Hou, Y.H. (2025, April). Learning Alongside Ljavek’s Indigenous Mobilities and Relationalities in Taiwan’s Urban Spaces. Oral presentation at the UW Taiwan Studies workshop titled, Asian Indigeneities, Resilient Sovereignty, and Multiple Agencies in Taiwan and Beyond, Seattle, WA, April 28.

My colleagues and I presented different work in partnership with Indigenous sovereignties and communities across Asia, including Taiwan, Ryuku Islands, and China. I gave a brief overview of my dissertation work with Ljavek, a Paiwan Indigenous community in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Mainly, I focused on talking about our process co-designing research and honoring refusals in the work.

Link to workshop speakers: UW Taiwan Studies website

Link to workshop recording: https://youtu.be/aVRLAhQHTzQ?si=bJOh0js_mgfAXLcb&t=5454

*Hou, Y. H., Olden, K., Rambayon, A., the Native American Parent Advisory Committee for Federal Way Public Schools Native Education Program (NAPAC), the Office of Native Education (ONE), & Washington STEM. (2024). Knowledge report: Maximum representation at school districts [White paper]. Washington STEM.

*Hou, Y. H., Halcomb, M., Olden, K., Serpa, J., the Office of Native Education (ONE), & Washington STEM. (2024). Knowledge report: Maximum representation in Washington State [White paper]. Washington STEM.

*While I was the main writer for these papers, the expertise shared by my partners and our collaborations are what made these papers possible. These shared efforts make our contributions equal, subverting traditional documentations of authorship.

The misidentification and misrepresentation of Indigenous student data has been a longstanding issue in the State of Washington and the U.S. more broadly. Often, if a student identifies as Indigenous and also identifies with a racial category, the student’s Indigenous identity is omitted in public school data reporting. This negatively impacts the funding of Indigenous education and is a serious violation of treaty rights and data sovereignty. In these two knowledge papers, I worked alongside Indigenous families, educators, data experts, and government officials to identify the root cause and propose community-driven solutions for future policies and practices.

Both knowledge papers and a one-pager summary can be accessed here: https://washingtonstem.org/posts/data-justice

Kim, S., & Hou, Y.H. (2025). Duoethnography on mobility, race, and gender: Felt conversations about resisting while participating in the U.S. Gaze. Decolonizing the university. Palgrave Macmillan.

In this book chapter, my co-author/friend/fellow transnational scholar and I write about how U.S. centrism and imperialism impacts our work as transnational researchers. We point out tensions within U.S. academic institutions while centering transnational research voices and feelings as valid, important, and necessary for global solidarities.

The book chapter can be found online here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-94451-2_4