Department of History, UC Santa Barbara

Senior Honors Research Colloquium
2017-05-19 09:00 - 16:45 (America/Los_Angeles) | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Please join us for the annual Senior Honors Research Colloquium hosted by the Department of History. Twelve senior honors students will present their research, followed by comments from faculty respondents. Refreshments will be served, beginning at 8:45 a.m.

Leilah Danielson, History, Northern Arizona University, “Workers’ Education in the 1930s and Beyond”
2017-05-19 13:00 - 15:00 | HSSB 4041, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Danielson is the author of American Gandhi: A.J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the 20th Century (2014). Visit http://www.history.ucsb.edu/labor/home for more details on her talk.

The Politics of Rights and The 1911 Revolution in China, a talk by Xiaowei Zheng
2017-05-19 15:00 - 16:30 | HSSB 3001E, 3001E Humanities and Social Sciences Building, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
The Workshop Theoretical Perspectives on War, Political Violence, Nationalism, and the State (His 291) is pleased to present Xiaowei Zheng, Associate Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at UCSB, who will speak about her forthcoming book with Stanford University Press, The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China. The appointment is Friday May 19th from 3:00 to 4:30 pm, in HSSB 3001E.
Professor Zheng’s presentation will focus on her books’ introduction and conclusions, which can downloaded from the following links: Zheng Introduction_coded_ED Feb 3 2017, Zheng Conclusion_coded_ED Feb 3 2017
China’s 1911 Revolution was a momentous political transformation. Its leaders, however, were not rebellious troublemakers on the periphery of imperial order. On the contrary, they were a powerful political and economic elite deeply entrenched in local society and well-respected both for their imperially sanctioned cultural credentials and for their mastery of new ideas. The revolution they spearheaded produced a new, democratic political culture that enshrined national sovereignty, constitutionalism, and the rights of the people as indisputable principles. Based upon previously untapped Qing and Republican sources, The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China is a nuanced and colorful chronicle of the revolution as it occurred in local and regional areas. Xiaowei Zheng explores the ideas that motivated the revolution, the popularization of those ideas, and their animating impact on the Chinese people at large. The focus of the book is not on the success or failure of the revolution, but rather on the transformative effect that revolution has on people and what they learn from it.
For questions about this event please contact Prof. Cecilia Méndez at mendez@history.ucsb.edu.

A Woman’s Drink? Gender & the Global History of the Tea Shop
2017-05-20 14:00 - 15:00 | Karpeles Manuscript Library, 21 West Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
In this talk, Professor Erika Rappaport of the UCSB History Department explores how tea shops emerged in the 18th century and came to be defined as “women’s spaces” in 19th century and early 20th century Europe and North America — but as “male spaces” in parts of Africa and South Asia. These institutions helped build mass markets but also shaped the “gendered” meanings surrounding selling and drinking tea.
Original manuscripts will be on display.

Face 2 Face: Egodocuments and Microhistory - An adventure in historical thinking
2017-05-22 12:00 - 13:00 | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Dr. Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson, Professor of Cultural History at the University of Iceland and a Visiting Scholar all this year in the UCSB History Department, will give a talk May 22, at noon in HSSB 4020.
Dr. Magnusson brings us an expert’s interpretation of two major aspects of current European historical writing: life writing and microhistory. He will discuss the significance of the concept of gender for historical analysis, particularly on the basis of the importance of different types of egodocu-ments for the self-expression of the sexes. He will evaluate the status of the autobiography as a historical source, with some consideration of other types of life writing or egodocuments in Iceland. He will show how the form of the genre affects the sexes’ access to self-expression and how their differing ‘cultural space’ opens up opportunities for people self-creation. Dr. Magnusson views these developments in an international light. Sources of this kind and women’s perspectives are necessary to enable scholars to interpret much material that has previously defied their analysis.
THERE WILL BE FOOD.

UCSB History Associates Lecture: Things that Go Bump in the Night in Santa Barbara
2017-05-24 17:00 - 19:00 | American Red Cross Building, 2706 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA, 93105, United States
Public lecture by geologist Arthur Sylvester. See PDF below for details and registration information.
2017-Sylvester-flyer-pdf

Politics in the Age of Trump: Some Historical Perspective
2017-05-25 12:00 - 13:30 | Multicultural Center (MCC) Theater, Multicultural Center, Isla Vista, CA, 93117, United States
On Thursday, May 25, from 12:00 to 1:30 pm in the Multicultural Center Theater, the UCSB Department of History and the Center for Cold War Studies and International History will host a panel discussion entitled Politics in the Age of Trump: Some Historical Perspective.

Three UCSB historians will speak on the following topics:

Giuliana Perrone, “The Emoluments Clause: What it is, what it’s for, and why it won’t stop Trump”

Salim Yaqub, “A Truly Foreign Policy”

Nelson Lichtenstein, “Trump is a Distraction: The Action is in Congress–and the Country”

The panel discussion is free and open to the public; a flyer is attached.

Delicious refreshments will be served.
Trump panel-smaller file!

Graduate Student Colloquium: Isabella Gabrovsky on "Rethinking Britain" and Mario Tumen on "Decolonization of Taxation in Peru"
2017-05-26 15:00 - 17:30 | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
The Workshop on Theoretical Perspectives on War, Political Violence, Nationalism and the State (History 291) is pleased to invite you to its final open presentation and discussion this Friday May 26 from 3:00 to 5:30 pm in HSSB 4020. Two graduate students, Isabella Gabrovsky and Mario Tumen, will be presenting their work in progress on Britain and Peru. Please, join the conversation. Their papers can be downloaded from the links below. Everybody is welcome!
“Rethinking Britain: An English identity Crisis in the Era of Devolution.”
By Isabella Gabrovsky. PhD student, Political Science Department, UCSB.
This paper (Gabrovsky Rethinking Britain rev) seeks to explore the rise of nationalist movements in the UK, how they differfrom the global rise of the far-right, and what changes in Westminster we might expect as a result. While the leftist Scottish National Party surged to become the second largest party in the UK, there has been a rise of right-wing nationalist groups in England such as the UK Independence Party. Analysis of historical context will shed light on how these two diametrically opposed political ideologies expanded simultaneously. This is seen in the psephological maps of the 2015 General Election and the Brexit referendum. The current political climate in the UK, where two separate nationalist movements are in power, is unprecedented and more importantly, unsustainable. The policies that arise during this time will determine not only what role the UK will play on a global stage, but also, if the UK will exist as a unitary state in the near future. There is a significant gap in the current political literature deconstructing the motivations behind these nationalist movements. This paper will address that void, asses the potential political ramifications, and provide possible policy prescriptions. Isabella Gabrovsky currently is a PhD student at UCSB in the Political Science department. She has previously worked in the Scottish Parliament.

“Decolonization of Taxation: Indigenous Peasants and the Civil War of 1895 in Peru”
By Mario Tumen. PhD student, History Department, UCSB
By looking at the civil war, or the “Revolution of 1895” as it happened in the department of Ancash, Peru, this essay ( Tumen, Decolonization of Taxation) analyzes the role indigenous peasants played in the abolition of the contribución personal, a tax they had paid since colonial times. Through war, they exercised their citizenship and influenced the distribution of power within the state. Yet, the largest peasant insurrection of the nineteenth century, the Atusparia Rebellion, had shaken social order in the department ten years before. I argue that resilient efforts to abolish the contribución personal in 8 Ancash date back to 1885 and continued in the period leading up to Revolution of 1895.
Everybody is welcome, please spread the word!
* * Coffee will be served.
For questions or comments, please contact prof. Cecilia Méndez at mendez@history.ucsb.edu

Healing in Rwanda: Dealing with Legacies of the 1994 Genocide, presentation by Emmanuel Habimana
2017-06-01 14:00 - 15:15 | TD-W 1701, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, United States
What would it take you to forgive the murder of your family? What would you do if you had to choose between your life and those of 400 children? How would you redefine family if you were the only survivor in yours? And how would you react when the people who tried to exterminate your people were released from prison and returned to your community? These are some of the questions Emmanuel Habimana addresses in his documentary film Komora: To Heal.
Emmanuel Habimana is a filmmaker, public speaker and educational activist from Kigali, Rwanda. After surviving the 1994 Rwanda genocide, he became a youth organizer in Kigali, where he assisted fellow orphans of the genocide. He was trained in the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, and is currently studying film production in Los Angeles.

Undergraduate Policy History Research Symposium
2017-06-02 10:00 - 15:30 | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Please join us for the annual Undergraduate Policy History Research Symposium hosted by the Department of History. Twelve students will present their research, followed by comments from faculty respondents. This annual event is not to be missed! A copy of the poster can be downloaded here.

Book Launch: The Other California: Land, Identity, and Politics on the Mexican Borderlands by Verónica Castillo-Muñoz
2017-06-02 18:00 - 20:00 | McCune Conference Room (HSSB 6020), Humanities and Social Sciences Bldg, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Book Launch:
The Other California: Land, Identity, and Politics on the Mexican Borderlands
Featuring:
Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Associate Professor of History, UCLA
Paul Spickard, Professor of History, UCSB
and:
Veronica Castillo Munoz, Assistant Professor of History, UCSB

Gender and Sexualities Brown Bag: Julie Johnson
2017-06-05 14:00 - 16:00 | HSSB 3001E, 3001E Humanities and Social Sciences Building, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
The Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster meets periodically throughout the year for brown bag lunches to read and workshop works-in-progress from members of the research cluster.
On June 5, Julie Johnson will discuss “A Woman’s Business: Branding Marie Stopes 1918-1939.”
Image: Marie Stopes with Clinic Midwives, London, 1921
(courtesy of Marie Stopes International www.mariestopes.org)
Draft papers will be distributed before the event, and all participants will be invited to offer feedback to the author. Contact history-gender-cluster(at)history.ucsb.edu for more information or to join the Gender and Sexualities Research Cluster.

Magic in Ancient Egypt
2017-06-05 16:00 - 17:00 | McCune Conference Room (HSSB 6020), Humanities and Social Sciences Bldg, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States

Talk by David Ambaras on Nakamura Sueko, Pirate Queen
2017-06-07 16:00 - 17:30 | SSMS 2135, Social Sciences and Media Studies Building, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
David R. Ambaras is a scholar of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japanese history. His first book, Bad Youth: Juvenile Delinquency and the Politics of Everyday Life in Japan (University of California, 2005), examined the development of the modern Japanese state through the policing of urban youth. His second book project, from which this talk is drawn, examines the transgressive mobilities of prostitutes, peddlers, and other marginalized individuals who circulated between China and Japan under the Japanese Empire. Ambaras is currently Associate Professor of History at North Carolina State University and a founding member of the Triangle Center for Japanese Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Sponsored by the IHC’s Reinventing Japan RFG, the Dept. of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, the Dept. of History, and the East Asia Center.

History Department 2017 Graduation Reception for Undergraduates
2017-06-18 10:00 - 12:00 | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
All graduating History majors and their families are invited:
Sunday June 18th 10:00am-12:00pm in HSSB 4020
The UCSB Department of History is pleased to invite you to the annual UC Santa Barbara History Department Graduation Reception.
Please join History faculty members and your fellow students for a buffet breakfast and mingling.
This celebration is for all graduates of the 2016-2017 Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) programs in History, History of Public Policy and Medieval Studies, and their families. This event prior to the commencement ceremony is an opportunity for faculty and graduates to celebrate their achievements together, and for families to meet the professors who taught their newly minted graduates. A light buffet breakfast will be provided.
Please RSVP to Monica Garcia by JUNE 10th at migarcia@hfa.ucsb.edu with your name, major, and the number of people attending.

Helmets of the First World War: Battle, Technology, and Culture
2017-06-20 | Davidson Library (UCSB), Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
The widespread use of steel protective helmets was among the major military and cultural changes wrought by the First World War (1914-1918). This exhibition showcases original helmets and includes photographs and other artifacts from the conflict.
Curated by Prof. John W.I. Lee of the UCSB History Department. Undergraduate Research Assistant: Sydney Martin.
This exhibition is on display from November 8, 2016 through June 20, 2017, at the UCSB Library Mountain Gallery (1st floor of the new library, mountain side).
For more information, see the online library guide.
pdf of the exhibition flyer

Grad Melissa Barthelemy Wins Mentorship Award
2017-07-31 08:00 - 17:00 | University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, United States
Graduate Division names six winners for 2017 mentoring awards
By Shawn Warner-Garcia, Assistant Director of Professional Development
Friday, July 14, 2017 10:07 AM View original article

The Graduate Division is pleased to announce the ​winners for two awards ​honoring graduate students who have distinguished themselves in the area of undergraduate research supervision. The Fiona and Michael Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Award is available to students in the College of Engineering; Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences Division of the College of Letters and Science; and the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. The Dean’s Graduate Mentoring Award is available to students in the Humanities and Fine Arts and Social Sciences Divisions of the College of Letters and Science and the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education.
The winners of the 2017 Dean’s Graduate Mentoring Awards are:

Aubrie Adams (Communication), nominated by Prof. Norah Dunbar
Melissa Barthelemy (History), nominated by Prof. Randy Bergstrom
Baron Haber (English), nominated by Prof. Christopher Newfield

These students are recognized for their excellence in and contributions to undergraduate research supervision and for encouraging others to become involved in these research efforts. Each of the winning students receives a $1000 award.

MELISSA BARTHELEMY​ // History
Research Interests
My dissertation looks at the ways that politics and memory have been mobilized in the wake of mass violence, such as school shootings. Much of my research looks at the Isla Vista Tragedy of May 23, 2014, when six UCSB students were killed and another 14 individuals were injured. I am also working at a national level to help develop a better system of support for archivists and historians who end up managing condolence projects when their community suffers a public tragedy.
Mentoring Experiences
In the wake of the May 23, 2014 tragedy, I mentored a team of students through the process of collecting, archiving, and curating a memorial archive. This project would not have been possible without these students! Several interns have continued to stay involved in the project even after graduating, and I’ve been able to help them in references for competitive graduate programs and job positions. It is great to see their hard work pay off. The most challenging aspect has been the intensely emotional nature of the work we’ve done together, but that’s also what has made it so valuable and meaningful. For me, a true mentorship relationship should involve reciprocity, openness, and trust.
What the Award Means to ​Her
Mentoring by graduate students is a crucial responsibility that frequently goes unrecognized as it often occurs during the spaces of office hours, responses to emails late at night, writing letters of recommendations for past students, giving advice on grad school and career prospects, and helping refer students to support services. I have benefited from fantastic mentors in my life who have done many of these things for me, and it is deeply meaningful to be acknowledged for my role in doing the same for others. I applaud the Graduate Division for recognizing the value of mentorship in fostering deeper relationships and building a healthier community, which contributes to the success of our students.

2017-2018 History New Majors Meeting
2017-09-27 11:00 - 12:30 | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Come to make connections with History Departmental faculty members! One of them could potentially become your academic mentor in future years at UCSB. You will also get to meet peers in your graduating cohort and even new friends or study buddies in the department! Learn the who`s who of UCSB History! There will be an additional half-hour of Q&A hosted jointly by Alan Vu, the Undergraduate Advisor and Professor Marcuse, immediately following the meeting.
Panel:

Professor Sharon Farmer | Department Chair
Professor Terence Keel | Department Vice Chair
Professor Harold Marcuse | Director of Undergraduate Studies
Professor Tony Barbieri-Low | Undergraduate Faculty Advisor & Phi Alpha Theta Advisor
Professor Randy Bergstrom | History of Public Policy Faculty Advisor
Professor Giuliana Perrone | 19th Century US History, Slavery, Law, Civil War & Reconstruction

"U.S.-Russian Relations: Crisis without End," with Michael Kimmage
2017-09-29 11:00 - 12:00 | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Kimmage_flyer

American History & Institutions Exam
2017-10-04 09:00 - 12:00 | HSSB 3237, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
NOTE: This exam is used to fulfill the UCSB American History & Institutional General Educational requirement. History majors and minors, please contact the History Undergraduate Advisor, Alan Vu for specific questions about how your degree/minor requirements could be fulfilled through this exam. The current reading list to prepare for the examination can be found below with an important disclaimer. You must read and review all of the listed readings, and no sample exams are provided for reference. This quarter’s exam will be offered during the following time and location:
When: Wednesday, 10/4/17 from 9 am – 12 pm | Where: HSSB 3237
It is graded Pass/Fail, though a Pass is understood to be a grade better than 75%.
1. The American Promise: A History of the United States
by James L. Roark, Michael P. Johnson, and Patricia Cline Cohen
(Bedford Books, 1999) ISBN: 0312191995.
2. The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It
by Richard Hofstader (Vintage Books, 1989) ISBN: 0679723153.
3. Give Me Liberty! An American History 4th Edition
by Eric Foner (Norton & Company, Inc. 2014) ISBN: 0393920338
Courses applicable to the American History and Institutions requirement are listed here:

American History and Institutions Course List

"En la frontera de los pijaos": the making of an Andean borderland (Santiago Muñoz, Universidad de los Andes)
2017-10-04 17:00 - 19:00 | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Please join us for the first meeting of the new Colloquium on Latin American and Caribbean History as we welcome Santiago Muñoz Arbeláez, who will deliver a talk entitled “‘En la frontera de los pijaos’: the making of an Andean borderland in northern South America”.
The talk will be held in HSSB 4020 at 5 pm on Wednesday, October 4th, and will be followed by a small reception.
Abstract: In the 1550s a coalition of native groups took arms against the Spanish empire in northern South America. The Pijao, as the imperial officials called the rebels, burnt cities, looted royal paths, and took captives. The officials of the empire classified the Pijao as caribes, accused them of cannibalism, and invoked theological arguments to justify their enslavement. From then on, interaction between the empire and the Pijaos was marked by violence, captivity, and slavery. By 1610, the president of the court of Santafé estimated that the Pijaos had destroyed fourteen cities and killed and eaten more than one hundred thousand indigenous allies. While the existing studies have depicted the Pijaos as pre-Hispanic warriors who survived due to their extreme cruelty, the Pijao frontier formed and grew in tandem with the empire. Far from being a static group that preceded the Spanish, the Pijao frontier was a novel political creation that grew as a reaction to Spanish conquest and its dynamics were intimately linked with those of the Spanish empire. This talk explores the birth, growth, and decline of an indigenous political project that emerged two decades after the conquest and expanded over the slopes of the northern Andes.
About the Speaker: Santiago Muñoz Arbeláez is Assistant Professor of History at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

Book Launch: Kate McDonald's Placing Empire: Travel and the Social Imagination in Imperial Japan
2017-10-09 18:00 - 20:00 | McCune Conference Room, Humanities & Social Sciences Building, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Come Celebrate the publication of Kate McDonald’s, Placing Empire: Travel and the Social Imagination in Imperial Japan (University of California Press, 2017)
Featuring:
Ken Ruoff
Professor of History, Director / Center for Japanese Studies, Portland State University
Sabine Fruhstuck
Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies, Director/ East Asia Center, UCSB
Kate McDonald
Professor of History, UCSB

Diocletian's Palace: Design and Construction
2017-10-11 18:00 - 19:30 | Karpeles Manuscript Library, 21 West Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Speaker: Goran Nikšić is the City Archaeologist and Architect for City of Split in Croatia (Service for the Old City Core), and the Senior Lecturer on architectural conservation at the University of Split. He holds his degrees from the University of Zagreb (Ph.D.), the University of York, and the University of Belgrade. His areas of specialization are architectural conservation and the history of architecture, particularly Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance architecture. From 2004 on he has served as an expert for ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites). Dr. Nikšić is an AIA Norton Lecturer for 2017-2018.
Abstract: Although Diocletian’s Palace in Split has been a topic of scientific interest for a long time, there has been no full consensus about some of its basic elements, from the typological definition to the original purpose of the building, from the original appearance of the whole down to the reliable reconstruction of the architectural parts. Traditionally, Diocletian’s Palace has been described as a unique combination of an imperial villa and a typical Roman military camp. Recent research has established the probable original purpose of the complex in Split as the imperial manufacture of textiles. It was later, most likely already during the construction, adapted for the residence of the retired Emperor. Detailed architectural analysis shows that the mistakes in the design and execution, and the unfinished decoration can be explained by the change of architectural concept which occurred probably during the first phase of construction, and by the very short deadline given to the builders by the Emperor who probably retired to his palace in Split earlier than originally planned. Finally, a new interpretation is given of this complex building, in terms of design and construction process.

Book Launch: Erika Rappaport's A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World
2017-10-13 17:00 - 19:00 | TD-W 1701, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, United States
Please come celebrate the publication of Erika Rappaport’s new book:
A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World
Speakers:
Nadja Durbach, Professor of History, University of Utah
Bishnupriya Ghosh, Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara
Erika Rappaport, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

The Russian Revolution and the Trump Revolution by Prof. Toshi Hasegawa
2017-10-22 13:30 - 14:30
Please join us on Sunday October 22 2017 to hear a talk by Prof. Toshi Hasegawa. The event will be at the Karpeles Manuscript Library, 21 West Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara.

In 1917, the February Revolution overthrew the monarchy of Tsar Nicholas II in Russia and un-wittingly opened the door to Lenin and his allies who seized power in October. On Oct. 22, 2017, Professor Emeritus Tsuyoshi Hasegawa will speak about what the Russian Revolution can tell us about our situation now. He taught at UCSB from 1990 until his retirement in 2016, and he is one of the leading historians of Soviet Russia in the world. His new book (cover above left) was published by the Harvard University Press this year, and a second, much expanded and revised edition of his book on The February Revolution, Petrograd, 1917 (1981) appears this month from Brill Publishers. Historian Robert H. McNeal (U. Mass, Amherst), reviewing the first edition in the American Historical Review, called it “the best work in any language on its subject and essential reading for any serious student of the Russian Revolution.” Hasegawa’s Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (Harvard UP, 2005) won the 2005 Robert Ferrell Award from the Society for the Historians of American Foreign Relations as well as other major prizes in Japan and the U.S. Able to use sources in Japanese and Russian as well as English, Hasegawa demonstrated that the decisive factor in the decision of the Japanese to surrender was not the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rather, the Soviet declaration of war against Japan raised the specter of a Russian conquest of Japan. The Japanese feared the Russian bear more than the American eagle.
This free event is co-sponsored by UCSB’s Center for Cold War Studies.

Slaves, Silver, and Atlantic Empires (Alex Borucki, UC Irvine)
2017-11-01 17:00 - 19:00 | HSSB 4020, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, United States
Please join us for the next meeting of the new Colloquium on Latin American and Caribbean History as we welcome Alex Borucki, who will deliver a talk entitled “Slaves, Silver, and Atlantic Empires: The Slave Trade to Spanish South America, 1700-1810”.
The talk will be held in HSSB 4020 at 5 pm on Wednesday, November 1st, and will be followed by a small reception.
Prof. Borucki has pre-circulated a paper. Please e-mail jcobo@history.ucsb.edu to obtain a copy.
Abstract: This presentation examines the slave voyage conducted by the ship Ascension (1795-1797) connecting Rhode Island, Mozambique, and the Río de la Plata (The River of Silver, today’s Argentina and Uruguay), as a window into the eighteenth-century slave trade to Spanish South America. In this era, the slave trade became the key to accessing Spanish American consumers and silver for foreign traders. As a result, Spanish American silver entered English, Dutch, and Portuguese commercial circuits beneficial to metropolitan merchants and public revenues. The story of the Ascension’s captives goes beyond Anglo-American conceptions of the Middle Passage born out of the triangular trade, as the yearlong ordeal of these Africans involved Indian Ocean embarkation, Atlantic crossing to Montevideo, a journey on oxen-carts throughout the Pampas and on mule-trains across the Andes into Chile, and their final reshipment in the Pacific to Lima.
About the Speaker: Alex Borucki is Associate Professor of History at UC Irvine.

The Chinese Typewriter: A History (Tom Mullaney, Stanford)
2017-11-07 16:00 - 17:30
7 November at 4PM in the McCune Room (6th floor, HSSB)

Abstract: Chinese writing is character-based, the one major world script that is neither alphabetic nor syllabic. Over the past two centuries, Chinese script has encountered presumed alphabetic universalism at every turn, whether in the form of Morse Code, Braille, stenography, Linotype, punch cards, word processing, or other systems developed with the Latin alphabet in mind. Today, however, after more than a century of resistance against the alphabetic, not only have Chinese characters prevailed, they form the linguistic substrate of the vibrant world of Chinese information technology. In this talk, Stanford historian Tom Mullaney shows how this unlikely transformation happened, by charting out a fascinating series of experiments, prototypes, failures, and successes in the century-long struggle between Chinese characters and the QWERTY keyboard.
About the Speaker: Thomas S. Mullaney is Associate Professor of Chinese History at Stanford University, and Curator of the international exhibition, Radical Machines: Chinese in the Information Age. His talk comes from his 2017 book The Chinese Typewriter, (The MIT Press).
[This talk is sponsored jointly by the History Department, the East Asia Center, and the Machines, People, and Politics RFG]

James Delbourgo (Rutgers) on the Origins of the British Museum
2017-11-15 16:00 - 18:00 | UCSB Library, 1312, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, United States
Collecting the World: Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum
In 1759, London’s British Museum opened its doors for the first time–the first free national public museum in the world. But how did it come into being? This talk recounts the overlooked yet colorful life of the museum’s founder: Sir Hans Sloane. Born in 1660, Sloane amassed a fortune as a London society physician, became president of the Royal Society and Royal College of Physicians, and assembled an encyclopedic collection of specimens and objects–the most famous cabinet of curiosities of its time–which became the foundation of the British Museum. Slavery and empire played crucial roles in his career. Sloane worked in Jamaica as a plantation doctor and made collections throughout the island with help from planters and slaves. On his return to London, he established a network of agents to supply him with objects of all kinds from Asia, the Americas, and beyond: plants and animals, books and manuscripts, a shoe made of human skin, the head of an Arctic walrus, slaves’ banjos, magical amulets, Buddhist shrines, copies of the Qur’an, and more. The little-known life of one of the Enlightenment’s most controversial luminaries provides a new story about the beginnings of public museums through their origins in encyclopedic universalism, imperialism, and slavery.
The lecture is based on James Delbourgo’s new biography of Sloane entitled Collecting the World, published by Penguin in the UK and Belknap Press in the US, which has been named Book of the Week in The Guardian, The Times (London), the Daily Mail, and The Week (UK).
[this event is co-sponsored by the History Department and the UCSB Library]

History Associates and Arthur Miller’s View from the Bridge, Nov. 19
2017-11-19 12:00 - 13:00
The UCSB History Associates are presenting a talk by Prof. Irwin Appel (Professor of Theater) on Arthur Miller’s play A View from the Bridge on 19 November 2017.
He will speak at a luncheon in HSSB 4020 at noon, after which we will proceed to the theater to see the play (directed by Appel). Please see the attached flyer. 2107-View Flyer-pdf

Robert Mugabe-Vladimir Putin: The End of One Era-Continuation of Another
2017-12-04 17:00 - 18:30 | McCune Conference Room (HSSB 6020), Humanities and Social Sciences Bldg, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Mhoze Chikowero, Professor of History, UCSB, “The End of an Era in Zimbabwe?”
Elena Aronova, Professor of History, UCSB, “Trolls, Bots, Cyberwarfare and the Cold War Origins of Putin’s Information Wars”
Monday, December 4, 5-6:30, UCSB McCune Conference Room
Poster here: Mugabe poster
