East Berlin, 1961: shortly after the Berlin Wall goes up, four friends make a daring escape while one remains behind. For the next 28 years (until 1989) they try to meet ... Directed by Margarethe von Trotta, 115 mins. hm 10/27/09
The intersection between religion and science and Galileo's scientific and intellectual legacies will be the subject of "Galileo, the Universe, and God," an interdisciplinary event organized by a group of UC Santa Barbara science and humanities faculty that will take place on Thursday, November 12, at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The event, […]
On October 13, 2007, thirteen of Professor R. Stephen Humphreys' former graduate students at the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of California, Santa Barbara delivered papers at a Festschrift conference in his honor at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. The papers from the conference have […]
In viewing objects like those found at Mawangdui, their anonymous creators generally remain in obscurity. This lecture focuses on these oft forgotten individuals, the men and women who crafted objects in private workshops and government factories during the Han Dynasty of China (202 BCE-220 CE). Among the topics to be discussed are artisan training, societal […]
This talk explores the history of cooperative wineries in Chile, from their foundation in 1929 to the beginning of the process of AgrarianReform in 1964. While the Chilean state envisioned rural cooperatives as a mechanism to modernize the countryside and help impoverished small landowners, the project’s implementation had major flaws. The cooperative project did not […]
"Colossus: The Forbin Project" At the height of the Cold War, the United States develops an enormous computer system in a top secret underground facility. The machine's single purpose is to keep America (and the planet) safe from nuclear war. The country's entire arsenal is placed at its disposal. As soon as the machine, known […]
East Germany, 1989: While a young man goes to the Oct. 3 40th anniversary ceremonies to protest, his mother suffers a heart attack and falls into coma as she watches the police arrest him. The mother awakens months later, when East Germany no longer exists. To avoid unduly exciting her, her son tries to set […]
Mark Hendrickson’s research focuses on labor, public policy, capitalism and political economy in early twentieth century U.S. History. He has held fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, Aspen Institute, and the Institute for Labor and Employment Studies. He took his PhD in History at UCSB in 2004. This talk is sponsored by the Center […]
That amphetamine was used on all sides in the Second World War is widely acknowledged but little discussed by historians. Drawing on a range of primary sources Professor Rasmussen describes the ways British and American authorities evaluated amphetamine, and ultimately approved and issued the drug for use in combat despite a failure to obtain the […]
No archaeological discoveries have provided more striking examples that demonstrate the excellence of early Chinese pictorial art than those at Mawangdui, dated to the second century B.C.E. However, scholars have exclusively focused on the famous T-banner from Tomb No. 1, ignoring the pictorial context in which it was situated. To amend the imbalanced scholarship, Professor […]