Professor T.Y. Wang has been named the next chairperson of the Department of Politics and Government. He will succeed Professor Ali Riaz on July 1, 2017. Wang was selected by a search committee headed by Cooper Cutting of the Department of Psychology and Chris De Santis of the Department of English. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Greg Simpson announced the selection on February 28.

Professor T.Y. Wang joined the department in 1990 after receiving his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He quickly rose through the ranks to become full professor in 2002. He is an internationally acclaimed expert on Taiwanese politics, U.S.-China relations, cross-Strait relations, and research methodology. He has written eight books/edited volumes and 40 articles/chapters. Wang has been co-editor of the Journal of Asian and African Studies since January 2004. He serves on the editorial board of a number of academic journals. He is an advisory board member of the Election Study Center of National Chengchi University in Taipei. Since 2007, Wang has served as the associate chair of the department.

Other members of the search committee were Professors Thomas McClure, Lori Riverstone-Newell, and Kerri Milita, AP/CS/NTT representative Erik Rankin and Graduate student representative Kelsie Diaz.