Mission of NATSA
Mission Statement: The main mission of the North American Taiwan Studies Association is to organize an annual conference in North America in order to facilitate scholarly exchange and publication among researchers and students from different disciplines and area studies who are interested in intellectual dialogues pertaining to Taiwan.
NATSA is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered by the state government of California. It is established and operated by overseas Taiwanese and North American Ph.D. students and recent graduates interested in studying Taiwan. The NATSA annual conferences are the largest academic events on Taiwan Studies in North America. They not only provide scholars and students of Taiwan Studies with a regular forum to meet and exchange intellectual ideas, but also allow researchers on East-Asia and beyond to receive dynamic feedback and broaden their academic horizons. The importance of this venue has only increased due to the increasing marginalization of Taiwan Studies in American academia. Most East Asian departments only offer programs on Chinese, Japanese or Korean Studies, leaving discussions concerning Taiwan included within other forums. We believe that Taiwan is not just an area to be studied, but also a way to expand the current understandings of human societies and enable a more complex reflection on changing global conditions. In particular, as a in-between region that receives and channels cultural and economic influences from China, Japan, the United States, and other East and Southeast Asian countries, studies on Taiwan may broaden the perspectives of researchers in these countries by offering new ways to look at how they perceive and interact with one another.
任務聲明：北美臺灣研究學會的主要使命是籌備舉辦每年的北美臺灣研究年會，提供不同學科與研究區域之學者，針對與臺灣相關之議題，進行國際交流與追求研究出版的學術對話空間。
北美臺灣研究學會（NATSA）是美國加州政府立案之501(c)(3)非營利組織，是一個主要由海外臺灣研究生和許多致力研究臺灣問題的國際學生與新近畢業生共同合作經營的學術團體。北美臺灣研究年會是目前北美最大的臺灣研究學術活動；該會議不僅是臺灣研究的學者和學生知識交流的定期論壇，也是對東亞地區及全球問題有興趣的研究人員，獲得動態交流和開闊學術視野的重要場合。由於近年來臺灣研究在美國學術界未受到與其重要性相稱的適當矚目及重視，因此使得北美臺灣研究年會的重要性日益增加。目前美國主要大學所設置的東亞系所，大多以提供中國、日本或韓國研究學程為主，與臺灣相關的研究往往被視為次要議題，而被放在其他區域研究的框架下思考。我們相信臺灣不是只是一個非常值得研究的「區域」而已；臺灣更是一個「路徑」，助吾輩對於當代人類社會有更深的瞭解，對於不斷變化的全球環境有更複雜的反省。尤其臺灣是一個中介區域，多重接收並轉化傳遞了來自中國、日本、美國及其他東亞和東南亞國家的經濟與文化衝擊，這使得臺灣研究得以為這些相關區域研究者提供嶄新觀點。透過臺灣特殊的位置與視角，將有助於世界進一步瞭解不同的區域與國家之間，其如何彼此認知，又如何彼此互動。
