East Asian Studies

Mercedes Valmisa (EAS) was born in Spain. She received two BAs, one in Philosophy from the University of Seville and another one in East Asian Studies from the Autonomous University of Madrid. After two years in China and Taiwan studying Modern and Classical Chinese, Mercedes joined the Department of Eastern Philosophy at National Taiwan University. Her MA dissertation explores the conceptions of freedom and liberation in the Zhuangzi, and proposes that freedom is not only a central topic in the Zhuangzi but also a privileged hermeneutical key to meaningfully reconstruct its philosophy in a holistic way. Mercedes is primarily interested in the interrelation between pre-Qin philosophies through certain background understanding principles common to all of them. At Princeton, she intends to investigate in depth one of the main understanding principles: the concept of Adaptation, as well as its connection with the pre-Qin idea of freedom.