From the Desk of Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu
Get to Know Dean Celine
Celine Parreñas Shimizu is Dean of Theater, Film and Television and Distinguished Professor of Film, Television and Digital Media at UCLA. A premier scholar of race and sexuality in representation, her books include The Movies of Racial Childhoods (Duke, 2024), which won the top prize in Media, Performance, and Visual Studies from the Association for Asian American Studies in 2026; The Proximity of Other Skins (Oxford, 2020); Straitjacket Sexualities (Stanford, 2012); and The Hypersexuality of Race (2007), winner of Best Book in Cultural Studies from the Association for Asian American Studies, which also awarded her the 2022 Excellence in Mentorship Award. Her peer-reviewed articles appear in top journals in cinema, performance, ethnic, feminist, sexuality studies, and transnational popular culture. Her writings are translated to French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Distributed by Women Make Movies, her films The Celine Archive (2020) and 80 Years Later: On Japanese American Racial Inheritance (2022) each won several festival awards. Her latest So To Speak (2025) is on the festival circuit. She received her Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University (which inducted her into its Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame in 2023), her M.F.A. in Film Directing and Production from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and her B.A. in Ethnic Studies from U.C. Berkeley.
TFT: Your Voice. Our Story.
Communication from Dean Celine
-
AI + Live Arts Summit Explores Whether Live Performance Is the Antidote to the AI Age
At UCLA TFT’s AI + Live Arts Summit, Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu challenges artists, technologists, and scholars to rethink AI not simply as a tool, but as a relational force already reshaping creativity, authorship, and civic life. The summit positions live arts as a necessary space of human presence, participation, and mutual risk in an era increasingly defined by artificial intelligence. Framed against political instability, attacks on higher education, and the erosion of public trust, the gathering asks what kinds of stories and what kinds of communities must now be built together. | May 8, 2026 -
Dean Celine Takes the Stage for the Inaugural Westwood Night Live
In a spirited opening monologue for UCLA’s first-ever Westwood Night Live, Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu embraces the chaos, vulnerability, and collective joy of student-led comedy as an act of trust and creative rebellion. Blending humor with reflections on democracy, live performance, and the role of students in shaping UCLA’s future, the evening positions laughter not as escape, but as resistance in a moment of cultural and political strain. What begins as a playful riff on hosting quickly becomes a celebration of students’ fearless imagination—and the power of showing up fully for one another. | April 24, 2026 -
Dean Celine Welcomes Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. for a Conversation on Storytelling, Sovereignty, and Cultural Preservation
In welcoming Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. to UCLA TFT, Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu frames the Cherokee Nation’s investment in language, media, and education as a powerful act of self-determination. Connecting the Nation’s work to TFT’s own legacy of the L.A. Rebellion, the remarks position storytelling not as entertainment alone, but as a vital force for sustaining dignity, sovereignty, and collective memory across generations. As conversations around authorship, representation, and cultural survival intensify nationwide, the visit affirms the essential role of Indigenous storytelling in shaping the future. | April 24, 2026 -
Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: a Roadmap for the Future of Cinema and Democracy
In opening remarks for For a More Perfect Rebellion, Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu confronts the institutional forgetting surrounding the LA Rebellion and the radical multiracial coalition that transformed American independent cinema from within UCLA TFT. Framing Josslyn Luckett’s work as both scholarship and a call to action, the speech argues that storytelling, archives, and authorship are inseparable from questions of democracy, race, and cultural power. The evening positions the LA Rebellion not as history alone, but as an urgent blueprint for collective resistance, artistic sovereignty, and the future of cinematic storytelling. | April 21, 2026 -
Reclaiming the L.A. Rebellion: Cinema, Memory, and the Fight to Speak
In opening remarks at UCLA, Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu frames the L.A. Rebellion as a multiracial and important film movement whose history has been suppressed—and whose legacy feels newly vital in 2026. As inclusion efforts erode and questions of authorship intensify, the evening challenges filmmakers to consider what it takes not just to resist, but to remake the conditions of cinema itself. | April 10, 2026 -
Dean Celine Welcomes “Viewers Like Us” to Carry the LA Rebellion’s Legacy Into a New Fight for Storytelling
In a powerful homecoming, Grace Lee and Joaquin Alvarado’s working session calls on a new generation to protect community-driven media as public broadcasting faces dismantling. Framing their work as a continuation of the LA Rebellion, the speech positions storytelling as both resistance and responsibility in a moment of cultural urgency. | March 19, 2026 -
Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu Opening Remarks for Third Act Screening on February 27, 2026 at UCLA TFT
In her opening remarks, Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu honors Bob Nakamura’s pioneering legacy in Asian American cinema and celebrates THIRD ACT as both a homecoming and a powerful act of love and community by his son, Tad Nakamura. | February 27, 2026 -
Independence, Innovation, Impact: AI and the Future of Storytelling at UCLA TFT
The speech captures the urgency, complexity, and hope around AI in creative fields while staying grounded in UCLA TFT’s values and history. | January 30, 2026 -
Welcome to the Whitney Family Studio Theater
This speech celebrates the opening of a new creative home made possible by the Whitney Family’s generosity—honoring the school’s legacy, affirming the theater as a birthplace for student voices and imagination, and welcoming a future filled with bold storytelling and artistic possibility. | January 5, 2026 -
The Abject of Asian American Studies
This speech argues that knowledge and creativity emerging from abjected positions—especially through ethnic studies, film, and theater—are essential tools of resistance, representation, and democratic possibility. | October 20, 2025 -
We need all the stories we can get in all the voices we can muster.
At her convocation, Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu lays out a personal and urgent vision—rooted in scholarly values and a belief that storytelling is a democratic practice—to protect and strengthen UCLA TFT by centering inclusive representation, student empowerment, concrete initiatives, and institutional resilience so film and theater can drive cultural change. | September 25, 2025 -
Your Voice. Our Story. Welcome to TFT!
This speech welcomes new UCLA TFT students by affirming that storytelling is embodied, collaborative, and powerful, urging them to find their voices, support one another, and build a shared community where individual perspectives become a collective story. | September 22, 2025 -
Imma Be Me, So You Can Be You or “I Don’t Want Crumbs”
In this speech, Dean Celine argues that intimate, embodied storytelling—rooted in grief, visibility, and self-assertion—transforms personal experience into collective power that builds connection, resilience, and empathy in the face of silencing and inequality. | September 16, 2025 -
From Alumna to Dean: Coming Home to UCLA TFT
This speech reflects on Dean Celine’s journey from student to dean to call UCLA TFT alumni to come home to one another, strengthening community and collective power to support film and theater in a changing world. | July 17, 2025 -
Heavy is the Head Wearing the Big Hat
On her first day as dean, Celine Parreñas Shimizu outlines a values-driven, collaborative leadership vision that uses empathy, transparency, and institutional power to protect film, theater, and diversity while empowering staff and students to create meaningful change together. | July 1, 2025
