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Building Successful Regions

Margaret Weir is the author of Politics and Jobs: The Boundaries of Employment Policy in the United States (1992), and The Social Divide (1998). She is now working on a study of metropolitan inequalities in the United States, with a particular focus on the politics of coalition-building in Chicago and Los Angeles. Sponsored by the […]

Aeschylus’ Persians and the Greek-Persian Wars

The Athenian playwright Aeschylus (?525-456 BC), author of more than seventy plays, was also a veteran of the Greek-Persian Wars of 490-479 BC. Aeschylus fought at both the land battle of Marathon (490 BC), and at the naval battle of Salamis (480 BC). His brother Cynegirus was killed at Marathon. The Persians is one of […]

Constructing Sectarianism in the Middle East and South Asia

The CMES 10th Annual Middle East Studies Conference Scholars will present papers offering in-depth analyses of sectarianism in the Middle East and South Asia. The theme of the 10th Annual Middle East Studies Conference is to examine critically the concept and evolution of sectarianism. Special focus is placed on the role played by foreign powers, […]

Massacre at Nueva Linda

The documentary film "Massacre at Nueva Linda" documents the 2004 massacre of a community protesting in Guatemala. Over two hundred families were violently evicted by over 1,000 police and armed military reserves. The film investigate the massacre and the ways in which counterinsurgency methods developed during the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s have […]

Race, Labor and Power: the Career of Jack O’Dell

Professor Singh teaches history at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the author of Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy; When This Time is Named: Jack O'Dell and the Black Freedom Movement, and The Afterlife of Fascism: A Post-World War II History (work in progress). Singh's talk is sponsored by the […]

“The Pill Comes from Mexico?” Wild Yams, Steroids, and the Global Quest for Pharmaceuticals

UCSB History Associates Presents a special event for All-Gaucho Reunion Weekend. Professor Gabriela Soto Laveaga will talk about the wild Mexican yam called barbasco that transformed modern pharmaceuticals, and tell the story of the peasant farmers who learned how to deal with the world's biggest drug companies. In the 1940s, rheumatoid arthritis afflicted more Americans […]

China’s Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games are an historic opportunity for China to show the world it has theconfidence to make progress in ensuring basic human rights for its 1.3 billion citizens. With a few months until the opening ceremonies however, the Chinese government is more worried about political stability, and is tightening its grip on […]

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story

RESCHEDULED to FallIn her latest book, The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, bestselling author Diane Ackerman recounts a true tale--as powerful as Schindler's List--in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw--and the city's zoo along with it. With most of […]

“Sophie Scholl: The Last Days”

Directed by Marc Rothemund, 2005, 120 mins.2005 Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, "Sophie Scholl - The Final Days." is the true story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine brought to thrilling dramatic life. Sophie Scholl stars Julia Jentsch in a luminous performance as the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, […]