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Declarations of Dependence: Labor, Personhood, and Welfare in South Africa and Beyond

JAMES FERGUSON is Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Stanford University South Africa has in recent decades gone through a wrenching transformation from a labor-scarce society to a labor-surplus one. Labor scarcity through most of the 19th and 20th centuries led to forms of social solidarity and social personhood that had significant continuities with the […]

Edward Teller the Communist? American Scientists and the National Security State during the Cold War (4PM in McCune Room; 6th Floor HSSB)

The recent release of the FBI files on Edward Teller has revealed the bureau's suspicion and investigation of the "father" of the American hydrogen bomb as a possible communist. Almost certainly the result of a mistaken identity, the FBI's case on Teller, one of the most outspoken anti-communist Hungarian-American scientists, nevertheless sheds lights on the […]

Alone, Unattended and Unexplained: American Lenses and Mexican Subjects in the Borderlands, 1930-1945

This presentation discusses the ambivalent attitudes of U.S. photographers regarding Mexican/Chicano subjects in the 1930-40s Borderlands. It analyzes the ways in which meaning was constructed in the visual representations of Mexican Nationals and Mexican American subjects in the United States, while incorporating the historical context of public policies regarding the presence of worker of Mexican […]

The Stones of Famagusta: The Story of a Forgotten City

The Mediterranean Research Focus Group of the IHC and the Medieval Studies Program present “The Stones of Famagusta: The Story of a Forgotten City” followed by a discussion with the director, writer, and presenter Allan Langdale of UC Santa Cruz. The film and discussion will be from 4-6pm in HSSB 6020. In the film art […]

Ancient Map, Modern State: Toward a Geo-History of the Meiji Restoration

The continuing career of Shinano Province as present-day Nagano Prefecture suggests that the reformers of the Meiji era (1868-1912) recruited classical geography to the cause of administrative reform. Under the guise of new toponyms, nineteenth-century oligarchs effectively reinscribed an ancient set of imperial boundaries on the landscape of modern Japan. This classicizing strategy was not […]

The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood

Professor Ursula Mahlendorf, Professor Emerita of the Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies and a founder of the Feminist Studies Department at UCSB, will offer a reading from her memoir published this spring about her childhood in Silesia and her early adolescent membership in the Hitler Youth. Publisher's Weekly calls it "An eye-opening, honest […]

The global history of wax prints and its implications on female dress in urban South Ghana

The Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies presents "The global history of wax prints and its implications on female dress in urban South Ghana" Silvia Ruschak Global History Working Group University of Vienna WHEN: Thursday, June 4, 2009 -- 12:00 WHERE: Orfalea Center seminar Room, 1005 Robertson Gym This presentation will focus on the […]

Department BBQ

It's that time again! The end of the year history department BBQ is Friday, June 5, from 4-6 pm at Stow Grove Park, 580 La Patera Lane, Goleta. We will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, buns, and non-alcoholic beverages. There is a sign-up sheet on the mail room door. It would be great if […]

The Curious Encounter of Telstar and STARFISH PRIME, July 1962

This talk is based on Schwoch's book Global TV: New Media and The Cold War which examines the relationship of global television, diplomacy, and new electronic communications media. Beginning with the Allied occupation of Germany in 1946 and ending with the 1969 Apollo moon landing, this book explores major developments in global media, including the […]