Maria Sestito

Maria Sestito - Department Editor

Maria Sestito writes about all things arts and humanities as part of the College of Letters and Science’s marketing and communications team. She is an award-winning writer and journalist. Prior to joining UC Davis, she worked for a decade in newsrooms across California and in North Carolina as a photographer, reporter and columnist. She’s also taught journalism to high school students through TRIO Upward Bound and Oregon State University.

Sestito earned her bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies with a Women and Gender Studies minor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She earned her master’s degree in journalism at UC Berkeley.

She is an alumna of AmeriCorps and Report for America. Some of her past fellowships were through the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS), Columbia Journalism School, USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism and the Bloomberg Journalism Diversity Program.

Different colored tomatoes gather on a table, shot from above

What Is Processed Food? It Depends on Who You Ask

  • by Maria Sestito
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. 
Cropped images of students holding open a page of their visual journal, each image cropped to show just hands and the journal pages, form to make a collage.

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

  • by Maria Sestito
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.
A black teapot with floral painting on it

Global Tea Institute Brings Communities Together

  • by Maria Sestito
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. 
A beige building sits between a tree and a burst of sunlight. The grass in front of it is covered in yellow leaves.

Embracing AI in the Classroom

  • by Maria Sestito
A collaborative project led by UC Davis, working with four California Community Colleges and three California State University campuses, has won a $1.5 million grant to help address equity gaps in writing support and AI literacy.
Two people stand in a field of corn

Reimagining the Past Through Food Justice

  • by Maria Sestito
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.
A sign on a building reads "UC Davis Humanities Institute."

Reimagined Davis Humanities Institute Slated for 2025 Launch

  • by Maria Sestito
The Davis Humanities Institute is on track to start anew. By fall 2025, it will become the campus hub for making connections and sharing ideas across the arts, humanities and beyond. Its goals include making a deeper impact on campus and in the community, providing more research opportunities for undergraduate students and supporting cross-collaborations between disciplines within the College of Letters and Science as well as other colleges within UC Davis.
A woman sits across from a man, both on a stage, speaking to one another. The background is dark.

‘The Question is the Point’

  • by Maria Sestito
The imaginative life of 15th century artist, inventor, scientist and engineer Leonardo da Vinci takes center stage in Ken Burns' latest documentary. The two-part documentary titled Leonardo da Vinci premiered Nov. 18 and 19 on PBS stations. UC Davis Associate Professor of Design James Housefield and art studio alumna Julia Couzens (M.F.A. ‘90) led a discussion on da Vinci at an advanced partial-screening of the documentary at PBS KVIE in Sacramento on Nov. 14. 
Black and white photo of Sanora Babb looking into a bookstore window where her image is posted.

History Doesn’t Sleep Forever

  • by Maria Sestito
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.
The chest of a metal suit of armor in warm, dramatic lighting

Globalizing the Middle and Early Modern Ages

  • by Maria Sestito
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.