Christina Woo Graduate Research Award: Honoring Scholarship in Asian American Studies
The Department of Asian American Studies at UC Irvine is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Christina Woo Graduate Research Award, which supports innovative research and professional development in the field of Asian American Studies. This year’s awardees, Christine Dianne Guiyangco and Lucy Fang, were each granted $1,250 to advance their critical scholarship.
About the Award
Established through a generous endowment from Christina Woo, former UCI librarian and champion of Asian American Studies, this award is open to all UCI graduate students enrolled in or pursuing the Asian American Studies Graduate Emphasis or participating in the department’s 4+1 B.A./M.A. program.
Woo’s legacy is one of grassroots dedication to building Asian American Studies at UCI. As highlighted in a 2021 profile by the School of Humanities, she played a foundational role in growing the university’s collections and curriculum, ensuring students had access to vital resources and support systems. Her endowment now fuels future research that continues the work she helped begin.
2025 Award Recipients
Christine Dianne Guiyangco
Guiyangco’s interdisciplinary dissertation explores the uncanny nature of postcolonial Filipino identity—how colonialism simultaneously alienates the homeland and embeds the colonizer’s language and culture into daily life. Her project centers six figures who represent distinct diasporic experiences shaped by legal status, language, and temporality—from undocumented immigrants to U.S.-born Filipino Americans.
The Woo Award will support her acquisition of technical tools including software licenses and access to online courses crucial for the development of her project. Her work uniquely blends auto-theoretical writing and graphic storytelling, culminating in a creative-scholarly comic series that embodies her methodological innovations.
Lucy Fang
Fang’s research delves into early 20th-century Chinese North American identity by examining Chinese-language newspapers like Chung Sai Yat Po (San Francisco) and The Chinese Times (Vancouver). She investigates these publications as archives of first-generation Chinese migrant lifeworlds—texts that predate and challenge dominant Asian American literary narratives.
With support from the Woo Award, Fang will travel to archives in Berkeley, Vancouver, and Los Angeles, accessing microfilm collections and gathering material to write a dissertation chapter and article manuscript. Her work bridges transnational literary history and ethnic studies, tracing connections between Chinese American and Chinese Canadian identities.
Christina Woo’s Enduring Impact
Christina Woo’s lifelong dedication to empowering students and faculty continues through this award. Her gift ensures UCI remains a vibrant space for critical research on race, migration, and identity—especially work that challenges dominant narratives and recovers overlooked voices.
“We grew Asian American Studies from the ground up,” Woo once reflected. With each year, her vision is realized anew through the groundbreaking work of scholars like Guiyangco and Fang.
For more information about the Christina Woo Graduate Research Award, including eligibility and application details, please contact the Department of Asian American Studies at UCI.