J. Sears McGee, Vice President (read bio)
Sears McGee joined the UCSB History Department in 1971 and has served twice as department chair (1900-95, 2006-07). He joined the History Associates Board a few years after this organization was established and has served as its president and (currently) its vice-president. He has given two talks at History Associates events (“Henry VIII: Hero or Monster,” and “Queen Elizabeth I Goes to the Movies”). His research concerns early modern Britain (especially religion and politics in England from the 1590s through the civil wars of the 1640s), and his courses deal with early modern Britain and, more widely, early modern Europe from the High Middle Ages to the French Revolution. He won the Academic Senate’s teaching prize for the social sciences in 1989, and he co-directed a program of professional development for K-12 teachers in our region from 1997-2005. His wife Marni writes books for children (see marnimcgee.com), and they have two children and three grandchildren.