International Center for Cultural Studies

Ko Lun Chen

International Center of Cultural Studies Postdoctoral Fellow(2019/3-)

Introduction

Ko-Lun Chen is Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Center of Cultural Studies (2019-now), National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan and Network Manager of Transit Asia Research Network (TARN). Ko-Lun Chen received his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. His research interests focus on the intellectual history of the Inter-Asia Modern Theatre under the influence of Colonisation, the Cold War, the Martial Law Regime, and Globalisation. His academic articles and translations published in CULTURAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, and ROUTER: A JOURNAL OF CULTURAL STUDIES. He is also the co-translator of Jacques Rancière’s La Mésentente: Politique et philosophie.(French to Chinese).

Degree title and the university

PhD in Cultural Studies, Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.

Doctoral dissertation

Politics of the End of Martial Law Period and Cold War Aesthetics: Retreating the Discourses and the Practices of Taiwan's Little Theatre Movement (1986-1996)

Brief work experience

2023-, Project Manager, Transit Asia Research Network (TARN)
2019-2022, Project Manager, CHCI-Global Humanities Institutes ”Migrant Workers, Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context”(Granted USD 180000 by Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes & Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)
2019-now, Postdoctoral fellow, International Center of Cultural Studies, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.
2014-2017, Executive editor, ROUTER: A JOURNAL OF CULTURAL STUDIES (THCI & TSSCI)

Research Interests

Intellectual History of Modern Theatre in Taiwan, Cultural theory, Contemporary political thought, Aesthetic theory.

Research Project

This project re-examines how the Cold War mindset has been implanted in the Inter-Asia modern theatre and has been intellectually and practically influential until now. Along with different stages of globalisation, from the late 19th century via the imperial invasions, the colonial occupations, and the Wars, to the late 20th century, the local concepts and practices of the theatre in different Inter-Asia regions have been challenged or so-called modernised several times. Accompanying the residues of colonial modernity, the Cultural Cold War had brought about another wave of modernisation that fostered specific kinds of theatrical knowledge and practice in the Inter-Asia regions. Similar to the colonial implantation, the facts and the concepts of "Institutional Imbrications" and "Epistemic Communities," raised by Balme and Szymanski-Düll (2017), are arguably familiar to the circle of the Inter-Asia modern theatre. The institutions and projects of the funding, training and education have introduced the consensual recognition of modern theatre's very meaning and practices. Nevertheless, though surrounded by the proclaimed ideological dichotomy, the local self-explanations and possible transformations would have brought another side to the institutional distributions and epistemic implantation where it reveals a problematic nexus of the Cold War and its cultural, intellectual and artistic deployments. The complex geo-political distributions deployed through decades have arguably conducted the material structure and conditions of the Inter-Asia modern theatre. This project focuses on how a particular modus operandi of intellectual logistics has been promoting or even regulating specific kinds of theatrical knowledge and practices in different historical stages and regions in the Inter-Asia societies. On the other hand, the project also analyses how some inspiring reflections on different local thoughts and practices in the theatre have struggled against the intellectual inequality pre-occupied by the dominant discourses of the last Cold War's theatrical legacy.

Personal research project

"The Cold War Dividend and its Discontent: Re-visiting the intellectual situation and practices of the post-war Inter-Asia modern theatre"

CURRICULUM VITAE

BRIEF

Postdoctoral Fellow, International Center of Cultural Studies (2019-now). Project Manange of Transit Asia Research Network(TARN). Project Manager of CHCI-GHI project " Migrant Workers, Global Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context (2019-2022)." PhD in Cultural Studies, Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Executive editor of ROUTER: A JOURNAL OF CULTURAL STUDIES (2014-2017). Editorial Board of the Special Column of CULTURAL STUDIES QUARTERLY(2011-2012). Research Focus: Intellectual History of Modern Theatre in Taiwan and Asia: Colonialism, Cold War and Martial Law Regime, and Globalisation. Review articles published in ARTIST MAGAZINE, MOT TIMES, and CULTURAL STUDIES QUARTERLY. Co-translator of Jacques Rancière’s La Mésentente: Politique et philosophie.(French to Chinese). The other Translation articles (English to Chinese) also published in ROUTER: A JOURNAL OF CULTURAL STUDIES.

EDUCATION

2018, PhD in Cultural Studies, Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Dissertation：Politics of the End of Martial Law Period and Cold War Aesthetics: Retreating the Discourses and the Practices of Taiwan's Little Theatre Movement (1986-1996)
2011, Border, Displacement and Creation: Questioning the Contemporary, Summer Research Institute in Faculty of Arts & Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto, Portugal.
2007, Culture & Politics: Summer Research Institute in Chilhac”, Chilhac, France.
2006-2008, Master en route PhD, Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.
2002-2005, BA, Department of English Language and Literature, Chinese Culture University, Taiwan
2000, Curso Internacional, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
1997-2002, Associate Degree, Department of Spanish, Wenzao Ursuline University of Language

APPOITMENTS

2019- Global Humanities Institutes Project Officer (Migrant Workers, Global Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context), Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes.
2019- Postdoctoral fellow, International Center of Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

2014-2017, Executive editor, ROUTER: A JOURNAL OF CULTURAL STUDIES (THCI & TSSCI)
2011-2012, Editorial Board of the Special Column, CULTURAL STUDIES QUARTERLY
2012, Committee Board, Culture as the Critical Theory (international conference), Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 2012/09/30-10/01
2012, Committee Board, Marxisms in East Asia (international conference), National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 2012/06/06-06/09

INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE

2006-2014, R.A. (Research Assistant), Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao-Tung University

SCHOLARSHIPS & RESEARCH GRANTS

2011, Excellent research paper (inside the Institute): “Re-thinking Liu-Xu’s [柳絮] Radicalism and the political ” (in Chinese)
2010, Excellent research paper (inside the Institute): “Preliminary on the Anarchists in Taiwan from the 20s to the 30s, or the Index to Radicalize the Political” (in Chinese)
2009, Excellent research paper (inside the Institute): “The Fringe Theatre in Taiwan from 1985-1995: Aesthetic Touring or Aesthesis De-touring?” (in Chinese)
2009, Excellent research paper (inside the Institute): “Preliminary on the Function of Speech as Politics: Logos, Politikos and Agathos, Polis”
(in Chinese)
2008, PhD Scholarship (ATU), College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan
2007, Zhu Shunyi [朱順一] Zyxel Academic Excellence Award
2007, Excellent research paper (inside the Institute): “Vexata: Ethics Demands Freedom, or, Free Thinking of Ethics” (in Chinese)
2005, Academic Achievement Award, Master Program, Graduate Institute for Foreign Literatures & Linguistics, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan

PUBLICATIONS

Dissertation

2018, Politics of the End of Martial Law Period and Cold War Aesthetics: Retreating the Discourses and the Practices of Taiwan's Little Theatre Movement (1986-1996) (Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.)

Conference Papers Presented

2012, "The Stake of Aesthetic Regime: Contradiction and Creation," presented at The Tradition of Dialectics: the East and the West, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, 2012/11/27-11/28。
2011, “The Place of Resistance during the late 80s’ Fringe Theatre of Taiwan, ” presented at Border, Displacement and Creation: Questioning the Contemporary, Faculty of Arts & Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto. Portugal. 2011/8/29-9/04.
2009, Taiwan's Little Theatre Movement form 1985-1995: the Aesthetic tour or the Sensible Detour, presented at 第二十九屆以文會(譯文會)研究會》, Nagano, Japan, 2009/7/3-7/5。
2009, “Between Reason and Speech: Questions on Political Rationality, or Preliminary on the Forces,” presented at Biopolitics, Ethics, and Subjectivation: Questions on Modernity, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. 2009/6/24-6/28.
2007, “Assign to the Limit: Black Fulguration and Ashes of Fringe Theatre in Taiwan, 1985~1995” Panel Organizer & presented at Culture & Politics: Summer Research Institute, Chilhac, France. 2007/9/02-9/08.
2007, ”Un-working Inclination: An Open Identity in Murakami Haruki's A Wild Sheep Chase”, presented at The Eleventh Asian Studies Conference Japan, Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan. 2007/06/23-06/24.
2006, “Wandering on the Borderline: From the Mechanism of Abjection to the Writing of the Abject in Iwai Shunji’s Picnic, presented at The third Graduate Student's Conference: Psychoanalysis, Gender and Visual Culture, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 2006/5/27.

Forums and Roundtables

2014, "A Dance Floor of Coactivity and the Backstage Time, " presented at Inter-Asia Forum of the Biennale: Factory Squad, also the organizer of the forum, Taipei, 2014/10/12。
2014, "Seminar on Alain Badiou, presenter and moderator, Taipei, 2014/09/27。
2012, "Body: Politics and Governmentality", presented at Ewam Lin: Documenta, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, 2012/12/26。
2012, " Taiwan Leftist Movement: History and Contemporary Contexts ", organizer and moderator, Marxisms in East Asia, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 2012/06/06-06/09。
2012, "Do We Need Critical Curation? Our Difficulties, " Osmosis: International Workshop: Cultural Production and Artistic Curation, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, 2012/4/16。
2011, Forum Speaker, The Sensible, Taipei Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, 2011/12/17。
2011, Forum Speaker, Trans-Plex: Weaving Platform, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, 2011/03/12。
2009, Forum Speaker and Organizer, Vis-a-vis Rancière: a seminar on Jacques Rancière’s thoughts and works, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 2009/11/20。
2009, "The People Nowadays: Introduction to Démocratie ou consensus, presented at Seminar on J. Rancière, Taipei Campus, National Chiao Tung University, Taipei, 2009/10/31-11/01。

Periodicals

2014, Report："On the Production Line: Note on Inter-Asia Forum of the Biennale: Factory Squad," in Artforum https://artforum.com.cn/diary/7053# (2014/10/23)。
2012，Symposium：" Vis-a-vis Rancière: a seminar on Jacques Rancière’s thoughts and works, " in Router: A Journal of Cultural Studies(THCI & TSSCI), 15: 368-385.
2013, Review Article："On NG Romance, or the Flesh of Globalization: How to Weave a Front of Resistance, " in Artist Magazine, 2013 Dec: 406-432.
2012, Review Article: "Un-homely dis-tance: On Nowhere Near," in DM of MOVE Theatre's Nowhere Near, http://nowhere-near.blogspot.tw/2012/11/06_19.html.
2012, Review Article: "On Apocalyptic Image of Bela Tarr's The Turin Horse , " in Mot Times, http://www.mottimes.com/cht/article_detail.php?type=2&serial=83 (2012/01)
2007, Research Article: " Vexata: Ethics Demands Freedom, or, Free Thinking of Ethics, " in Cultural Studies Quarterly, http://hermes.hrc.ntu.edu.tw/csa/journal/72/park_72.htm (2007/09/25).
2006, Research Article: " The political or the theatrical: Retreating the political theatre in Taiwan's Little Theatre Movement at the end of the 80s," in Cultural Studies Quarterly, http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~csa/journal/61/park_61.htm (2006/10/25) 重探—八零年代末期，台灣「政治劇場」〉，2006 年 10 月 25 日

Translation:

2011, 2015，《歧义: 政治与哲学》(Jacques Rancière’s La Mésentente: Politique et philosophie.)， Jacques Rancière. Co-translators with Joyce C.H. Liu, Su Fen Lin, Hsi-Ping Schive and Ko Lun Chen (French to Chinese). Translator in charge of the chapter: " Démocratie ou consensus ." Author of the postscript: "Democracy/Post-democracy and Consensus." Published by Taipei: Rye Field 2011 (Traditional Chinese version) and Xi'an: Northwest U Press 2015 (Simplified Chinese version).
2012，"A Review of Jean-Luc Nancy’s On the Commerce of Thinking: Of Books and Bookstores" Jon Solomon, Co-translators with Jon Solomon and Ko Lun Chen (English to Chinese), in Router: A Journal of Cultural Studies(THCI & TSSCI), 15: 498-515
2012， "The Politics of fiction, " Jacques Rancière, Trans. Ko Lun Chen (English to Chinese), in Router: A Journal of Cultural Studies(THCI & TSSCI), 15: 368-385

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2011, Organizer and Lecturer, The Inquiry of the Cultural Production: The place of initiation, National Chiao-Tung University
2009, TA (Teaching Assistant) of “Seminar on Aristotle’s Politics”, Spring Course, Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao-Tung University
2009, TA (Teaching Assistant) of “East Asian Modernity: Politics and Ethics”, Fall Course, Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao-Tung University
2008, TA (Teaching Assitant) of “Lacan: Subject and Language”, Fall Course, Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao-Tung University
2006, TA (Teaching Assitant) of “Modernity in Asia: Ethics and Aesthetics”, Fall Course, Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao-Tung University

OTHERS

2012-2013, Curatorial Manager, Versammeln pottery workshop, No. 62-5, Sec. 2, Kaifeng St., Wanhua Dist., Taipei City 108, Taiwan (R.O.C.), Tel: +886-2-2388 5218。
2003, Translator, Business Document ISO 9001 of B. Braun Taiwan Co., Ltd. (Spanish to English for 500 pages)