Yi-Ting Chang

From geo- to astropolitics: How Taiwan constructs vertical territory within the global satellite network

Yi-Ting Chang obtained her BA from National Taiwan Normal University (graduate with honour) and MSc from National Taiwan University (with an awarded thesis) before starting her DPhil in Oxford. Her broad research interests lie in critical geopolitics and science and technology studies (STS). She has been working on vertical geo-politics, focusing especially on power, body, materiality, and infrastructure in the three-dimensional world. Her DPhil thesis entitled "From geo- to astropolitics: How Taiwan constructs vertical territory within the global satellite network" aims to investigate Taiwan's outer space history and politics against the backdrop of the ongoing cross-strait tension. Her PhD is fully funded by Clarendon Fund Scholarship with joint partnerships with St. John's College and the Taiwan-Oxford Scholarship.

Awards and Fundings

• Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA) Travel Award (2024)
• Clarendon Fund Scholarship, University of Oxford (2022-)
• Oxford-Taiwan Graduate Scholarship, Ministry of Education, Taiwan (2022-)
• Excellent Master's Thesis Award, Taiwan STS Association (2022)
• Outstanding Master's Thesis Award, National Taiwan University (2020)

• Chang, Y.-T. (2024) Earth, cosmos and culture: geographies of outer space in Britain, 1900–2020. Oliver Tristan Dunnett, London, New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021, 202 pp., £39.99 (paperback), ISBN 9780367762407; £135.00 (hardback), ISBN 9780815356288. Social & Cultural Geography, 1–2.
• Chien, S.-S., & Y.-T. Chang (forthcoming) Politics of Coastal Land-use Change under Industrialization of Kaohsiung: a Deleuze and Guattari’s Geo-philosophical Perspective of Smooth vs Striated Space Practices. In City and Planning (Taiwan Institute of Urban Planning).
• Chang, Y.-T. and Chien, S.-S. (2023) Wind-Human Resonance in a Polluted City: The Case of Dalinpu in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1-18.
• Chien, S.-S. and Chang, Y.-T. (2021) Explosion, subterranean infrastructure and the elemental of earth in the contemporary city: The case of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Geoforum, 127, 424-434.
• Chang, Y.-T. and Chien, S.-S. (2021) Fluid Volume Thinking and Politics of Air/Wind: Case of Dalinpu, Taiwan. Taiwan Journal of Anthropology, 19(2): 147-188. (in Mandarin)

Conference Presentations

• Paper Presentation, 2024 Earth-Space Symposium, Utrecht, 2024.
  Title: Technological Borders in Space: Taiwan's Pursuit of High-Resolution Satellite Capabilities Amidst Geopolitical Tensions. (Session: Power Dynamics)
• Paper Presentation, 2024 Taiwan International Assembly of Space Science, Technology, and Industry (TASTI), Kaohsiung, 2024.
  Title: Technological Borders in Space: Global Export Control of Space Technology and Its Local Impact. (Session: Space affairs (1): Space security, regulations, and industry development)
• Paper Presentation, 2024 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Honolulu, 2024.
  Title: Satellite manufacturing: Taiwanese engineers’ daily struggle for technological autonomy. (Session: Orbital and Off-earth Geopolitics)
• Paper Presentation, Off-Earth Geopolitics Workshop, Oxford, 2023.
  Title: The god's eye view on the frontline of conflict: Taiwan's satellite industry amid geopolitical tensions.
• Paper Presentation, Taiwan Young Space Professionals Programme, Kaohsiung, 2022. Title: Building up "Space for Marine Asia" for Resource, Governance, and Climate Change.
• Paper Presentation, Taiwan STS Association Annual Conference, Taipei, 2020
  Title: From Air Pollution to Village Displacement: The Atmospheric and Oceanic Politics of Polluted Geographies. (Session: The competition for risk, knowledge and governance).
• Paper Presentation, Geoforum Workshop (Designing, Digging, Excavating, and Living: Subterranean Geopolitics), Singapore, 2019
  Title: Explosion, Subterranean Infrastructure and Elemental of Earth in Contemporary City: Case of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
• Paper Presentation, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, 2019
  Title: Oxidation in Relation to Urban Bio- and Geo- Politics: When Elements and Bodies Encounter in a Petrochemical City (Session: Chemical Kinships).