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. 

Katharine Burnett, professor and co-chair in the Department of Art and Art History, explores the complex interplay of tradition, globalization, and identity through tea culture. Burnett’s fascination with tea inspired her to launch UC Davis’s Global Tea Institute for the Study of Tea Culture and Science.