Research co-design and partnership is at the center of WUICAN. Our unique network includes 11 different community partners such as Tribal leaders, land managers, local city governments, and an interfaith working group. Additionally, there are university members in environmental science, the humanities, law, and social sciences from UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and UC San Diego.
Learn more about WUICAN’s partner organizations and the work they do:
Allison Lab, UC Irvine
The Allison Lab studies the implications of climate and environmental change for ecosystems around the globe. At scales from genomes to the entire planet, we combine experiments and models to analyze the diversity, functioning, and evolution of microbial life. Using a transdisciplinary approach, we apply this insight to improve predictions of carbon cycling and climate feedbacks. Principles of safety, equity, transparency, and open-mindedness guide our research culture and provide a supportive environment for individuals from diverse backgrounds. We embrace team-based thinking that engages multiple perspectives and prioritizes social justice in solving environmental problems. Through training and mentoring, we strive to learn from one another while elevating the collective impact of our research.
Learn more about The Allison Lab
Contact: Steven Allison, allisons@uci.edu
Center for Environmental Biology, UC Irvine
The Center for Environmental Biology (CEB) facilitates research, education, and outreach in conservation and restoration science to help develop innovative solutions to environmental problems. Our mission is to link academic research with the conservation, restoration, and stewardship of natural systems, and to educate the next generation of environmental biologists and stewards. We run an undergraduate internship program in which interns are engaged in authentic environmental research and outreach experiences to enhance their expertise in science, education, and outreach, especially related to the stewardship of natural resources. We use science to conserve and maintain biodiversity. The center provides: (A) A forum for information exchange within the campus community. (B) Recognized core of expertise visible through conferences, workshops, websites, and publications. (C) Coordinated research facilities and infrastructure that serves a community of researchers, educators, and decision makers. (D) Linkages between UCI and external agencies and organizations that have an immediate need for research and students trained in environmental biology.
Learn more about the Center for Environmental Biology
Contact: Sarah Kimball, skimball@uci.edu
Center for Land, Environment and Natural Resources (CLEANR), UC Irvine
Housed at UCI Law, CLEANR has designed and convened policy design workshops with state officials, community leaders, and non-profit organizations for over a decade. The Center works with disadvantaged communities and environmental justice networks to advance policy-oriented research on issues including civil rights, community-based air monitoring and emissions reduction planning, indirect source review, transportation planning, coastal management, and climate justice. Researchers have expertise in community-scale approaches, regulations, and policies for wildfire and flooding mitigation and adaptation on WUI lands.
Contact: Gregg Macey, gmacey@uci.edu
Photo credit: Gregg Macey, CLEANR
Cleland Lab, UC San Diego
Research in the Cleland Lab evaluates responses to global change at multiple scales, from individual plants to ecosystem-level processes. We rely on the unifying concept of plant functional traits, that reflect trade-offs in ecological and evolutionary strategies, and integrate the responses of species to their environment, as well as the impact of species on ecosystem level processes. We focus on the native and invasive plants in Southern California ecosystems, and utilize multiple modes of inquiry, including field experiments, lab studies, data synthesis, and observations along natural gradients. One particular trait of interest is phenology, or seasonal timing, which influences many aspects of plant ecology and evolution.
Learn more about the Cleland Lab
Contact: Elsa Cleland, ecleland@ucsd.edu
CLIMATE Justice Initiative, UC Irvine
The CLIMATE (Cultural, Learning, and Institutional Model to Accelerate Transformations for Environmental) Justice Initiative tackles issues of local climate change and environmental injustice through collaborative, community-engaged research. It seeks to transform the culture of the geosciences by fostering a learning environment that brings on-the-ground challenges of environmental justice and sustainability into the heart of our research and education.
Learn more about CLIMATE Justice Initiative
Contact: Robert Garcia, garciar1@uci.edu
Photo credit: Kathleen Johnson, CLIMATE Justice Initiative
Crystal Cove Conservancy
More info coming soon…
Department of Anthropology, UC Irvine
More info coming soon…
Environmental Humanities Research Center, UC Irvine
The UCI Environmental Humanities Research Center addresses contemporary and historical approaches to understanding environment and climate through expressions of culture. Promoting research, teaching, and collaborative community outreach, the Environmental Humanities recognizes that meaningful climate action will require every member of our society to alter the ways that we think and act in our shared environment. Scholars across the humanities seek to understand and respond creatively to how humans make sense of the world. Doing so for our environment means parsing the political conditions, legacies of imperialism, economic ideologies, and relationships between culture and technology that produced and continue to exacerbate the Earth’s precarious climate crisis. Through making connections and generating new ideas across its varied programming, the Environmental Humanities Research Center seeks to promote environmental justice and meaningful environmental change.
Learn more about the Environmental Humanities Research Center
Contact: James Nisbet, jnisbet@uci.edu
Environmental Programs, City of Irvine
More info coming soon…
Learn more about Environmental Programs at the City of Irvine
Getting Residents Engaged in Empowering Neighborhoods (GREEN-MPNA)
More info coming soon…
Harbor Christian Church
At Harbor, we have always believed in building creative, compassionate, and inclusive community. So, in 2021 we decided to combine our desire to build authentic community with our desire to be better stewards of earth. We joined a long running Blue Theology program in Pacific Grove, California as a southern outpost, and we welcomed our first group of youth and chaperones in July of 2022. Through Blue Theology, we have created authentic experiences for visiting groups that allow them to learn about the climate crisis from scientists and professionals, acknowledge and express collective grief over the climate crisis, and share the hope for a future where humanity lives in rhythm with nature, rather than against it. The community at Harbor is honored to have hosted this unique summer experience for the last two summers and we are so excited to be welcoming at least three new groups in the summer of 2024.
Learn more about Harbor Christian
Contact: Sadie Cullumber, pastorsadie@harborchristianchurch.com
Irvine Ranch Conservancy
More info coming soon…
Irvine Ranch Water District
More info coming soon…
Jenerette Lab, UC Riverside
More info coming soon…
La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians
More info coming soon…
Laguna Canyon Foundation
More info coming soon…
Living with Wildfire, UC Irvine
More info coming soon…
Learn more about Living with Wildfire
Orange County Environmental Justice
Formed in 2016, Orange County Environmental Justice Educational Fund (OCEJ) is a 501(c)3 multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environmental justice organization. We are developing grassroots leadership and advancing an environmental justice agenda within the ancestral homelands of the Acjachemen and Tongva Nations, now known as Orange County, California. Our mission is to fight for environmental justice by mobilizing and empowering marginalized community members.
Learn more about Orange County Environmental Justice
Photo credit: Keila Villegas, OCEJ
Research Justice Shop, UC Irvine
Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples
More info coming soon…
School of Humanities, UC Irvine
More info coming soon…
UCI Nature
More info coming soon…
University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI)
The University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) facilitates experimental, interdisciplinary humanities scholarship through partnerships, research initiatives, and competitive grants across the University of California system and beyond. In thinking differently, together, UCHRI encourages diverse perspectives and methodological approaches within the humanities and humanistic social sciences to foster innovative expressions of humanistic knowledge and expertise.
Contact: Matthew Hartman, mhartman@hri.uci.edu
WUICAN acknowledges our presence on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Acjachemen and Tongva Peoples, who still hold strong cultural, spiritual, and physical ties to this region.
Contact:
Research Justice Shop
researchjustice@uci.edu
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