Department of History, UC Santa Barbara

The Future of Planetary Governance and the Emergence of Global Action Networks
2009-04-30 00:00 (America/Denver)
THE GLOBAL AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES PROGRAM,in conjunction with the search for a chaired professorship in GLOBAL
AUTHORITY AND GOVERNANCE sponsored by the DUNCAN AND SUZANNE MELLICHAMP INITIATIVE, is pleased to invite you to a lecture by
SANJEEV KHAGRAM
Wyss Visiting Scholar, Harvard Business School
Thursday, April 30, 2009
12 p.m.
Orfalea Center Seminar Room
1005 Rob Gym
Over the past two decades, multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral global action networks (GANs: a critical subset of cross-sectoral action networks more generally or CANs) emerged as arguably the most innovative global governance arrangements with transcontinental and multi-scalar agendas and reach. GANs can now be found in virtually every field from well known initiatives like the Global Compact, Global Fund, Marine Stewardship Council and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, to less well known ones like the Global Water Partnership, Youth Employment Systems, the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, and the Sustainable Biofuels Partnership. This seminar will explicate the theory and empirics of GANs. It will systemically analyze the emergence, dynamics, as well as current and potential role of GANs in global governance.
Professor Khagram is known worldwide for his interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral scholarship, teaching, and leadership in the areas of globalization and transnationalism, global governance and international institutions, nongovernmental organizations and civil society, corporate citizenship and emerging regulatory forms, sustainable development and human security. He was honored as a 2009 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
hm 4/28/09

From Main Street to Wall Street: What News Gets Reported and What Does Not
2009-05-01 00:00
Joining Steven Greenhouse on this timely panel are award-winning investigative reporter Ann Louise Bardach and Peter Dreier, director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College.
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy and the Policy History Program, and co-sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television and New Media at UCSB. For more information contact Leah Fernandez
jwil 07.iv.09

"Rasta" Sufis and Muslim Youth Culture in Mali
2009-05-01 00:00
In this talk, Benjamin Soares is concerned with understanding changing modalities of religious expression and modes of belonging among Muslim youth in contemporary Mali. While much recent scholarship about Muslim youth privileges Islamism, trajectories of political radicalization, as well as ethical modes of self-fashioning associated with so-called piety movements, the case of young self-styled Sufis — sometimes dubbed “Rasta” Sufis — in urban Mali helps to illustrate other ways certain youth have been refashioning how to be young and Muslim. By focusing on these young Muslims’ activities, including their religious practices, sophisticated engagement with the media, and religious marketing, Soares explores the cultural politics of Muslim youth who are involved in building new communities and dreaming of a world different from the one in which they find themselves.
Sponsored by the IHC’s African Studies FRG, the Center for Middle East Studies, the Dept. of History, and the Dept. of Religious Studies
For additional information please call 893-3907, or see www.ihc.ucsb.edu
hm 4/27/09

Exchange and Identity
2009-05-02 00:00
See the flyer for more information.
hm 4/28/09

Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales
2009-05-05 00:00
Scholar and artist E. Patrick Johnson is currently Chair and Directorof Graduate Studies in the Department of Performance Studies, as well
as Professor of African American Studies, at Northwestern University.
His one-man-show, Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their
Tales, is based on the oral histories collected in Johnson’s book,
Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South — An Oral History, published by
the University of North Carolina Press. The oral histories are from
black gay men who were born, raised, and continue
to live in the South and range in age from 19 to 93.
This performance covers the following topics:
coming of age in the South, religion, sex, transgenderism, love stories,
and coming out. The show tells of Chaz,
a transgendered person who lives as a man on Sunday so he can sing in
the church choir, but lives as a woman during the rest of the week;
Freddie’s story of being raised by parents who did not want him is
heartbreaking, but also delivered with an ironic twist; Countess
Vivian, the oldest narrator, recounts his life during the 1920s and
the 1930s on the streets of New Orleans. Johnson embodies these and
other stories in the show.
Sponsored by the IHC’s Performance Studies and New Sexualities RFGs,
the Dept. of Black Studies, Dept. of English, Center for Black
Studies, Dept. of Theater, Dept. of Feminist Studies, the
MultiCultural Center, the IHC, Black Quare, Associated Students, and
the Women’s Center with special support from the following
individuals: Stephanie L. Batiste, Ingrid Banks, Mireille Miller
Young, and Christina McMahon.
hm 5/1/09

Portents and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Japan: Kurosawa Tokiko and the Comet of 1858
2009-05-05 00:00
Kurosawa Tokiko (1806-1890) was born and raised in Mito domain, where she ran a small temple-school (terakoya). As most women in her day and age, she did not pay much attention to political issues. Then, on the evening of September 30, 1858, a neighbor rushed over announcing the arrival of a large, bright comet. In her later writings Tokiko would identify the comet as the spark that ignited her political activism: she embraced the loyalist faction and, in 1859, surreptitiously traveled to Kyoto to deliver a petition to none other than the emperor. This presentation will draw on Tokiko’s unpublished diaries (preserved in Ibaraki Kenritsu Rekishikan) to follow the trajectory of her political awakening and examine the pivotal role of the 1858 comet as part and parcel of her political vocabulary.
Laura Nenzi received her Ph.D. from the UCSB in 2004. After five years as Assistant Professor at Florida International University in Miami she is now moving to the University of Tennessee Knoxville. She is the author of Excursions in Identity: Travel and the Intersection of Place, Gender, and Status in Edo Japan (University of Hawai’i Press, 2008).
Cosponsored by the East Asia Center, the East Asian Cultures Research Focus Group, the Department of East Asian Cultural Studies and Languages, and the Department of History.
For more information visit the East Asia Center web site or call (805) 893-3907.
jwil 28.iv.09, hm 4/29

When I Awaked': Colonial Encounters, Gendered Meanings, and the Cultural Significance of Dream Reporting in Seventeenth-Century New England
2009-05-06 00:00
Presentation of work in progress hosted by UCSB’s Early Modern Center.
Ann Plane, Associate Professor of History at UCSB, will present a paper as part of the Early Modern Center’s works-in-progress series. Her presentation, entitled, “‘When I Awaked’: Colonial Encounters, Gendered Meanings, and the Cultural Significance of Dream Reporting in Seventeenth-Century New England,” explores the convergence of two distinctive ‘dream cultures,’ that of the Algonquian-speaking natives of the region and that of the seventeenth-century nonconformist English colonists. Her paper also considers how these dream cultures reveal the gendered dynamics of colonization, particularly focusing on the representation of masculinity among both colonizer and colonized.
The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Please join us!
Email the EMC Graduate Fellow, Cat Zusky, if you have questions: zusky@umail.ucsb.edu
hm 4/17/09

Excavating Neolithic Caves in Attica: Rituals to Pan and the Origins of Agriculture in Greek Prehistory
2009-05-07 00:00
There are over 10,000 caves all over the Greek islands, where archaeologists have identified abundant materials revealing both environmental as well as cultural information dating as far back as the 7th millennium B.C. in Neolithic times. This talk will present the case study of recent excavations conducted at Leontari cave situated in Hymettus mountain in Attica. During the five years of excavations of Leontari cave (2003- 2008), a joint project conducted by the University of Athens and the Ephorate of Paleoanthropology-Speleology (Greek Ministry of Culture), the team has revealed new environmental and archaeological knowledge shedding new light on the process of the rise of agriculture and domestication patterns of animals in mainland Greece. In addition, they have made positive identifications that the cave was also an important shrine dedicated to the deity Pan, one of most popular gods in the Greek pantheon.
Dr. Lilian Karali-Giannakopoulou Ioulia is Professor of Prehistoric and Environmental Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. She is one of Europe’s leading specialist on Environmental Archaeology, Greek Prehistory (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age), and Bio-archaeology (human and animal remains, shells). She is also the founder of the Environmental Archaeology program at Athens University, the first of its kind in Greece.
A reception will follow the talk.
Sponsored by the Archaeology Focus Research Group of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
jwil 27.iv.09

The Missing Story of Ourselves: Women, Poverty and the Politics of Representation
2009-05-07 00:00
The Missing Story of Ourselves is a nationally touring photographic andnarrative exhibit developed by low-income student parents, that challenges
and offers alternatives to conventional “stories” about class, poor women,
welfare and single parenthood in the United States.
Co-sponsored by the Policy History Program, the Department of
Feminist Studies, the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy,
and the Women’s Center.
Vivyan Adair is the Elihu Root Endowed Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and the Director of The ACCESS Project (serving welfare eligible student parents) at Hamilton College. She is the author of From Good Ma to Welfare Queen: A Genealogy of the Poor Woman in American Literature, Photography and Culture (2000) and the co-editor of Reclaiming Class: Women, Poverty and the Promise of Higher Education in America (2003), as well as articles in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Harvard Educational Review, Feminist Studies, Labor, Sociology, NWSA Journal, and the AAUW’s On Campus with Women In 2005, Dr. Adair was named the CASE Carnegie New York State Teacher of the Year.
For more information please visit www.hamilton.edu/college/access.
Adair’s biography on the Hamilton College website.
hm 5/1/09

CANCELLED Transborder Nationhood and the Politics of Belonging in Germany and Korea
2009-05-08 00:00
Because of the Jesusita Fire this event has been postponed until next year.
The talk addresses transborder membership politics in historical and comparative perspective, examining changing German and Korean policies towards transborder coethnics (Germans in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and Koreans in Japan and China) during the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. “Ethnic Germans” or “overseas Koreans” are often treated as prepolitical, self-subsistent ethnonational entities; and the transborder membership politics of Germany and Korea have been cast as clear exemplars of ethnic nationalism. Yet transborder populations’ status as “co-ethnics” or “co-nationals” is not given by the facts of ethnic demography: it is constructed through, contested in, and contingent on representations, claims, and struggles in transborder regions.
This talk is part of the Research Focus Group on Identity series.
hm 4/28/09, 5/8/09

Reclaiming Class: Poverty and Higher Education in the United States
2009-05-08 00:00
Vivyan Adair is the Elihu Root Endowed Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and the Director of The ACCESS Project (serving welfare eligible student parents) at Hamilton College. She is the author of From Good Ma to Welfare Queen: A Genealogy of the Poor Woman in American Literature, Photography and Culture (2000) and the co-editor of Reclaiming Class: Women, Poverty and the Promise of Higher Education in America (2003), as well as articles in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Harvard Educational Review, Feminist Studies, Labor, Sociology, NWSA Journal, and the AAUW’s On Campus with Women In 2005, Dr. Adair was named the CASE Carnegie New York State Teacher of the Year.
For more information please visit www.hamilton.edu/college/access.
Adair’s biography on the Hamilton College website.
Sponsored by the Seminar on Work, Labor, and Political Economy.
hm 5/1/09

Peace Initiatives in the Middle East
2009-05-11 00:00
There is an exciting and timely series of events taking place this spring: The Shalom/Salam Conversations, in which members of the UCSB faculty and community will address aspects of the Israel/Palestine dispute. There will be three events this spring, all on Monday at 5 pm in the Multicultural Center. The series is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts and by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.
The second event will take place THIS MONDAY, MAY 11, AT 5 PM IN THE MULTICULTURAL CENTER. The subject will be “Peace Initiatives.” Professor Salim Yaqub of the UCSB Department of History will moderate.
This is the third and final event of the series.
Free Pizza and beverages will be served. Please join us for this important event!
hm 4/6/09, 5/11/09

Gazing through the Empire's Shop Window: Women and Consumption at the British Empire Exhibition, 1924-1925
2009-05-11 00:00
Professor Clendinning is the author of Demons of Domesticity: Women and the English Gas Iindustry, 1889-1939, Ashgate Publications, Aldershot , England , 2004.
Anyone interested in gender, consumer culture, imperialism and European history more generally is encouraged to attend.
hm 4/20/09

Christianity and Empire: Unity and Diversity in New Worlds
2009-05-11 00:00
Fernando Cervantes, J.E. & Lillian Byrne Tipton Distinguished Visiting Professor in Catholic Studies, Department of Religious Studies, UCSB, for Spring 2009 will present a paper exploring the interaction of Christianity among the populations of the New World. His presentation will seek to shed light on what J.H. Elliott once called “the remarkable survival of a worldwide empire for a period of three centuries without a standing army or police force.” Professor Cervantes will do so by reassessing the process of Christianization and the central role of religious culture in the early modern Hispanic world.
Five panelists will respond, relating his research to their own work in the fields of Ancient Borderlands and Latin American Studies: Gerardo Aldana (Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, UCSB); Sarah Cline (Department of History, UCSB); Beth DePalma Digeser (Department of History, UCSB); Hal Drake (Department of History, UCSB); and Pamela Huckins (History of Art and Archaeology, NYU). The panel will be moderated by Christine Thomas (Department of Religious Studies, UCSB). A public Q & A and reception will follow.
For further information, please contact Ann Taves or Cathy Albanese.
jwil 06.v.09

Black September and the Question of Palestinian Identity within Jordan
2009-05-12 00:00
In this talk, Clea Bunch looks at the events of Black September 1970, in which King Hussein of Jordan fought a civil war against Palestinian
militant groups. She argues that Jordan constituted a “hidden pillar”
of America?s Middle East policy. Only during crises like Black
September did the kingdom’s essential role become apparent.
Washington saw Hussein’s pro-Western leadership as essential
maintaining a regional balance of power, and so United States linked
its policy to the continuation of the Hashemite regime in Jordan.
Clea Bunch is Assistant Professor of History and Chair of Middle East
Studies at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She specializes
in U.S.-Middle East diplomacy and has conducted extensive research in
the Middle East. She is currently writing a book on the history of
Jordanian-American relations, 1948-1970.
The talk is free and open to the public. A brief reception will
follow Prof. Bunch’s presentation. Please join us for this exciting
event!
hm 5/10/09

Who determines what becomes history? A witness's reflections
2009-05-12 00:00
The renowned historian Arnold Toynbee posed the question whether we, the general public, but also scholars and students of historical events, are correctly informed. This question has concerned George Wittenstein for many decades, as it has a determining influence on “what becomes history”. Dr. Wittenstein will discuss the common and disturbing phenomenon of historical facts being presented in slanted, misleading, and, at times, even falsifying ways. From the vantage point of a witness to and active participant in historical events during the Hitler regime, Dr. Wittenstein will then describe lesser known facts about two resistance groups with whom he was closely associated: the famous White Rose and the Freedom Action Bavaria.
Dr. George Wittenstein, born in 1919, majored simultaneously in medicine, psychology and philosophy at the University of Munich during World War II. As Military service was compulsory, Wittenstein and most of his White Rose friends were drafted together into a medical student company. As early as 1939, he was threatened by the Nazi secret police (Gestapo) and, in 1942 and 1943, undertook a series of dangerous actions on behalf of the White Rose. In 1943, five of his friends, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and his PhD advisor, the professor of philosophy Kurt Huber, were executed. When Wittenstein learned in 1944 that the Gestapo was likely to apprehend him, he volunteered to serve at the front-lines, as the immediate combat zone was the only place where the Gestapo had no jurisdiction over members of the armed forces. Assigned as a physician to the Italian front, he collected the wounded soldiers’ weapons for the secret arsenal of the Freedom Action Bavaria, a resistance group of military officers led by Captain Rupprecht Gerngross based in Munich. Wittenstein was wounded at the Italian front in 1945.
Wittenstein emigrated to the United States in 1948. Continuing his surgical training at Harvard and the universities of Rochester and Colorado, he specialized in general, cardiovascular, and thoracic surgery and later taught and performed the latest complex heart operations at numerous European medical schools. Since 1960, Wittenstein has been residing in Santa Barbara, where he was in private practice until his appointment as professor of surgery at the University of California at Los Angeles, and as chair of the Department of Surgery at UCLA/LAC Olive View Medical Center. He retired from UCLA in 1991 and continued to practice in Santa Barbara. Over almost four decades, Wittenstein served in various capacities at four Santa Barbara hospitals, the UCSB’s Affiliates, the Friends of the UCSB Library, and on the board of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. In recognition of his active involvement in the resistance against Hitler, for his contributions to German cardiac surgery, and for promoting scientific exchange between the United States and Germany, Wittenstein was awarded the “Commander’s Cross Of The Federal Republic Of Germany” (Grosses Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and more recently the “Bayerischer Verdienstorden”, the State of Bavaria’s highest honor.
In Fall 2007 the UCSB Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies initiated the George J. Wittenstein lecture series, created to commemorate and continue the legacy of civic courage of Dr. George J. Wittenstein. The series sponsors one to three lectures every year. (UCSB press release)
In 2008-2009, the series is made possible by the generous co-sponsorships of the following campus agencies and departments: Office of the Chancellor, Comparative Literature, Feminist Studies, Film and Media Studies, French and Italian, History, Law and Society, Religious Studies, Theater and Dance.
Dr. Wittenstein himself will be the speaker at this event, which will take place in the McCune conference room (HSSB 6020) at 5 pm.
This lecture series is designed to inspire people to become active citizens and to uphold and defend democratic principles. While some talks may have an explicitly political dimension, others will deal with literature and philosophy—two areas that were extremely important to White Rose members, including Dr. Wittenstein, who continues to be greatly interested in them.
The Munich-based White Rose consisted of a group of friends, predominantly medical students, who appealed to the German people to defy both Hitler’s dictatorship and the apathy of their fellow citizens. Members of the White Rose wrote, printed, and disseminated six leaflets that denounced the National Socialist regime’s criminal activities and goals. It was the only German group specifically to condemn the extermination of European Jews. Six members were convicted of high treason and executed.
Already a member of the German armed forces, Wittenstein escaped apprehension by the Gestapo by volunteering to serve on the front line—the only place the German secret police would have no jurisdiction over him. He was assigned to the Italian front to serve as a physician. There he collected the weapons of wounded soldiers and contributed them to a secret arsenal maintained by Freedom Action Bavaria, a resistance group that consisted of military officers based in Munich.
Wounded in 1945, Wittenstein immigrated to the United States a few years later and continued his surgical training at Harvard University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Colorado. A Santa Barbara resident for almost 50 years, he has worked in private practice, as a professor of surgery at UCLA, and as chair of the Department of Surgery at the UCLA-Olive View Medical Center.
hm 5/4/09, 5/6/09
For more information, please visit:

Catholicism and the Early Modern Imagination
2009-05-13 00:00
The imagination as a human faculty was subjected to some of the most fascinating explorations in its history during the period from 1430 to 1680. Fernando Cervantes will explore the broad Catholic intellectual background of these debates with particular reference to the work the two greatest literary figures of the age: Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare.
Fernando Cervantes is a historian of early modern Europe specializing in the cultural, religious and intellectual history of early modern Spain and Spanish America. He is the author of The Devil in the New World (1994) and The Hispanic World in the Historical Imagination (2006) as well as editor of Spiritual Encounters: Interactions between Christianity and Native Religions in Colonial America (1999). He is currently completing a book entitled The Celestial and the Fallen: Angels and Demons in the Hispanic World.
For further information, please contact Ann Taves or Cathy Albanese.
jwil 06.v.09

Precipitating Factors and Root Causes of the Sino-Soviet Split
2009-05-14 00:00
Professor Shen Zhihua is Director of the Center for Cold War Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai.
The event is free and open to the public. A brief reception will follow Prof. Shen’s presentation.
In this talk, Professor Shen Zhihua discusses the surface and root
causes of the Sino-Soviet split. The surface causes were China’s
shelling of Goumindang-held islands in August 1958 and its commune
movement of July 1959, which revealed sharp divergences between China
and the Soviet Union. The root causes were the fundamental
contradictions between internationalist ideals and the pursuit of
national interest, and between the fraternal ideals and hierarchical
reality of the Sino-Soviet relationship. These structural
contradictions made the Sino-Soviet split inevitable.
Shen Zhihua is Professor of History at East China Normal University
(Shanghai, China), where he also serves as Director of the Cold War
International History Research Center. He is also concurrent
professor at Peking University, and honorary research fellow at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Shen’s research interests
include Cold War History, the diplomatic history of the Soviet Union,
Sino-Soviet relations, and the Korean War. His books include Soviet
Experts in China, 1948-1960 (2nd ed., 2009), Mao Zedong, Stalin, and
the Korean War (2003), and An Outline History of Sino-Soviet Relations
(2007).
The event is sponsored by the Center for Cold War Studies and by East Asian
Languages and Cultural Studies.
hm 5/12/09

History Honors Colloquium
2009-05-15 00:00
On Friday, May 15, the undergraduates who wrote senior theses this year will present their work at the History Honors Colloquium in HSSB 4020. The students have produced very interesting research and all interested parties are invited to attend some or all of the sessions.
The program is as follows:
Session I (9:00-10:30): War and Suffrage
Allison Fischer (Jacobson): “Shot to the Core: Vietnam Veterans and the Disintegration of American Exceptionalism”
Discussant: Laura Kalman
Michael Hale (Lee): “The Destruction of Poleis in the Greek World”
Discussant: Jack Talbott
Risa Katzen (Harris, Miescher): “Anything to Fit in: A Comparative Study of American and South African Women’s Suffrage Movements”
Discussant: Adrienne Edgar
Session II (10:45-12:15): Education and Political Activism
Damien Mimnaugh (O’Connor): “The School is Before the Church: A History of Catholic Dissent During and Following the Great School Controversy in New York, 1840-1870”
Discussant: Patricia Cohen
Adrienne Minor (Daniels): “What’s Left of the Struggle: The Oakland Community School and the Black Panther Party”
Discussant: Megan Bowman
Craig Nelson (Westwick): “The Evolution of Environmentalism in the California Surfing Community”
Discussant: Greg Graves
Session III (2:00-4:00): Politics and Public Policy
Christopher Kindell (Tutino): “ ‘Now for the Lord and our good Queene/ To fight be not afraide’: Elizabethan Propaganda and the Spanish Armada”
Discussant: Sears McGee
Mathew Hamula (McGee): “Modernizing Medieval Medicine and the Medical Marketplace: The London Medical Establishment during the English Civil War”
Discussant: Stefania Tutino
Celine Purcell (Bergstrom): “STEP it Up: The Rise of Conservative Anti-Gang Legislation in California”
Discussant: Andrea Gill
Katyn Evenson (Woods): “Upon a Blank Slate: Reforming Public Education in Post-Katrina New Orleans”
Discussant: Randy Bergstrom
hm 5/11/09

Memorial Celebration for Dmitrije Djordjevic
2009-05-16 00:00
The celebration of Dimitrije’s life will take place at Elings Park this Saturday, May 16, from noon to 2 p.m. in the Singleton Pavilion. Dimitrije’s wife Nan welcomes his colleagues, friends, and all who wish to remember his contributions to scholarship and to the UCSB History department.
Prof. Djordjevic passed away on March 5, 2009. See our News item on his passing, which includes a biographical sketch.
hm 5/11/09

The Bankers Strike Back: The Anglo-American and Anglo-Canadian Financial Agreements of 1945-1946
2009-05-18 00:00
The commodities and markets research group will meet again on Monday, May 18, from 11-noon in HSSB 4020 to discuss George Fujii’s paper “The
Bankers Strike Back: The Anglo-American and Anglo-Canadian Financial
Agreements of 1945-1946.” George will provide a brief introduction to
his work, which is part of his dissertation, but we will devote most
of our time to discussion of his paper. The paper will be circulated by
email; contact Lisa Jacobson jacobson@history.ucsb.edu.
A description follows below:
“Justice,” “Temptation,” or “Austerity.” In the words of John Maynard
Keynes, these were Britain’s choices in 1945 as it sought large-scale
U.S. aid in order to stabilize its financial position and rebuild its
war-torn economy. Keynes, dispatched by the British government to
Washington as its lead negotiator, thought he could obtain “justice,”
or a U.S. grant of about $5 billion to Britain plus favorable
consideration of wartime debt. He appealed to the sense of justice of
his American counterparts, arguing that Britain’s earlier wartime
sacrifices entitled it to favorable consideration.
Nations rarely show gratitude, though, and Britain instead obtained
the option that Keynes had feared most–“temptation.” This was a U.S.
loan of $3.75 billion at an attractively low interest rate (2%) but
with two key conditions–an early deadline for sterling convertibility
and ratification of the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement. Not only was
the loan balance lower than expected, but an early date for
convertibility might well strain Britain’s financial resources and
lead to a run on sterling. For U.S. policymakers and leading
internationalist bankers, though, early sterling convertibility would
be an important first step in pushing their global freer trade agenda
and opening up Britain’s protected domestic, colonial, and
commonwealth markets.
Making up the missing $1.25 billion was Canada, whose government
sought to ensure that its access to British markets would remain
unimpeded and that it could retain its traditional trading pattern of
running surpluses to Britain and deficits with the United States. In
Canada, the loan negotiations became wrapped up in nationalist
rhetoric, while in the United States, other domestic concerns would
intrude onto an ordinarily somewhat dry, economic policy matter. This
is then the story of a path to temptation and its consequences.
hm 5/11/09

Declarations of Dependence: Labor, Personhood, and Welfare in South Africa and Beyond
2009-05-19 00:00
JAMES FERGUSON is Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Stanford University
South Africa has in recent decades gone through a wrenching transformation from a labor-scarce society to a labor-surplus one. Labor scarcity through most of the 19th and 20th centuries led to forms of social solidarity and social personhood that had significant continuities with the pre-colonial past (continuities that are obscured by conventional narratives that emphasize the rise of capitalism as a complete and comprehensive break with the past). It is suggested that the South African experience reveals, in an extreme and clarifying form, a set of processes that are occurring in many other parts of the world. Better understanding such processes may help us to find our way past some of the current impasses in progressive politics. James Ferguson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. Ferguson’s most recent book, Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order, was published by Duke University Press in 2006. He is now beginning a new research project in South Africa, exploring the emergence of new problematics of poverty and social policy under conditions of neoliberalism.
Sponsored by the IHC’s African Studies RFG, the Department of History, and the Department of Anthropology.
hm 5/15/09

Edward Teller the Communist? American Scientists and the National Security State during the Cold War (4PM in McCune Room; 6th Floor HSSB)
2009-05-20 00:00
The recent release of the FBI files on Edward Teller has revealed the bureau’s suspicion and investigation of the “father” of the American hydrogen bomb as a possible communist. Almost certainly the result of a mistaken identity, the FBI’s case on Teller, one of the most outspoken anti-communist Hungarian-American scientists, nevertheless sheds lights on the complex relationships between American scientists and the national security state during the Cold War, especially when compared with the experiences of his political rivals J. Robert Oppenheimer and members of the President’s Science Advisory Committee. This paper is co-authored by Lawrence Badash who will be present at the talk and lead the question period.

Alone, Unattended and Unexplained: American Lenses and Mexican Subjects in the Borderlands, 1930-1945
2009-05-21 00:00
This presentation discusses the ambivalent attitudes of U.S. photographers regarding Mexican/Chicano subjects in the 1930-40s Borderlands. It analyzes the ways in which meaning was constructed in the visual representations of Mexican Nationals and Mexican American subjects in the United States, while incorporating the historical context of public policies regarding the presence of worker of Mexican origin/descent in the national agricultural landscape. Focusing on photographic materials by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and others, most of them unpublished, the presentation unveils the complex thread of photographing Mexicans while abiding by the long standing tradition of placing them against pre-conceived backgrounds and complying with the emerging rules of modern photography documentary practices.
Juan Javier Pescador (historian & photographer) teaches Chicano History and Mexican Cultures in the United States at Michigan State University. His recent publications include “Los Heroes del Domingo: Soccer Associations and Border Spaces in the Great Lakes Mexican/Chicano Barrios” in Jorge Iber and Samuel O. Regalado (eds.), Mexican Americans and Sports (College Station: Texas A&M, 2007) and Crossing Borders with the Santo Nino de Atocha: A History of the Holy Child of Plateros (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, forthcoming). His current research project analyzes the history of photography in Mexico and the United States and the process of racialization of Mexicans in the United States, in photography and the visual arts, from the Mexican-American War to the NAFTA-era.
jwil 18.v.09

The Stones of Famagusta: The Story of a Forgotten City
2009-05-21 00:00
The Mediterranean Research Focus Group of the IHC and the Medieval Studies Program present “The Stones of Famagusta: The Story of a Forgotten City” followed by a discussion with the director, writer, and presenter Allan Langdale of UC Santa Cruz. The film and discussion will be from 4-6pm in HSSB 6020.
In the film art historian and filmmaker Dr. Allan Langdale takes you on a bicycle tour of the once famous medieval city of Famagusta, Cyprus. Once considered the world’s richest city, Famagusta is now largely forgotten by the West. Explore the wonders of the gothic churches and monasteries, the ruins of Venetian palaces, the fabulous two-mile long walls and moat, Byzantine churches, Ottoman baths, and some of Famagusta’s unique and mysterious underground churches.
For more information contact Ed English.
jwil 13.v.09

Ancient Map, Modern State: Toward a Geo-History of the Meiji Restoration
2009-05-26 00:00
The continuing career of Shinano Province as present-day Nagano Prefecture suggests that the reformers of the Meiji era (1868-1912) recruited classical geography to the cause of administrative reform. Under the guise of new toponyms, nineteenth-century oligarchs effectively reinscribed an ancient set of imperial boundaries on the landscape of modern Japan. This classicizing strategy was not altogether new; nor was it promoted solely by power-holders at the center. Dating from the era of the unification wars in the sixteenth century, the project of restoring the ritsuryo map was ultimately embraced and carried forward by local literati in the provinces themselves. This illustrated talk will explore these issues through an examination of maps and gazetteers from central Honshu. Kären Wigen is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University. A geographer by training, she brings a spatial sensibility to the Japanese past. Her research interests have ranged from economics to education, from mountains to the oceans, and from the local to the global. Her recent work centers on cartography, chorography, and regionalism in central Japan.
Sponsored by the East Asia Center, the IHC’s East Asian Cultures RFG, the IHC, and the departments of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, History, and Geography.
hm 5/19/09

From "State Interference to the 'Return to the Market': The Rhetoric of Economic Regulation from the Old Gilded Age to the New
2009-05-29 00:00
Professor Furner’s talk will be the final session in Spring quarter of the Seminar on Work, Labor, and Political Economy.
The public is invited to attend.
hm 5/22/09

The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood
2009-06-01 00:00
Professor Ursula Mahlendorf, Professor Emerita of the Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies and a founder of the Feminist Studies Department at UCSB, will offer a reading from her memoir published this spring about her childhood in Silesia and her early adolescent membership in the Hitler Youth. Publisher’s Weekly calls it “An eye-opening, honest and absorbing account of how evil takes root and flourishes among ordinary people.”
Sponsored by the Senior Women’s Council and the Department of Feminist Studies.
amazon.com page
hm 5/27/09

The global history of wax prints and its implications on female dress in urban South Ghana
2009-06-04 00:00
The Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies presents
“The global history of wax prints and its implications on female dress in urban South Ghana”
Silvia Ruschak
Global History Working Group
University of Vienna
WHEN: Thursday, June 4, 2009 — 12:00
WHERE: Orfalea Center seminar Room, 1005 Robertson Gym
This presentation will focus on the history of textiles – specifically, the
global history of industrially printed fabrics for the Ghanaian market
called wax prints. The usually colourful and manifold fabrics are nowadays
commonly known as traditional Ghanaian fabrics. However, their history is
rather young and the result of complex colonial, economic and cultural
interactions.
In the mid 19th century Dutch factory owners and merchants tried to conquer
the Indonesian batik market with industrially printed imitations of hand
made Javanese batik. They however were not successful in satisfying the
local market for various reasons. Entangled economic and colonial
interactions brought the fabrics to the former Gold Coast – today’s Ghana –
where they quickly got very popular. Especially since Ghana’s independence
from Britain in 1957 the fabrics have been carrying national as well as
gendered significances.
After giving a quick overview of the global history of wax prints in the
19th century and the adaptation of designs to the Ghanaian context I am
going to analyse their importance in contemporary urban South Ghana. How
are wax prints incorporated into everyday dressing? Who wears clothes made
of wax prints and when? What is the gender of wax prints? How do they
communicate different constructions of social status, sexuality and
nationality? Selected examples from oral history material and public media
serve as starting point for analysing these questions. They are
additionally read against mainly sociological and anthropological theories
of dressing and fashion. The aim of the presentation is to show how fabrics
and dressing can be used as rich historic sources to elaborate
socio-economic, cultural and gender related research questions.
Silvia Ruschak
Silvia Ruschak is a contemporary historian with a special focus on global
gender and fashion history. She is working at the Department of
Contemporary History at the University of Vienna where she also teaches and
is part of the Global History Work Group. She has recently submitted her
PhD with the title: Fabrics that create global history. Stations in the
cultural biography of wax prints in urban South Ghana for which she has
gathered archival material as well as oral sources in Ghana, Great Britain
and the Netherlands. During her stay at the Orfalea Center, Silvia Ruschak
is going to research into the question in how far fabrics produced in or
for West Africa are relevant for identity constructions of African
Americans. Thus she wants to follow the global history of the Ghanaian wax
prints within the US.
hm 5/28/09

Department BBQ
2009-06-05 00:00
It’s that time again! The end of the year history department BBQ is Friday, June 5, from 4-6 pm at Stow Grove Park, 580 La Patera Lane,
Goleta. We will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, buns, and
non-alcoholic beverages. There is a sign-up sheet on the mail room
door. It would be great if you could bring a bottle of wine and sign up
to bring an appetizer, side dish, or dessert (and accompanying serving
utensils). There will also be coolers with ice to chill the beverages.
Please RSVP by Monday, June 1, so we can get an accurate headcount for
food purchase. Partners, family members, children and anyone else all
welcome.
Colleen’s e-mail for RSVP: colleen_ho@umail.ucsb.edu
Tradition has it that we have a US vs. world historian softball game (and
since I’ve been here, world has dominated?at least, that’s how I remember
it). It doesn’t matter how we divide up teams, I just think it would be
great to play a game. Also let me know if you have any bats, balls,
gloves, helmets, etc.
hm 5/26/09
