Curriculum vitae

Hi! I am Wasiq Silan (I-An Gao 高怡安). I am a Core Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. I am a Tayal woman from the Mstaranan known as the Nanshi River valley in the northern part of Taiwan. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher of the SamiCare project, Coming of age in Indigenous communities: Ageing, quality of life and home-based elderly care in Sápmi and Atayal region (2019-2022), funded by the Norwegian Research Center. My ongoing research is part of the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) 2020 Transformation stream, a $24 million Canadian dollar biodiversity and Indigenous health project, which is Ărramăt: Strengthening Health and Well-Being through Indigenous-Led Conservation and Sustainable Relationships with Biodiversity. My research concerns indigenizing social services and developing sustainable health systems, and I am committed to developing Indigenous methodologies, namely, bringing the Indigenous local ways of producing knowledge as research methodologies.

I am currently affiliated with the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN) at the University of Helsinki and Indigenous Voices (IVO) research group at The Arctic University of Norway. 

During my BA, I visited Peking University as a student representative from political science department at the National Taiwan University. During my MA, I worked as an intern at the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the Arctic Center in Rovaniemi and as a collaborative researcher at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei. For four years, I have been actively participating United Nations Permanent Forum on the Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) as NGO delegate from Taiwan Indigenous Peoples. I was awarded SUPRA scholarship from Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) June-July 2017. I worked as a salaried position doctoral researcher at the Swedish School of Social Science (2018-2020). My dissertation was funded by the prestigious Finnish Cultural Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in Europe.

I attended World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium 2019 and 5th Indigenous Voices in Social Work conference in Hualien, from which I realized it is time to commit to my identity as an Indigenous scholar. The transition from using my westernized name 'Grace' to my Indigenous and Han Chinese names deepened my research interests concerning indigeneity, knowledge, naming, language and power.  

Description of research and teaching

My research deals with Indigenous Peoples and how indigeneity is tackled in the policy framing in the context of long-term care. In doing so, the research aims to contribute to a more profound understanding of how social and cultural rights can be accommodated as far as Indigenous Peoples are concerned. The main case study for the study is Taiwan and Tayal Indigenous people, with critical reflection drawn from the Sámi and Finland.

In 2017, I taught an online course pertaining to Indigenous ways of knowing in the context of a course "Sustainability and Social Work" at MacEwan University, Canada. In the Spring of 2018, I taught two intensive courses concerning Taiwan Indigenous Peoples in Austronesia at Palacký University, Czech Republic. In Autumn 2018, I will be co-organizing a couple of courses/mentoring targetting for the students in the Ethnic Relations, Cultural Diversity and Integration (ERI) program and Master's Programme in Contemporary Societies (COS). In 2022, I am leading and designing a course on Aging and Care in Indigenous Communities (MSV-ME306).

I am a cultural entrepreneur and an educator. I have been teaching Mandarin Chinese to children and adults in a local Finnish start-up company in Helsinki since 2016. I have extensive experience in freelance interpreting (Mandarin Chinese-English) and hosting events.

Education information

Master's Degree Programme in Ethnic Relations, Cultural Diversity and Integration (ERI), Master of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki

2011 → 2014