Mary Beard, distinguished Classicist and Roman cultural historian, is delivering this fall's Sather Lectures at UC Berkeley. Their topic is “Roman Laughter: What made the Romans laugh?” Was Rome a world of practical jokes, Bakhtinian, carnival and hearty chuckles? Or (for the elite, at least) was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable […]

UCSB History Associates Lecture and Reception Sunday, 2:00 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library Conference Room 2201 Laguna Street Prof. Hämäläinen's homepage Cost: $10.00 for History Associates; $15.00 for non-members Phone 893-4388 to reserve your place. hm 11/6/08

Monday, October 27 / 4:30 PM DATE CHANGE (10/23): rescheduled to November 17McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Mark LeVine: Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam An eighteen-year-old Moroccan who loves Black Sabbath. A twenty-two-year-old rapper from the Gaza Strip. A young Lebanese singer who quotes Bob Marley's "Redemption […]

Marking the 40th anniversary of the Black Student takeover of North Hall, the Department of Black Studies is organizing a conference entitled, 1968: A Global Year of Student Driven Change, to take place, November 20-22, 2008. While recognizing the courage and insight of the 1968 student awakening, this conference places that Black activism in a […]

“A Medieval Source for Renaissance Philosophy: Valla’s Metaphysics and the Logic of Peter of Spain.”Brian P. Copenhaver, Director, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA “The Transition from Medieval to Renaissance Philosophy: Lorenzo Valla.” Lodi Nauta, Professor in Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, University of Groningen For copies of the readings to be discussed in this […]

See the 11/20 event link for more information, or go directly to the program.

The Center for Cold War Studies and International History (CCWS) will hold the first workshop event of the 2008-2009 academic year. Professor Nelson Lichtenstein of the Department of History will join us to discuss his original essay, “Did 1968 Change History?”, a reflection on the political and cultural legacy of that momentous year, from both […]

Wuzhaishan, a second-century family cemetery site in Shandong Province, was the first site in China to be excavated by amateur antiquarian archaeologists in 1786, a few decades after similar excavations began at Pompeii. Excavations continued in the twentieth century by European, Japanese, and Chinese archaeologists. My approach has been to analyze finds from these excavations […]

Good luck with your final exams! hm 11/26

Classes start Monday, January 5. You can check the dept's course listings for any changes in room or schedule information, and for possible links to syllabi. The link below leads to a full calendar with all Winter 2009 dates and deadlines. hm 12/20/08