Rate My Professor Jau-hwa Chen

Professor Jau-hwa Chen holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Bonn (1992), along with an M.A. (1985) and B.A. (1983) from Soochow University. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy at Soochow University since 1994, promoted to full professor in October 2010. Her expertise includes Kant's philosophy, philosophy of human rights, feminist philosophy, German idealism philosophy, and applied ethics. Chen served as a visiting scholar at the German Institute for Human Rights from 2006 to 2007 and as adjunct associate professor at National Yang Ming University's General Education Center from 2000 to 2001. She founded and directed Soochow University's Human Rights Master's Program from 2004 to 2006, designing its interdisciplinary curriculum, related legal revisions, resource collection, and student NGO internships. From 1999 to 2006, she was a researcher at the Chang Fo-Chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights, currently serving as its director. She contributed to the Executive Yuan Human Rights Promotion Task Force (2004-2006 and 2007-2008), advocating CEDAW implementation, gender mainstreaming training, and national report workshops.

Chen chairs the Taiwan Women's Studies Association since 2011 and the Taiwan Foundation for Promoting Peace and Education since 2012, also serving as secretariat for GPPAC Northeast Asia Taipei Branch. She is standing director of the Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation since 2007 and member of the National Science and Technology Council Gender Equality Committee since 2012. Representing Taiwan NGOs at UN Committee on the Status of Women meetings in 2004 and 2005, she has influenced human rights policy and education. Her scholarly contributions include journal articles such as 'Philosophical Reflections on Pain and Evil' in Ehu Lake Journal (volume 11) and 'Kant's Conception of Human Rights' presented at Soochow University interdisciplinary conference (1996). She co-edited Human Rights Standards Between Recognition, Confirmation, Affirmation and Change (2026) with Eibe Riedel, authoring a chapter on Taiwan's Transitional Justice Commission Concluding Report. Chen edited the Human Rights Primer and has lectured on transitional justice, gender equality, and ethical philosophy, bridging theory and practice in Taiwan's human rights discourse.