Yen-Yu Lin
(she/her/她)
I am a global and transnational sociologist using qualitative methods to study race, empires, and material culture.
View my CV
I am currently a sociology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia (UVa). In August 2023, I will start as Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at DePauw University.
My general research interests are at the intersections of global and transnational sociology and comparative-historical sociology. My specific research keywords include material culture, empires, race, and intersectionality. I am particularly interested in the relationship between material culture and systems of domination and how this relationship historically affects marginalized people.
I am working on a book project titled "Colors of Empire: Visualizing Race in Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Rule." My other working research projects include (1) Confederate monuments and memory activism in Charlottesville, Virginia after the Summer of Hate in 2017; (2) Pacifist nationalism and commemoration of the defeat of WWII in post-1945 Japanese society.
At DePauw, I will be teaching Introduction to Sociology, Global and Transnational Sociology, and Sociology of Art during AY 2023-2024.
At UVa, I have TA'ed for Criminology (SOC 2230) and Intro to Sociology (SOC 1010). I am committed to teaching difficult topics such as class, race, and gender from a comparative perspective.
Prior to my Ph.D. studies, I was trained in political science at National Taiwan University (Taiwan) and Waseda University (Japan).
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
I served as the Program Director of North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) during the academic year 2021-2022.
I am a co-founder of a student NGO "Ngasan Maku Study Society in Tokyo," which was founded during the Sunflower Movement in 2014. "Ngasan Maku" means "my home" in Atayal (one of the Taiwanese aboriginal languages). Welcome to visit our Facebook page and blog and see what the Taiwanese student activists have been doing in Tokyo.