Wen-Pin Lin is the founding chair of the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, Taiwan. Trained in political science and comparative political economy, he has long worked across East Asian and Southeast Asian studies, with research interests including international political economy, developmental states, financial reform, energy policy, science and technology policy, foreign aid, microfinance, ethnic politics, and Taiwan’s relations with Southeast Asia.

Lin previously served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Law and Politics, Osaka University, Japan, in 2010, at the Research Institute for Humanity and Social Science, MOST/NSTC, Taiwan, in 2016. After years of dedication to department-building, academic leadership, and public-facing Southeast Asian studies in Taiwan, he has been selected as a 2026-2027 Fulbright grantee and will join Cornell University’s Southeast Asia Program as a Visiting Scholar.

His earlier research examined the political economy of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China, especially the interaction among the state, markets, finance, industry, and society. In recent years, his work has turned increasingly toward Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. He is particularly interested in how Southeast Asian states respond to foreign capital, external governance tools, great-power competition, and domestic social pressures.

Lin’s research motto is 「讀萬卷書，行萬里路」(to read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles). For him, research begins not only with texts and theories, but also with observation, conversation, and the willingness to encounter unfamiliar questions. He enjoys engaging with scholars, students, local communities, and practitioners, and he sees field-based learning as a way to shed new light on future research. At SEAP, he looks forward to joining Cornell’s Southeast Asia community and participating in its lively intellectual exchange.