Yen-Ting Hsu

C.Phil.: Sociology, University of California, San Diego, 2022

M.A.: Sociology, Columbia University, 2016

B.B.A.: International Business, National Taiwan University, 2013

Research and Teaching Interests: Urban Sociology, Political Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Local Democracy, Urban Placemaking, Urban Political Economy, Cultural Heritage, Mixed Methods, Equity-Minded Pedagogy, East Asia

Yen-Ting Hsu is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of California, San Diego, specializing in urban and political sociology. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of local democracy and urban placemaking. Using mixed methods, he examines the conditions that facilitate or constrain ordinary citizens’ capacities to shape their city’s future, particularly in light of the growing prominence of civic urbanisms in Asian global cities.

Yen-Ting’s dissertation examines how the urban character of a global city is shaped through the democratic process of cultural heritage production, drawing on evidence from Taipei. The research begins with spatial and logistic regression analyses to uncover patterns that reveal who governs heritage production in the city. From there, he delves into two comparable cases with divergent outcomes, shedding light on the conditions under which grassroots preservation efforts have successfully resisted neoliberal urban redevelopment plans. He concludes the dissertation by analyzing the official preservation discourses surrounding Taipei’s heritage buildings to illustrate how the policy outcomes of the heritage production process collectively portray Taipei’s global city character.

Furthermore, he has conducted research on fiscal democracy and empowered teaching practices. His work has been supported by Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council, UCSD’s Center for Taiwan Studies, and other institutions. In 2024, he was honored with two awards from the American Sociological Association’s Teaching and Learning Section for my contributions to teaching excellence and innovation.

Beyond research and teaching, Yen-Ting has been actively involved in various professional communities. He served as a program director for the North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) annual meeting in 2022 and chaired the Graduate Community Committee for UCSD Sociology in 2019. Additionally, he co-founded the Taiwan Reach-Out Association for Democracy (T-ROAD), a nonprofit public participation consulting organization, and remain an active member of People Powered - Global Hub for Participatory Democracy, where he works to promote participatory and deliberative democracy with partners from around the world.

Please refer to his personal website for his CV, publications, and courses offered.