Director’s Message

Welcome to the 2025–2026 academic year at the University of California, Irvine!

Each year, the Humanities Center selects an annual theme to guide our programming and conversations. For 2025–2026, our theme is “Food and Nurturance.” Amid ongoing political divisions and social upheavals, this theme invites us to reflect on what sustains us—biologically, emotionally, socially, and culturally.

We ask: What does food mean and symbolize for us? What rituals accompany eating, and how do these meanings and practices travel across borders? Equally important are questions about the political economy of food: Whose labor makes it possible to grow, transport, and prepare the meals that nourish us? And what environmental impacts accompany the convenience of having our favorite foods readily available? Are we able to tend to our needs and wellbeing, as well as others who are not our immediate kin?

The Humanities Center is engaging with these questions as well as supporting an exciting array of activities initiated by our partner research clusters and centers. This ecosystem of inquiry is at the heart of our collective endeavors, and there are multiple entry points to engage your curiosity–learning from and contributing to these intellectual communities. Please join us!

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu
Associate Dean in the School of Humanities of Research, Faculty Development, and Public Engagement
Faculty Director of the Humanities Center
Professor of History and Asian American Studies
Faculty Profile 

 

 

 

Please join us for a kick-off event for a roundtable conversation on:

Islands, Nations, and the Global Circulation of Asian Food

Friday, October 24, 2025
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Humanities Gateway Rm. 1030

12:00 pm Reception

Please click to RSVP

Co-sponsored by:

Asian American Studies, Environmental Humanities Research Center, Humanities Center, Humanities Core, Long U.S. China Institute, Illuminations, Office of Excellence

For more information, please contact Professor Judy Wu (j.wu@uci.edu).

Flyer for Food and Nurturance event

 

 

2025 Theme for HC

Speakers

Image of Yong Chen
Professor of History, Associate Dean at UCI, and author of Chop Suey, U.S.A.: The Rise of Chinese Food in America
Yong Chen
Professor of History, Associate Dean at UCI, and author of Chop Suey, U.S.A.: The Rise of Chinese Food in America
Image of Dana Collins
Professor of Sociology at California State University, Fullerton and author of “‘Eat That Nostalgia’: Filipino Foodways and Food Consciousness in LA”
Dana Collins
Professor of Sociology at California State University, Fullerton and author of “‘Eat That Nostalgia’: Filipino Foodways and Food Consciousness in LA”
Ping Chen Hsiung Image
CIPSH (International Council for Philosophy and Humanities Studies) Chair in New Humanities at UCI and professor of history and director of the Taiwan Research Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ping Chen Hsiung
CIPSH (International Council for Philosophy and Humanities Studies) Chair in New Humanities at UCI and professor of history and director of the Taiwan Research Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Alyssa Paredes Image
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan and co-editor of Halo-Halo Ecologies: The Emergent Environments behind Filipino Food
Alyssa Paredes
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan and co-editor of Halo-Halo Ecologies: The Emergent Environments behind Filipino Food

Moderator

Judy Wu Image
Chancellor’s professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She also serves as faculty director of the Humanities Center and Associate Dean in the School of Humanities of Research, Faculty Development, and Public
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu
Chancellor’s professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She also serves as faculty director of the Humanities Center and Associate Dean in the School of Humanities of Research, Faculty Development, and Public