The Muslim Scare in Europe: Hysteria or Threat?
2010-05-11 00:00 (America/Denver)
Award-winning author and journalist Ian Buruma will discuss the debates about Muslim radicalism, immigration, and the challenge from religion in several European countries where anti-immigrant populism is on the rise and Islam is the main focus – from the arguments about multiculturalism in Britain to the proposed burqa ban in France. Is the danger posed by Muslim immigrants real? If it is exaggerated, why the general hysteria? Buruma will address these questions and others raised in his new book Taming the Gods, a sharp-eyed look at the tensions between religion and politics on three continents: Europe, Asia and North America.
Buruma is also the author of Anglomania, Inventing Japan, and Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance, which won a Los Angeles Times Book Award. Courtesy of Borders, copies of Taming the Gods will be available for purchase and signing at this event.
“Ian Buruma addresses questions of political philosophy, moral accountability and mass psychology in the most rigorous possible way: journalistically.” The New York Times
Presented as part of the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UCSB, a program of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, cosponsored by UCSB Arts & Lectures, the Department of Religious Studies, Congregation B’nai B’rith, the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, and Santa Barbara Hillel.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
hm 4/25/10

The End of the Public University and the Beginning of the Next
2010-05-12 00:00
History is replete with nations that declined because their leaders gradually undermined their own best institutions. The U.S. now appears to be doing this to its exemplary higher education system, with the University of California serving as Exhibit A. This lecture will look at the contradictions within the American funding model for higher education, and discuss three major symptoms: reduced affordability for students, the loss of US educational preeminence in 20 years, and underdeveloped social and cultural disciplines. It will also suggest two major steps through which the decline of public higher education could be reversed. Professor Newfield has offered an authoritative view of UC Budget issues and the funding shortfall crisis on his blog: http://utotherescue.blogspot.com
Sponsored by the Harry Girvetz Memorial Endowment and the IHC’s Future of the University Series.
hm 5/11/10

The Catholic Church and Social Revolutionaries in Latin America
2010-05-17 00:00
talk in the Tequila Mondays series
hm 4/8/10

Does it Take More Courage to be a Cybernetician Than to be a Gunman?
2010-05-18 00:00
Prof. Medina’s research deals with the adoption of computer technologies in Latin America, especially cybernetics in Allende’s Chile.
From 1971 to 1973 Chilean and British engineers, working under the direction of the pioneering British cybernetician Stafford Beer, built a computer network to help make Chile’s socialist revolution a reality. The team called the system Cybersyn. It is arguably the most ambitious application of cybernetic ideas to date. In this talk Professor Medina will present material from her forthcoming book Cybernetic Socialism, which tells the history of Project Cybersyn. She will argue that this unusual case study broadens our historical understanding of computers, cybernetics, and revolution. She will then discuss how this history has inspired members of the art community and present her own work transforming the Cybersyn story into an installation at ZKM Center for Digital Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Prof. Medina received her Ph.D. in 2005 from the MIT Doctoral Program in the History and Social Studies of Science and Technology and holds degrees in electrical engineering and women’s studies from Princeton University. Medina’s research uses technology as a means to understand historical processes. Her recent work addressed the history of information technologies in Latin America and the role these technologies played in creating new forms of governance and the advancement of state ideological projects.
Sponsored by the Department of Media, Arts and Technology and the Arts Research Initiative.
hm 5/13/10

4 Argentina
2010-05-19 00:00
Presentations by Suzanne Levine, Seth Wulsin, Damian Nemirovsky and Kacey Link.
hm 5/19/10

Revisioning an Ancient Synagogue: New Light from the UT Excavations at Ostia
2010-05-20 00:00
Sponsored by the Ancient Borderlands Research Focus Group and the Archaeology Research Focus Group.
jwil 12.v.2010

Evaluating Agricultural Strategies in Ancient Anatolia
2010-05-21 00:00
“Risk, sustainability, and decision making: evaluating agricultural strategies in ancient Anatolia”
Identifying how ancient societies made decisions regarding agricultural land use is important for understanding why some pre-industrial agricultural systems flourished and others collapsed. Local environmental and cultural factors influence how people balance goals of short-term profitability and long-term sustainability in agricultural decision making. The ancient city of Gordion, in central Turkey, offers rich paleoethnobotanical, zooarchaeological, and phytogeographic evidence for coincident changes in landscape and agricultural practices over a period of 2500 years. Marston argues that climate change and shifts in political and economic networks led inhabitants of Gordion to utilize different land-use strategies over time, which had broad implications for the long-term sustainability of agriculture in the region.
John Marston is a PhD candidate at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA.
jwil 12.v.2010

History Department Senior Honors Colloquium
2010-05-21 00:00
Participants in the 2009-2010 History Senior Honors Colloquium, directed by Professor Hilary Bernstein, will present their research. Each student’s presentation will be followed by a faculty comment. Refreshments will be served.
Session I (9-10:30 a.m): Literature and Politics in Italy and America
Christy Mason, “Valuing Virtue: Nineteenth-Century Sexuality and the Act of Seduction, 1818-1860” (Cohen)
Comment: Professor Randy Bergstrom
Eleanor Dickson, “Uncivilized and Idealized: Depictions of the Southern Italian Peasant in the Fascist Period” (Fogu and Rappaport)
Comment: Professor Harold Marcuse
Philomen Leonelli, “Petrarchan Humor: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Irony” (Lansing)
Comment: Dr. Edward English
Break for Mid-Morning Refreshments (10:30-11 a.m.)
Session II (11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.): War, Diplomacy, and Their Effects
Joshua Madison, “Perspectives on James II and the Emergence of Jacobitism in Ireland” (McGee)
Comment: Professor Stefania Tutino
Rheannon Maxwell, “A House of Cards: U.S. State Department Policy in Nicaragua, 1909-1928” (Dutra)
Comment: Professor Salim Yaqub
Andrew Alvarado, “‘The Best Little Army In Asia:’ KMAG, the ROK Army, and the Failure of American Policy in Korea” (Talbott)
Comment: Professor Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
Session III (1:30-3:30 p.m.): U.S. Politics: Domestic and Foreign Influences
Mackenzie Weinger, “Have You Any News? How America’s First Embedded Journalists Envisioned the United States, 1846-1848” (Cohen)
Comment: Professor John Majewski
Mitchell Stewart, “Black Radicalism, the Communist Party, and the Struggle to Liberate Haiti from American Imperialism, 1918-1930” (Yaqub)
Comment: Professor Douglas Daniels
Catherine Kwon, “‘Seeds of the Contemporary New Right:’ California Young Americans for Freedom, 1964-1980” (Kalman)
Comment: Professor Nelson Lichtenstein
Shauna Woods, “Henry Spira and the SHAC 7: Comparing Animal Rights Activism in 1976 and 2006” (Kalman)
Comment: Professor Peter Alagona
jwil 12.v.2010

The Old Tibetan Chronicle and the Origins of Tibetan Narrative History
2010-05-21 00:00
A manuscript of the Old Tibetan Chronicle found in the cave library ofDunhuang represents one of the earliest attempts at Tibetan narrative
history. The author-compilers draw on Tibetan inscriptions, Indian epics,
Chinese histories, Tibetan ritual literature, and a legacy of composition
in performance and song to create a narrative of Tibet’s imperial period
(c.600-866). This talk will explore the sources for the Old Tibetan
Chronicle and consider its legacy in later Tibetan traditions.
sponsored by the UCSB Religious Studies and History Departments
hm 5/4/10

Friends of Ancient History Spring Conference
2010-05-22 00:00
The Friends of Ancient History, a professional organization of southern California archaeologists, classicists, and historians, will hold its spring 2010 conference at UCSB on Saturday, May 22.
The conference will feature the following talks:
Larry Tritle (Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles), “The Hoplite Agony: A Soldier’s View” with response by Kurt Raaflaub (Brown University)
Paul Salay (UCLA), “The More Things Change: Economics in the Age of Homer” with response by Brian Rutishauser (Fresno City College).
A catered lunch will be served, at a cost of approximately $20. Advance reservations are required for lunch. The conference itself is free and open to all.
For more information or to request a reservation form, please contact Professor David Hood.
jwil 04.iii.2010

Public History Seminar Presentations
2010-05-24 00:00
Presentations will take place on Monday, May 24, during our scheduled class period, 2-4:50, in Girvetz 1106.
2:00-2:10 Introductions
2:10-2:40
Panel One – El Presidio de Santa Barbara
Anjelica Gonzalez, Education Dept (Supervisor: Ms. Karen Anderson)
Torrey Ah-Tye, Marketing and Public Relations Dept (Supervisor: Mr. Jared Brach)
Samantha Rohman, Marketing and Public Relations Dept (Supervisor: Mr. Jared Brach)
2:40-3:10
Panel Two – South Coast Railroad Museum
Jesus Rios (Supervisor, Dr. Gary Coombs)
Amanda Gonzalez (Supervisor: Dr. Gary Coombs)
Sunni Pyron (Supervisor: Dr. Gary Coombs)
3:10-3:30
Panel Three – Santa Barbara Mission Archive Library
Christine Gonzalez (Supervisor: Dr. Monica Orozco)
Samantha Behrendt (Supervisor: Dr. Monica Orozco)
3:30-3:40 BREAK
3:40-4:00
Panel Four– California Landscape History Project, UCSB
Brandt Hill (Supervisor, Dr. Peter Alagona)
Maggie Johnson (Supervisor, Dr. Peter Alagona)
4:00-4:30
Panel Five – Individual Projects
Stephen Thomsen, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (Supervisor: Dr. Jan Timbrook)
Otto Gonzalez, Stow House/La Patera Ranch (Supervisor: Mr. Jim McNay)
Brittany Saake, Citizens Planning Association (Supervisor: Ms. Naomi Kovacs)
4:30-4:40 Question and Answer Period
4:40-4:45 ESCI Class Evaluations
hm 5/18/10

Vietnam's Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War
2010-05-25 00:00
In a talk based on his new book, Vietnam’s Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War, Andrew L. Johns assesses the influence of the Republican Party — its congressional leadership, politicians, grassroots organizations, and the Nixon administration — on the escalation, prosecution, and resolution of the Vietnam War. Dr. Andrew Johns’ research and teaching focuses on the history of U.S. foreign relations, with an emphasis on the Cold War and the nexus of foreign policy and domestic politics.
Andrew Johns is a UCSB alumnus.
Sponsored by the Center for Cold War Studies, International History, the Dept. of History and the IHC.
hm 5/12/10

History Department Awards Ceremony
2010-05-27 00:00
Hello Everyone,
Please join us for the History Associates & the Department of History Awards Ceremony and Reception Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 4 p.m.. We’re coming together to honor the recipients of this year’s History Associates & the Department of History Awards.
hm 5/3/10

End of Spring quarter instruction
2010-06-04 00:00
For detailed academic calendar information, see:
http://www.registrar.ucsb.edu/calinfo.htm.
hm 2/22/10

Department Reception for Graduating Seniors
2010-06-13 00:00
Dear History Majors and their Families,
As you make your plans for graduation day, I would like to extend to you a personal invitation to join the History faculty at our department’s annual reception honoring new graduates and their families. The reception is being held in the History Conference Room in the Humanities and Social Sciences Building, HSSB 4020, from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, just prior to the Commencement Ceremony. The reception site is a four-minute walk to the Faculty Club Green where Commencement is held and immediately adjacent to the Events Center, where your graduate will don academic garb for the ceremony.
The department is delighted to honor both the graduates for their hard academic work and their families who have shouldered the financial burden over the past four years. I hope you can attend the reception so that we can greet you in person. If you cannot attend, please let me extend here our thanks for all that you have done to help your new graduate to reach this major milestone in life.
Cordially,
Prof. John Majewski
Chair of the History Department
Please note that refreshments will be served (in case you haven’t had time for breakfast before), and that this is a good opportunity for you to meet some of your student’s professors.
hm 6/3/10, 6/4

Summer Session A instruction starts
2010-06-21 00:00
See link for details.
hm 5/28/10

Summer Session A instruction ends
2010-07-30 00:00

Summer Session B instruction begins
2010-08-02 00:00

Fall Quarter instruction begins
2010-09-23 00:00

History, Modernity, and Counterfactuals: Walter Benjamin’s ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History'
2010-09-29 00:00
Historical explanation is the explanation of outcomes in terms of causal antecedents. All too often however the causal account becomes indistinguishable from a vindicatory narrative, the tale of outcomes told as a version of winners’ history, especially rampant in ideologies of modernity and modernization. Counterfactual thinking–the sphere of the might-have-been–is, in suitably rigorous and disciplined a form, a check on that kind of triumphalism. Benjamin’s Theses of the Philosophy of History offers one valuable way into that space. There are also potential spin-offs here for the discipline of literary history, especially as a counter to recent attempts to re-think literary history on the model of evolutionary biology.
Sponsored by the UCSB Series in Contemporary Literature, the Dept. of History, the Dept. of German, Slavic and Semitic Studies, the Program in Comparative Literature and the IHC.
hm 9/24/10

The Social Uses of Hot Springs in Mexico
2010-10-04 00:00
This paper presents some initial research and reflections on the social use of hot springs in Mexico and California, and suggests that cultures of water at hot springs offer possibilities of managing water demand that could be useful for dealing with the current water crisis. Walsh discusses the cultural dimensions of the water crisis, and the proposal that the solution must be one of governance. The prevailing ideas about the management of water have moved from increasing supply to include reducing demand. Water demand management usually centers on pricing and cost recovery, although efforts to cultivate sustainable cultures of water have been made, usually through educational programs. Walsh argue that programs to create a: new water culture” should consider one of the most common pleasurable contacts most people have with water: bathing.
Casey Walsh is Associate Professor of Anthropology at UCSB.
hm 9/30/10; jwil 02.x.10

Phi Alpha Theta/UCSB History Club First Meeting
2010-10-04 00:00
Do you love history?
Does thinking about Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon or the Siege of Boston give you goose bumps?
Come check us out!
The club is open to both history and non history majors.
Some of the activities we do are:trivia nights
movie nights
guest speakers
field trips
study sessions
Questions? Email Celina.
hm 9/27/10

A Study of Florida's Earliest Shipwreck
2010-10-05 00:00
Exploring Tristán de Luna’s Lost Galleon
Discovery of a well-preserved early Spanish shipwreck in Pensacola Bay, Florida, has reopened a long forgotten chapter of Latin-American history. Assembled by the Viceroy of New Spain, a fleet of eleven ships under the command of Tristán de Luna embarked from Mexico in 1559 to establish a colony on the shores of La Florida. Aboard the ships were more than 1,500 soldiers, settlers, and servants equipped with livestock, agricultural and construction tools. The colonists disembarked at Pensacola, only to suffer a hurricane that destroyed all but three of the ships anchored in the harbor, some of which had not yet been unloaded. The catastrophe doomed the Luna colony, which was eventually abandoned in 1561.
During a survey of shipwrecks in Pensacola Bay, underwater archaeologists from the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research have discovered the remains one of the larger galleons in Luna’s fleet buried beneath a shallow sandbar. Two campaigns of careful excavation have revealed a surprisingly well-preserved array of colonial artifacts, as well as faunal and botanical specimens, that present a fascinating portrait of Spain’s ill-fated attempt to secure a foothold on the frontier of its American empire. Follow the archaeologists as they explore Florida’s earliest shipwreck.
Roger C. Smith is the State Underwater Archaeologist with the Florida Division of Historical Resources in Tallahassee. He received his doctorate from Texas A&M University, and has taught at Florida State University and the University of West Florida.
Dr. Smith has directed a number of underwater surveys and excavations throughout Florida, and has worked extensively in the Caribbean, Mexico, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Africa. He has published widely in the field of nautical archaeology, and is the author of three books and many professional journal and popular magazine articles.
Dr. Smith’s underwater archaeology team has been active in the establishment of eleven shipwreck preserves throughout Florida. Nominated by local coastal communities, these shipwreck parks are developed through partnerships between public and private organizations to interpret the natural and cultural features of each site. The preserves include a Spanish galleon in the Florida Keys, a sunken steamboat in the Suwannee River, and the battleship USS Massachusetts off Pensacola.
In the 1990s, Dr. Smith’s team located the site of another Spanish galleon during a survey of shipwrecks in Pensacola Bay. The shipwreck—which is the earliest to be discovered in Florida—was one of the larger vessels in the fleet of Tristán de Luna, which sank during a hurricane in 1559. The remains of the ship are well preserved in shallow water under a sand bar. More than 5,000 artifacts and field specimens have been collected from the site; many are on display in a special exhibit in Pensacola’s historic district that recently was visited by the King and Queen of Spain.
This lecture is sponsored by the Santa Barbara Society of the Archaeological Institute of America. A modest reception will follow Dr. Smith’s lecture.
jwil 29.vii.2010, hm 10/3

The Big Blowup: Fire's American Century
2010-10-07 00:00
STEPHEN PYNE is the world’s foremost historian of fire.
A Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University, and the author of twenty books on environmental history and the histories of science and exploration, Pyne is a brilliant and irreverent commentator on the role of fire in societies around the world.
On October 7th, from 3:30-4:45 PM, in Buchanan 1930, he will offer his insights from more than three decades of research and writing on the history, geography, ecology, politics, and culture of wildfire. His talk will begin with the Big Blowup of August 1910, a fire that almost exactly a century ago altered the course of U.S. history.
This lecture is sponsored by the UCSB Department of History’s Center for Science and Society and the UCSB Department of Geography.
jwil 29.ix.2010

Rethink UC: Defend Public Education
2010-10-07 00:00
The historic actions, protests and strikes of last fall and spring showed our state and the nation that students, teachers, staff, and our communities are determined to fight against the cuts, layoffs, fee hikes, and the shrinking access to public education and services. However, our fight is far from over. On October 7th, supporters of public education plan to unite and demand accessible, affordable and quality education for all.
hm 10/1/10

Caesar Chavez, the UFW Boycott, and Why the Union Failed to Realize its Potential
2010-10-08 00:00
Matthew Garcia is Associate Professor of American Civilization, Ethnic Studies and History at Brown University.
Part of the History 294: Colloquium in Work, Labor, and Political Economy, 2010-2011 lecture series.
hm 9/9/10; jwil 14.ix.10

UCSB History Associates 2010-2011 Kickoff Event
2010-10-09 00:00
Say “Lompoc” and most people think of Vandenberg Air Force Base and flower farms, or maybe the prison. But our neighbor to the north has a fascinating history, preserved in its many Victorian houses and murals. We will assemble at the city parking lot at Ocean Ave. and I Street at 10:15 (parking is free), then walk to the nearby Fabing-McKay-Spanne House, a restored Victorian that now houses the Lompoc Historical Society, for a private tour. Lunch follows at Lompoc’s famous Penelope’s tea house, where you will have your choice of an Elegant Afternoon Tea (featuring a starter course, finger sandwiches, a warm scone, lemon curd, jam and English Double Devon Cream, with three sweets), a Ploughman’s Lunch of fresh bread, cheeses, Branston pickle, pickled onion, fruit, tea and dessert, or fresh Quiche, soup or salad, tea and dessert. After lunch, our own Cathy Rudolph will lead us on a walking tour of nearby murals.
For more information or to reserve your spot, call (805) 617-0998.
This event is sponsored by UCSB’s History Associates.
Since 1987, UCSB History Associates has brought together community members and UCSB faculty through an annual program of history-focused lectures, lunches, and tours. The History Associates raise money to support graduate training in History at UCSB. Support from the History Associates makes an essential contribution to the success of our graduate students.
jwil 14.ix.2010

Democracy and Insurgency in Health Care Unionism
2010-10-15 00:00
John Borsos, Vice President, National Union of Health Care Workers, is our guest at the next meeting of the Colloquium on Work, Labor, and Political Economy. Just last week one of the largest union election contests in modern U.S. history culminated in a large Service Employees International Union victory at the Kaiser hospital chain. Nearly 30,000 workers voted, which makes the subject chosen by our speaker, “Democracy and Insurgency in Health Care Unionism,” of particular interest. Borsos, who holds a Ph.D. in labor history from Indiana University, has been a union activist for nearly two decades. He was director of the Hospital Division of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West and president of the Sacramento Labor Council from 2001 to 2009.
Use the link below to read a debate over the future of the labor movement between Borsos, the SEIU’s Stephen Lerner, and other labor experts and activists.
The Colloquium meets on Friday, October 15 at 1 p.m. in 4041 Humanities and Social Science Building. A light lunch will be served.
jmj 10/11/2010

Ancient Northeast Africa and the Indian Ocean Trade
2010-10-18 00:00
The establishment of direct sea contact between the Mediterranean and South Asia in the first century CE is one of the most remarkable developments in ancient history. Scholarship has focused overwhelmingly on the impact of the Indian Ocean trade on the economy of the Roman Empire and its significance for the spread of Greco-Roman influence in India. Professor Burstein considers a different and largely neglected aspect of this history: how the expansion of the Indian Ocean trade in the early centuries CE affected the ancient northeast African states of Kush and Aksum.
Stanley Burstein is Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA. Prof. Burstein is a past president of the Association of Ancient Historians.
Sponsored by the Ancient Borderlands Research Focus Group and the Ancient Mediterranean Studies program.
jwil 06.ix.10

Islam and Politics in Turkey Today
2010-10-20 00:00
This roundtable will address the rapid growth of Islamist political parties, the expanding Turkish economy and the rise of the “Anatolian Tigers,” and new cultural trends in Turkey.
Coffee, tea, and cookies will be served
Sponsored by the Center for Middle east Studies, UCSB
hm 10/19/10
