaron Denison Deivasagayam is currently a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hiroshima University, Japan. His main research interests cover Malaysian and Japanese politics, international relations in East Asia and regionalism in the EU, ASEAN and the Pacific Islands.

Sadia Rahman, who earned her doctoral degree in International Relations from National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan in 2022, is now a lecturer at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya, specializing in China Studies. Her research interests include China’s domestic and foreign policies, particularly towards India and Taiwan, as well as broader themes in human rights and international relations theory. Previously an Assistant Professor at Atatürk University, Türkiye, and a recipient of numerous prestigious scholarships, Rahman is also an Associate Editor of the Asian Journal of Interdisciplinary Research. Her engagement extends to significant contributions in international academic conferences and participation in EU-funded projects.