Li-An Ko is currently a PhD candidate in film studies at the Department of Media and Culture Studies and the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Utrecht University. Her doctoral research, titled "Beyond Sadness: The Historical Films in the Post-martial Law Period of Taiwan (1987-2017)," lies in the subject area of cinema and history and focuses on feature films that represent the colonial past and suppressed histories of Taiwan. For the research Ko was awarded Taiwan's Government Scholarship to Study Abroad (GSSA 2017-2019). As a researcher, she is interested in historical representation in film, audiovisual history, historical amnesia, and film aesthetics.