Professor Katharine Burnett recently attended the Global Tea
Conference at the University of VIrginia where she participated
in the Tea and Material/Visual Culture session to discuss
“Teapots Shaped by Cultural Forces: 17th-Century Art Theory and
Innovative Yixing Teapot Design.”
Professor John Lopez’s new book
The Aquatic Metropolis: Urban Design and Environmental Change in
Tenochtitlan-Mexico City (Penn State University Press)
is a nuanced account of Mexico City’s urban development and Aztec
and Spanish attempts to control its most iconic feature–water.
The Aquatic Metropolis examines the complex
intersections of visual cultures and philosophical worldviews
about nature and cities and how the outcomes of these competing
visions impact the city’s future.
Professor Michael Yonan has contributed a chapter to a newly
published book that examines the human-centered focus of art
history and how modern art, visual culture, and modernity
itself emerge from relationships between humans and
animals. “Feline Creativity on the Eve of Modernity,”
co-authored with Amy Freund, is published in Animal
Modernities: Images, Objects, Histories, edited
by Daniel Harkett and Katie Hornstein (Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 2025).
Professor Heghnar Watenpaugh will present a public lecture at the
National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations
(INALCO) on Mar. 27 in Paris.
Alum Vivian Li (B.A., art history ‘25) presented research
conducted while studying at UC Davis at the annual Association for Asian
Studies conference Poster Session. The conference was held in
Vancouver, B.C., Canada March 12-15, 2026. Li’s research
examined ”Cultural Coding of Color: A Comparative Study of
Eastern and Western Perspectives and Modern Applications.” Her
project was developed in coordination with Professor
Katharine Burnett.
A scandal at the Nanjing Museum involving a Ming masterpiece,
millions in laundered money and missing art donations recently
set off alarms in the art world. Correspondent Richard Spencer of
The Times (London) talked to Professor Katharine Burnett
The
Art of Tea exhibit, on display in Shields Library’s Archives
and Special Collections Reading Room, celebrates the UC
Davis Global Tea Institute‘s 11th Annual Colloquium: The Art of
Tea in Culture and Science, Society and Health. Curated by M.A
candidates Grace Wu and Mengchen Sang
Professor Katharine Burnett, founding director of the Global Tea
Institute at UC Davis, will present a talk on ”The
Marvelously Extraordinary, Inventively Original Late Ming Teapot”
at the annual
Global Tea Institute Colloquium.
Professor Katharine Burnett was invited to speak
on “Branding GTI at the University of California, Davis,
Branding Japanese Green Tea to the US Market” at the World O-CHA
Tea Festival.
Professor Michael Yonan and Dr. Amy Freund (Kleinheinz Endowment
for the Arts and Education Endowed Chair in art history at
Southern Methodist University) gave a talk on Oct. 23 at the
Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA. “Visualizing the Feline in
Art” asked “what is it with cats and artists?” Yonan and Freund
examined the ubiquitousness of cats in depictions of
artists’ studios and in artworks that serve as manifestos of
their makers’ techniques of visual representation.
MIT’s renowned History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and
Architecture (HTC) program is celebrating its 50th
anniversary with a landmark event that brought together scholars,
alumni, and thinkers from around the world including Professors
Talinn Grigor and John Lopez.
At the second annual Calouste Gulbenkian Conference in Art
History, Professors Talinn Grigor and Houri Berberian (UC Irvine)
will present the keynote address
Research papers from art history students Isabelle (Izzy)
Villanueva (BA ‘25) and Sophie Jorcino (BA ‘25)
were recently published in see/saw (vol 2, no. 1
(2025).
New podcasts are streaming straight from UC Davis Letters &
Science students, faculty, and staff, including our very own MA
students Anya Thompson and Madeline Madrid. Anya and Madeline
started The E.A.R (Educated Art Review) to make art history
fun and approachable.
The Art and Art History Club is open to all art studio and art
history majors, minors, and friends. Our purpose is to learn
about and discuss all things relating to art and art history. We
do this through open discussions at meetings, going on field
trips to art museums and galleries, watching art-related movies,
selling student-made art, and promoting art education. We are
working hard to create an art community among UC Davis
undergraduates.
