Degrees

• M.A Sociology, National Taiwan University, 2021
• B.A Chinese (Modern and Classical), SOAS University of London, 2019

Fields of Study

Subfields: Political Sociology, Sociology of Science, Technology and Knowledge, Social Movements, Sociology of Medicine, Taiwan

Research

Through my work, I try to think through the complex interaction between ideals of democratic participation on the one hand, and our increasing reliance on scientific and technical expertise on the other. Specifically, I have worked on cases where experts themselves mobilize, either in the workplace or as part of civil society.

My work has examined the organizational challenges open software movements have faced when trying to operate horizontally, as well as the complex overlapping of “shop floor” conflicts with clinical disagreement among frontline mental health workers in the United States in the context of post-crisis “community resilience.”

My current dissertation project asks why the Taiwanese state has proactively incorporated digital movements promoting ‘openness’ (open data and participation) but has much more passively responded to movements pushing ‘closedness’ (surveillance and cybersecurity), especially given that both movements emerged out of the same hacker networks in the 90’s and 2000’s and Taiwan’s vulnerability to cyber-attacks.

Publications

• Wu, Chia-Ling, Wei-Hong Chen, Sam Robbins, and Hinata Sakai. 2025. “Success Rates and Success Stories: Staging Anticipation on Fertility Clinic Websites in Taiwan, Japan, and the UK.” Social Science & Medicine 366:117655. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117655.

Awards & Grants

• Graduate Research Mentorship, 2025-2026
• Taiwan Studies Fellowship Grant, 2025
• Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, 2025
• Graduate Research Mentorship, 2024-2025
• Taiwan Ministry of Education Scholarship, 2019-2021