Department of History

Survey of the peoples, cultures, and social, economic, and political systems that have characterized the world’s major civilizations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania from prehistory to 1000 CE.  

Survey of the peoples, cultures, and social, economic, and political systems that have characterized the world’s major civilizations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania from 1700 to present.  

Survey of the history of Europe in the Medieval and Early Modern periods, 800-1700. Discusses the major social, political, religious, and cultural characteristics and developments of the period, as well as key interactions between Europe and other parts of the world. Weekly discussion sections are an important feature of this course, enabling students to develop and expand upon material presented during the lecture hour.  

Broad exploration of great issues in the history of public policy from ancient times to present, to understand basic ways in which societies make their major decisions, the shared dynamics in the process, and how varied settings affect it.  

Through studying a particular topic in history, students gain insight into historical methods and skills. Course designed for freshmen and sophomore history majors or prospective majors. Others may enroll by permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.  

Fall 2021 – This course will look at various ways to interpret the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, including through archaeology, inscriptions, and art history, as well as his later interpretation by poets, playwrights, Afrocentrists, Biblical scholars, and queer theorists.

Through studying a particular topic in history, students gain insight into historical methods and skills. Course designed for freshmen and sophomore history majors or prospective majors. Others may enroll by permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.  

Through studying a particular topic in history, students gain insight into historical methods and skills. Course designed for freshmen and sophomore history majors or prospective majors. Others may enroll by permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.  

Colonial through Jacksonian era. A survey of the leading issues in Americanlife from colonial times to the present. The course focuses on politics, cultural development, social conflict, economic life, foreign policy, and influential ideas. Features discussion sections.  

Gandhi: revolutionary, politician, thinker. And saint? Studies the ideas and acts of the man credited with liberating India from colonial rule through nonviolent resistance. Controversial throughout his life, Gandhi continues to be fought over in India today. Emphases include: his religious persona; his intellectual contexts, both Indian and Western; nonviolence in theory and practice; Gandhi’s legacy to social justice movements in this country; and criticism from different angles. There will be movies.  

A general introduction to the history, politics, culture, and social life of the modern Middle East. Begins with the nineteenth century Ottoman reforms known as the Tanzimat and moves on to cover capitalist consolidation, the rise of European colonialism, the state-building process, social movements, Cold War politics, and the growth of the oil industry. Pays particular attention to how twentieth century transformations shaped new modes of identification including nationalism and citizenship, feminism, sectarianism, pan-Arabism, Third Worldism, Islamism.  

Prehistory to c. 1800. History 49-A- B-C is a general survey course designed to introduce students to major themes in African history. The course focuses on organization of production, state formation, African civilizations and identities, science and technology, beliefs and knowledge systems, Africa’s interaction with the world economy, such as through enslavement and slave trades. Weekly discussion sections are an important feature of this course, enabling students to develop and expand upon material presented during lecture.  

Historical and interdisciplinary perspectives on poverty and inequality globally and in the U.S., tracing structural transformations, shifting modes of thought, policy, and action, dynamics of class, racial, gender, ethnic and geographic stratification, and major theoretical debates from antiquity through the present. Course features guest lectures to introduce students to varied conceptual and methodological approaches to studying poverty and inequality, and draws on readings, discussion, writing, and related assignments to explore issues within a social justice framework. 

Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials. Topics addressed: defining a research problem, identifying an original topic, conducting research, citing sources, and presenting results. Intensive writing required.  

Explores medieval European politics and culture through a look at notorious scandals: Pope Joan, Heloise and Abelard, the persecution of the Templars, and the Fourth Crusade.  

Assesses the more than seven centuries of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish coexistence (convivencia) in the Iberian peninsula, examine intercultural and interfaith relations from the time of the Visigoths (fifth century) to the expulsion of the Moriscos (Muslim converts to Christianity) in 1609.  

Examines the varying judicial systems of early modern Europe and looks at how crime and criminals were defined and treated in a social, religious, and political context. Topics will also include beggars, violence, heretics, and witches.  

The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation in Europe. Through a close analysis of selected primary sources, students will gain a deeper knowledge of the theological, political and cultural impact of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in a transnational perspective. 

Research seminar in the history of Europe from 1815 to the present. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper. Topics addressed: defining a research problem, identifying on original topic, conducting research, citing sources, and presenting results. Intensive writing required. 

The French Revolution was a globally significant historical event. The ideas of liberty and equality articulated through the storming of the Bastille and Declaration of the Rights of Man were radical and volatile, and the Revolution engendered modern notions of republicanism, democracy and citizenship. This was also, however, a period of war, violence and terror, which incited conflicts and upheaval across the world. We will explore the multiple meanings of the French Revolution, and its enduring global ramifications and legacies.  

The U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on the nation’s most significant social questions ranging from segregation to same-sex marriage and women’s work. Designed to put these and other decisions in proper context, this course covers U.S. legal history from the founding period to the present, with special attention to the evolution of legal conceptions of property, race and gender, civil rights, and criminal justice. Students must read critically and make arguments based on evidence.  

Through a critical engagement with colonialism, nationalism, and modernity this course explores the social, economic, political, and cultural histories of the Middle East from 1750 to the present.  

Social history of women in America from 1800 to 1900. Changing marriage, reproduction and work patterns, and cultural values about the female role. Attention to racial, class and ethnic differences. Analysis of feminist thought and the several women’s movements.  

Analyzes antislavery movements in U.S. from the Revolution to the present, with special focus on the enslaved, Black abolitionists, and transatlantic reformers.  

Research seminar in the history of U.S. antislavery movements from the Revolution to the present. Explores political, social, and cultural approaches.  

A survey of the origins and formation of the American working class from the colonial period to the late nineteenth century. Topics include workers and community, the coming of the industrial order, the 1877 labor strike, and workers and the trade union movement.  

The history of the Chicanos from the indigenous/colonial past to 1900. Explores the evolving history of Mexican descent people during the Pre-Columbian, Spanish, Mexican, and the U.S. periods.

A study of dominant and alternative representations of American values and identity in high and popular culture.  

A research seminar that explores the role of alcohol and other drugs in everyday life; why different societies have regulated certain drugs more stringently than others; and how contested moralities have shaped conflict over drug regulation and enforcement. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.  

China has always been multiethnic. The nomenclature “Chinese” is a collective designation of multiple peoples who have resided in and contributed to the makeup of the “Middle Kingdom” (Chinese name for China). This class offers an introduction to China’s minority populations from the classical times through 1600s.  

A survey of Japanese social and cultural history from the mid-sixteenth century to the nineteenth century. 

Analyzes the Caribbean as a site of encounters between Native Americans, Europeans and Africans in the early modern Atlantic world. Key themes include indigenous societies; imperialism and settler colonialism; capitalism, piracy and smuggling; voluntary and forced migration; plantation societies, slavery and slave resistance; cross-cultural exchanges and creolization; revolution and abolition. 

Students taking part in departmental honors program will write a senior thesis on a research topic of suitable depth under close supervision of faculty mentors.

Through this year-long internship, students work under faculty direction to produce an issue of the UCSB History Department’s Undergraduate Journal. Students meet every two weeks and gain practical experience in scholarly publishing disseminating calls for papers, soliciting undergraduate contributions, locating peer reviewers, facilitating revisions with authors, and bibliographic and copywriting work. They also gain a working knowledge of the UCSB Library’s online publication platform, which will host the journal. Students utilize various digital humanities tools – podcasts, social media, and websites – to promote the undergraduate research being published in Journal as well as host an annual showcase of scholars’ work.  

A reading course in a general area of history, specifically designed to prepare M.A. candidates for their comprehensive examination fields, but also appropriate for Ph.D. students seeking broad preparation. Introduction to the sources, historiography, and general literature of the field in question.  

A reading course in a field of Chinese History, 2000 BCE-220 CE. Introduces the student to the sources and literature of the field in question. Written work as prescribed by the instructor.  

This graduate level readings seminar provides a survey of key works in the history of science. Introduces the student to the sources and literature of the field. Written work as prescribed by the instructor.  

A general introduction to selected historiographical issues and historical methods.  

As a group reading course over two quarters, the themes of the course involve reflecting on how your present or possible work or research fits into the historical study of the Middle Ages, the field of Medieval Studies, and history in general. It incorporates and welcomes other time periods and places. This widely encompassing course will help you in positioning your research and writing. In consultation with your advisor and the instructor, students will select their topics for the course – what you are presently doing for a dissertation or to start to formulate a possible dissertation topic. We will moreover be compiling individual bibliographies, discussing everyone’s sources, reflecting on possible theoretical aspects of your work, and doing translations in common as well as we can. We will read theoretical articles together that are to be suggested by the students. We will do a close reading of the texts brought forward by the individual student. Our work will be about your various research projects!  The instructor understands that the students will be at various levels of experience and stages of personal research. Among the specific themes we will emphasize are: Medieval World History, medievalism and ideology, how your research might be perceived by the modern world over time. We will also study in some detail  the influence of nationalism, racism, and colonialism on history study and our concepts. We will look at the state and role of the digital humanities for our projects.

This is a two-quarter (Fall and Spring) graduate seminar in histories of any part of the continent covering the 19-20th centuries. The seminar will help students to focus their attention on closely reading and utilizing primary sources for a clearly-defined output, e.g., a dissertation chapter or a journal article. In the Fall Quarter, students will be invited to present a thesis idea (one page), a set of primary archives that they are reading, plus one or two crucial books with which they are thinking. We will all read said crucial books and help each other with our ideas. In the Winter Quarter, students will continue to work on their own research and writing under a History 596. We will then reconvene in Spring to continue writing and reading each other’s draft papers and consider publication outlets. Fall quarter work is worth 2 units, and the Winter History 596 another 2 units. And Spring Quarter 4 units. We will also invite a few outside scholars to help enrich a few of the meetings.

Part two of a two-quarter special seminar on a given topic. Students will produce a chapter-length paper or publishable article

First part of two-quarter research seminar in the history of science and technology. Students will take both quarters and write an original research paper. Course is required for students having History of Science as their primary field. Topics will vary but be negotiated by students and instructor(s)

This year-long workshop is designed for Graduate Students seeking to add to their knowledge of women, gender, and sexuality in the past. Students will engage with current literature and contemporary debates from a comparative perspective, and the content will be historical and pedagogical in nature. Chronologically this workshop spans the medieval period to the present day.

Participants will meet on alternating weeks, with preparation ranging from reading for seminars to public presentations of ongoing research to hosting visiting and UCSB scholars. The workshop culminates with the annual Gender and Sexualities Graduate Student Colloquium in June. Select spaces have been set aside for senior History Undergraduates and those completing their LGBTQ Studies Minor in Feminist Studies. Those interested should contact Professor Jarett Henderson at jhenderson@history.ucsb.edu.

Writing/reading workshop, professionalization seminar, and guest lecture series for graduate students working in area of history of science/technology. Meets monthly throughout the academic year. 

A year-long professional colloquium on major topics and new work in Public History. Leading practitioners share theory and practice of the discipline in talks, workshops and occasional field visits. Relevant reading and writing assigned. Meets three to four times per quarter.