Research Groups

Group Name: Environmental History Group
Organizer: Ya-wen Ku
Start Time: 2018-09-01
Members: Ts'ui-jung Liu、Lu Shao Li、Ya-wen Ku
Assistants: Lee Meng-Lin

Environmental history has become one of the most significant fields in history since the 1970s. Under the leadership of Dr. Ts'ui-jung Liu, Taiwanese scholars started researching environmental history in the 1990s. The Environmental History Group in the Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, was established in 2001, with the aim of looking at the long-term effects of the interaction between people and the environment in the history of Taiwan.

The current and former members of this group include Ts'ui-jung Liu (Adjunct Faculty), Qiu-kun Chen (retired in 2011), Shi-yung Liu (moved to University of Pennsylvania / Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2018), Ya-wen Ku(Faculty since January 2011) and Shao-li Lu (Professor, History Department in National Taiwan University, Joint Faculty since August 2019).

The researchers in this group focus on issues that concern: resource, disease, disaster, species exchange, ecology and pollution crisis in the history of Taiwan. In addition, this group orients itself towards cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Members often organize research teams with research groups in the Institute of Taiwan History or specialists in disciplines such as humanities, sociology, and natural sciences inside and outside of Academia Sinica. Moreover, they not only rely on conceptual frameworks such as Empire and Science, Technology and Society (STS), Disaster Vulnerability and Resilience, Sustainable Development, and Anthropocene, but also attach importance to the assistance of tools from digital humanities, such as geographic information systems (GIS).

We have been holding workshops and lectures for environmental history regularly since January 2010. This has promoted environmental history research in Taiwan, and reinforced the communication, interaction and cooperation between academic communities of different disciplines. Besides, we also operate the Association of East Asia Environmental History(AEAEH), and the management of association’s website. In order to promote environmental history to young scholars and students, we established our Medium in 2020 to announce the latest events and provide relevant sources.

Complete history of our events over these years can be seen on the website of the Association of East Asia Environmental History(AEAEH) and our Medium.

Lectures over the recent three years(Jan. 2021- Sep. 2023)
No. Date Topic Lecturer
1 Mar. 5th, 2021 Horticulture and the Creation of Tropical Taiwan Shao Li (Professor in the Department of History, National Taiwan University, and joint faculty in the Institute of Taiwan History)
2 Aug. 6th, 2021 From Island to Island: Tashiro Yasusada’s Research Surveys in the Pacific and Theory of Tropical Development in the Early Japanese Colonial Taiwan Wei-chi Chen (Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica)
3 Mar. 28th, 2022 Colonial Botany: Its Establishment in Taiwan and Historical Explanation Szu Wei Tsai (Assistant Professor, Department of History, National Chi Nan University)
4 May. 30th, 2022 Prohibition of the Use of Bituminous Coal: Air Pollution from Coal Burning and Smoke Prevention Effort in Taiwan during Japanese Colonial and Early Post-war Period Sheng-Kai Hsu (Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica)
5 Apr. 7th, 2023 Reeds, Snails, and Parasites: Bilharzia Disease and Riverine Ecology in China’s Lower Yangzi Delta during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Yu-Cheng Shih(Doctoral Candidate in the Department of History, Brown University) 
6 May. 26th, 2023 Cartographies and Therapeutic Fields: Parasitic Worm Diseases in Southern China of the Early 20th Century Dominik Merdes(Department for the History of Pharmacy and Science,Technische Universität Braunschweig)
7 Jul. 14th, 2023 From Earth to Home: Soil-Cement Bricks and the Self-help Housing Project in the 1950s Southwest Taiwan Yu-Han Huang(Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, University of Toronto)

Workshops over the recent three years(Jan. 2021- Sep. 2023)
Date Topic
May. 3rd, 2021 Environmental History Research Workshop in 2021
Nov. 19th, 2022 Environmental History Research Workshop in 2022
Mar. 17th-18th, 2023 10th Young Scholar Forum: A Successful Conclusion with Knowledge Exchange, Field Trip, and International Collaboration