Department of Politics and International Studies
Professor in Comparative Politics (with special reference to Taiwan)
Centre of Taiwan Studies
Director
Term 2: Wednesdays 1:00pm - 3:00pm and by appointment
Biography
Dafydd Fell’s interest in Taiwanese politics began after a year as a language student in Taipei in the late 1980s.
After graduating from a degree in Chinese Studies he spent most of the 1990s working in Taiwan in the education, broadcasting, tourism, agricultural and sports management sectors. Being an eyewitness to Taiwan’s transition away from authoritarian rule has helped shape his subsequent research at SOAS. He joined the SOAS Politics Department as a PhD student in 1999 and has been teaching here since 2003.
Dafydd’s main research focus has been on Taiwan’s political parties and electoral politics. His first book, Party Politics in Taiwan (Routledge, 2005) examined party change in the first fifteen years of multi-party politics. He frequently visits Taiwan for fieldwork and election observing. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on Taiwan’s party system, new parties, party switching, candidate selection and how parties learn from electoral setbacks. His second book Government and Politics in Taiwan was published by Routledge in 2011 and a revised and updated second edition was published in 2018.
Over the last few years he has been working on a project on the politics of migration and has a co-edited volume titled Migration to and from Taiwan (Routledge, 2014). He also has shifted his attention towards Taiwan’s social movements, publishing an edited book titled Taiwan’s Social Movements under Ma Ying-jeou in 2017. Recently, he has edited a number of volumes on Taiwan, including Taiwan Studies Revisited, published in 2019, Taiwan’s Economic and Diplomatic Challenges and Opportunities (2021) and Taiwan’s Contemporary Indigenous Peoples (2021). His latest single authored book is Taiwan’s Green Parties (Routledge 2021) and he is currently working with three co-authors on a Chinese version of the book. He is also the book series editor for the Routledge Research on Taiwan Series.
Dafydd has been active in developing the field of Taiwan studies at SOAS and beyond. He helped establish the European Association of Taiwan Studies in 2004 and was the Association’s Secretary General for 8-years. As Director of the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies he has helped develop the world’s most extensive Taiwan Studies teaching, academic events and publications programme.
Taiwanese Political Parties; Election Advertising; Social Welfare; Political Corruption; Public Opinion; Voting Behaviour; Gender Equality; Candidate Selection; Party switching and mergers; Green parties; Democratisation
Developing Taiwan Studies Teaching Programme in Europe and the United States: the experience of SOAS University of London and University of Texas at Austin
Fell, Dafydd and Chang, Sung-sheng Yvonne, 2019, China Quarterly (240), pp 1108-1134
East Asian Area Studies Teaching Programmes in the United Kingdom: A Comparative Case Study of Korean Studies at the University of Central Lancashire and Taiwan Studies at SOAS, University of London
Fell, Dafydd and Lim, Sojin (2021). In: Jacobs, Bruce, (eds.), Alsford, Niki, (eds.) and Lim, Sojin, (eds.), Assessing the Landscape of Taiwan and Korean Studies in Comparison. Leiden: Brill, pp 159-181
Fell, Dafydd (2020). In: Templeman, Kharis, (eds.), Chu, Yun-han, (eds.) and Diamond, Larry, (eds.), Dynamics of Democracy in Taiwan: The Ma Ying-jeou Years. Boulder: Lynne Rienner
The Relationship between Mainstream and Movement Parties in Taiwan: Case Studies of the New Power Party (NPP) and the Green Party Taiwan-Social Democratic Party Alliance (GPT/SDP)
Fell, Dafydd and Kwan, Tommy Chung Yin (2020). In: Chiavacci, David, (eds.), Grano, Simona, (eds.) and Obinger, Julia, (eds.), Civil Society and the State in Democratic East Asia Between Entanglement and Contention in Post High Growth. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, pp 167-185
Fell, Dafydd (2020). In: Juárez-Gámiz, Julio, (eds.), Holtz-Bacha, Christina, (eds.) and Schroeder, Alan, (eds.), Routledge International Handbook on Electoral Debates. New York: Routledge
Taiwan's Political Parties in the Aftermath of the 2016 Elections
Fell, Dafydd (2018). In: Sullivan, Jonathan, (eds.) and Lee, Chun-Yi, (eds.), A New Era in Democratic Taiwan Trajectories and Turning Points in Politics and Cross-Strait Relations. Abingdon; New York: Routledge
Fell, Dafydd and Peng, Yen-wen (2017). In: Fell, Dafydd, (ed.), Taiwan's Social Movements under Ma Ying-jeou From the Wild Strawberries to the Sunflowers. Abingdon: Routledge
Fell, Dafydd (2014). In: Cabestan, Jean-Pierre, (eds.) and deLisle, Jacques, (eds.), Political Changes in Taiwan under Ma Ying-jeou. London: Routledge, pp 37-59
Migration through the lens of political advertising: How Taiwanese parties discuss migration
Fell, Dafydd (2013). In: Fell, Dafydd, (eds.), Chiu, Kuei-fen, (eds.) and Lin, Ping, (eds.), Migration to and From Taiwan. London: Routledge, pp 125-134
Taiwan's Party System in Transition: More or Less Space for Identity Politics?
Fell, Dafydd (2011). In: Schubert, Gunter, (eds.) and Damm, Jens, (eds.), Taiwanese Identity in the 21st Century: domestic, regional and global perspectives. London: Routledge
Fell, Dafydd (2011). In: Ash, Robert, (eds.) and Prime, Penelope, (eds.), Taiwan’s Democracy and Future: Economic and Political Challenges. London: Routledge
Testing the market orientated model of political parties in a non-western context: The case of Taiwan
Fell, Dafydd and Cheng, Isabelle (2009). In: Lees-Marshment, Jennifer, (eds.), Rudd, Chris, (eds.) and Strömbäck, Jesper, (eds.), Global Political Marketing. London; New York: Routledge, pp 175-188
Party Competition in Taiwan: Towards a New Party System?
Fell, Dafydd (2008). In: Goldstein, Steven M., (eds.) and Chang, Julian, (eds.), Presidential Politics in Taiwan: The Administration of Chen Shui-bian. Norwalk, Conn: EastBridge, pp 49-84
Putting on a Show and Electoral Fortunes in Taiwan's Multi-Party Elections
Fell, Dafydd (2007). In: Strauss, Julia, (eds.) and Cruise O'Brien, Donal, (eds.), Staging Politics: Power and Performance in Asia and Africa. London: IB Taurus, pp 133-150
Fell, Dafydd and Hui-chen, Weng (2006). In: Fell, Dafydd, (eds.), Chang, Bi-Yu, (eds.) and Klöter, Henning, (eds.), What has changed? Taiwan before and after the change in ruling parties. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Change and Continuity in Taiwanese Party Politics since 2000
Fell, Dafydd (2006). In: Fell, Dafydd, (eds.), Chang, Bi-Yu, (eds.) and Klöter, Henning, (eds.), What has changed? Taiwan before and after the change in ruling parties. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Roundtable Discussion: The Global State of Taiwan Studies
Fell, Dafydd, Chou, Wan-yao, Corcuff, Stéphane, Gold, Thomas and Schubert, Gunter(2010). In: 7th European Association of Taiwan Studies Conference, April :Tubingen, Germany
The Role of SOAS in the Development of Taiwan Studies in Europe
Fell, Dafydd(2007). In: the University of California at Santa Barbara International Conference on Taiwan in Global Perspectives, 26-27 October :Santa Barbara, Carlifornia
倫敦大學亞非學院臺灣研究中心與《臺灣研究國 際學刊》及歐洲臺灣研究協會的現況介紹 = Introduction of the International Journal of Taiwan Studies, European Association of Taiwan Studies, and the Centre of Taiwan Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Fell, Dafydd, Cheng, Isabelle and Rawnsley, Ming-yeh (2020).
Book Review: 'Public Opinion, Policy Responses, and Party Politics under the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining Taiwan and Its Strategic Neighbors' Edited by Chia-hung Tsai and Yao-Yuan Yeh.