Photo credit 楊雅茜
Biography
Toby Liang is a historian of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish relations in Europe and the Middle East. The surprising history of connections between these communities helps us better understand their interactions in the world today. He is author of Family and Empire: The Fernández de Córdoba and the Spanish Realm, a book on Christian and Muslim contact in Spain and North Africa. He also co-edited three collections of essays that investigate the western Mediterranean as an enduring frontier between Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
Liang is an associate research fellow at the Institute of History and Philology at Taiwan's national research institute Academia Sinica. He was previously associate professor of history at National Taiwan University and at Wheaton College, Massachusetts (with tenure). He received a Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. As a Fulbright Scholar, he also studied at the Institut Français d’Etudes Arabes à Damas (Damascus, Syria).
Collaboration with researchers from around the world is an important part of Liang’s work. He founded the Spain-North Africa Project to bring together scholars from different fields and produce new knowledge on this frontier. Liang serves on the founding council of the Asian Federation of Mediterranean Studies Institutes and the Advisory Board of the Mediterranean Seminar to expand interest of the Mediterranean region in East Asia. Liang is also on the founding editorial board of The Medieval Globe, a journal that publishes new research on the Middle Ages in a global context.
As a teacher, Liang strongly believes that a humanities education prepares students to navigate a rapidly changing world of innovation and to contribute to building a better society. He teaches courses on Islam, the Middle East, and Europe. He also teaches courses on applied history, encouraging students to use the past to engage with a broader public in the present.
Toby was born in Taipei. He grew up in the United States and lived in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. His studies took him to Syria and Spain, where Toby lived for ten years. He is passionate about travel and has visited 42 countries in the Middle East-North Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Toby returned to Taiwan in 2014 to work with Taiwanese and international students and to reconnect with his own roots.
Liang is an associate research fellow at the Institute of History and Philology at Taiwan's national research institute Academia Sinica. He was previously associate professor of history at National Taiwan University and at Wheaton College, Massachusetts (with tenure). He received a Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. As a Fulbright Scholar, he also studied at the Institut Français d’Etudes Arabes à Damas (Damascus, Syria).
Collaboration with researchers from around the world is an important part of Liang’s work. He founded the Spain-North Africa Project to bring together scholars from different fields and produce new knowledge on this frontier. Liang serves on the founding council of the Asian Federation of Mediterranean Studies Institutes and the Advisory Board of the Mediterranean Seminar to expand interest of the Mediterranean region in East Asia. Liang is also on the founding editorial board of The Medieval Globe, a journal that publishes new research on the Middle Ages in a global context.
As a teacher, Liang strongly believes that a humanities education prepares students to navigate a rapidly changing world of innovation and to contribute to building a better society. He teaches courses on Islam, the Middle East, and Europe. He also teaches courses on applied history, encouraging students to use the past to engage with a broader public in the present.
Toby was born in Taipei. He grew up in the United States and lived in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. His studies took him to Syria and Spain, where Toby lived for ten years. He is passionate about travel and has visited 42 countries in the Middle East-North Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Toby returned to Taiwan in 2014 to work with Taiwanese and international students and to reconnect with his own roots.
Interviews
- Matthew Keough, "AHA Member Spotlight: Yuen-Gen Liang," "American Historical Association," July 9, 2014.
- Yun-Chen Chien, "The Modernity of Terrorist Attacks by ISIS" (in Chinese), "Gushi," 2016.
Résumé
Curriculum vitae