Where’ve you been, Bernadette?

I haven’t posted in a while, but it’s not because I’ve been hiding in Antarctica. Mostly, it seems, I’ve been attending conferences and giving talks, which means lots of rides on the world’s most adorable high-speed train.

Here I am with the other foreigners who were invited to speak at the Taiwan Political Science Association annual meeting at National Chung Cheng University in Chiayi. Most of them were from Australia, and we had a great time. Our table at the conference dinner consumed a whole bottle of Glenlivet.

I was the chair (aka timekeeper/cheerleader) for these terrific panelists at the conference on the Past, Present, and Future of U.S-China-Taiwan Relations at the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica. From left, Chia-Chien Chang (National Chengchi University, Taiwan), Cathy Xuanxuan Wu (Old Dominion University, USA), me, and Leif-Eric Easley (Ewha University, South Korea). I was especially happy to meet Cathy, whose work I taught at Davidson last year.

I even managed to sneak off for a few days to the ancient and beautiful German city of Teubingen for a conference hosted by my academic hero, Gunter Schubert (left — you’ll recognize him from the Blue Note post). Joining us in a steaming mug of Gluhwein are my good friends Chun-Yi Lee (University of Nottingham) and Isabelle Cheng (University of Portsmouth).