Paul Cockrum, our DEALL Ph.D. student in Chinese Linguistics studying under Professor Marjorie Chan, received notification that he was awarded a 2023 Postgraduate Grant for the Study of the Tainan Region (2023 台南研究博碩士論文研究獎). It is awarded for the completion of his Doctoral dissertation. This grant is administered by the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research (ICTAHSSR; 南瀛國際人文社會科學研究中心), composed of Taiwan and foreign scholars with expertise in Taiwan and Tainan Studies. The grant is funded by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Hall. Only two Ph.D. projects are selected to receive this award every year from applications submitted worldwide.

                Paul’s project, titled Taiwan Orthographies and Social Identities (TOSI), researches the interplay between orthographic choices in Taiwanese languages, such as Mandarin, Taiwanese, and Hakka, and construction processes of social identity. The project specifically looks at the language attitudes of individuals within southern Taiwan, including the major metropolitan areas of Tainan and Kaohsiung. (Paul is pictured in the photo here from his fieldwork trip to Kaohsiung this summer.)

                The Postgraduate Research Grant for the Study of the Tainan Region is designed to help M.A. and Ph.D. students pursuing their research in the humanities and social sciences on the Tainan Region. It aims to arouse interest in this region and to deepen knowledge of its past and present, to create opportunities for young generations to develop new research directions or opening up to comparison with other localities and countries of Asia. 

                The award will officially be announced on 21 October 2023 as part of The Seventh International Conference on Tainan Area Studies in Tainan, Taiwan. Paul will receive the award in absentia. Congratulations, Paul!