What Is Processed Food? It Depends on Who You Ask

In her new book, "Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge," Charlotte Biltekoff explores friction between the U.S. public and food marketers when it comes to food processing.  She and others at UC Davis are making these types of conversations real and accessible to people both in and outside of the food industry. 

‘Visual Journals’ Exhibit Brings 'Design in Europe' Experience Home

Since the first iteration of “Design in Europe," a study abroad program at UC Davis, students have kept visual journals of their travels – six to eight pages per day – that are a mix between a scrapbook, sketchbook, travelogue, collage and diary. The journals have been exhibited in Iceland, Scotland, England and the Netherlands. Now, for the first time, these journals are being exhibited all together right here in Davis, Calif.

Thiebaud Lecture Features Mexican American Painter, Printer and Educator Enrique Chagoya

Using his art to comment on social and environmental issues, Enrique Chagoya’s prints, drawings, collages and multiples offer critical commentary on the global reach of the United States and its cultural, political and historical tensions with Latin America. The artist is speaking on Thursday, Jan. 30, for the 2025 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture at UC Davis.

Global Tea Institute Brings Communities Together

The Global Tea Institute celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year. In the last decade, what started as a group of 12 like-minded scholars gathering together has turned into a hub for the study of tea across the disciplines. Every year its annual colloquium brings between 400 and 800 people from all over the world to UC Davis. 

Reimagining the Past Through Food Justice

With flavor and flair, a community of academics, chefs and food justice advocates are sparking conversation at UC Davis and beyond through the new seminar Thinking Food at the Intersections: Justice and Critical Food Studies. The seminar series is supported by a $225,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation received earlier this year.

History Doesn’t Sleep Forever

Telling women’s stories is what excites writer Iris Jamahl Dunkle. Since 2019, the biographer, poet and creative writing instructor has been shedding light on these previously underappreciated women in two books as well as a weekly online newsletter.  Her latest book, "Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb," is about a female writer who, while living among Dust Bowl refugees in California.

Globalizing the Middle and Early Modern Ages

Scholars in the Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) program are working to dispel the caricatures of this era by de-centering European history from the discourse and showing how, in fact, much of the world was experiencing acculturalization, or borrowing, adapting and mixing traits from various cultures.