The Center for Humanities Innovation and Social Engagement (CHISE) advances equity and justice by transforming how we understand and respond to the intertwined challenges of environmental health, Indigenous wellbeing, and reproductive justice. Through interdisciplinary and international collaboration, we bridge the humanities, social sciences, medicine, and community-based knowledge to generate research that is ethically grounded, critically engaged, and socially transformative. Founded in 2016 by ecologist and Professor Lin YihRen, CHISE was later directed by legal scholar and Professor Jeffrey Lee and since 2025 has been under anthropologist Dana E. Powell’s leadership. Powell is Associate Professor in the Graduate Institute of Medical Humanities. (link to full bio for Powell)
Our work at the Center brings together expertise in bioethics, Indigenous Studies, feminist healthcare, and rural environmental justice to address the intersecting impacts of climate, development, and health. We champion critical, qualitative, and collaborative research that elevates diverse ways of knowing, strengthens partnerships across communities and disciplines, and informs more just policies and practices. We are fortunate to be located at Taipei Medical University, allowing for innovative partnerships among social scientists, humanists, and physicians.
CHISE participates in CHCI’s subgroup in Medical Humanities, led by scholars at Colombia University, New York.
CHISE partners with the David Lam Center for Asian Studies, Simon Fraser University
CHISE collaborates with faculty and graduate students in the EcoGovLab at UC-Irvine
CHISE was incubated in the Eastern NC Environmental Justice Co-Lab, a north star for reinventing community-university partnerships for EJ research and action.
