Abstract
This thesis examines the constitution of Taiwan's dance in higher education by focusing on the changes it has undergone to achieve and maintain its institutional status. Historical shifts that had taken place in dance in higher education are studied in four areas: the social value of dance; political interference, the influence of foreign cultures, and the violence of power relations. Recent changes are examined and analysed in primary and secondary data using interdisciplinary methods from historical and cultural studies.Pierre Bourdieu's five key concepts: field, agent, habitus, forms of capital, and symbolic violence, provide the analytical framework for analysing the motivation, process and consequences of change. In addition, methods of social, cultural and historical analysis contribute to the discussion of the historical constitution of dance as an institutional disciplinary specialisation and to the consideration of problematic issues in the present. Particular attention is given to inequalities created by control of power-knowledge in dance in Taiwan's higher education. First-hand material has been gathered from interviews and the personal experience of the researcher.This thesis first draws on dance's history before the establishment of dance in higher education since the late nineteenth century, to provide a background analysis of changes in political, cultural and social practices, which have affected people's attitudes and aesthetic judgement toward dance. Then it moves on to discuss the significant changes that have taken place in dance in higher education in two periods: the martial law period and the post-martial law period.Two case studies were carried out to provide better understanding of the effects of a government controlled student mission and the educational reforms of dance in the higher education field.