Latest News

Pictured: Professor Alice O’Connor, Chris MacMahon, Chloe Roberts, Mika Thornburg, Avian Johnson (tall), Julia Crisler, Sharon Farmer, Nora Kassner, Elizabeth Schmidt, Moriah Ulinskas, Darcy Ritzau, Rhiannon Parisse (not pictured: Neil Johnson, […]

Thanks to all who came to celebrate Larry’s life on October 3, 2010 Our friend and colleague Larry Badash passed away on August 23, 2010, just a few weeks after […]

We are sad to report that Professor Robert Collins passed away on April 11, 2008. The UCSB Daily Nexus of April 15 has an article describing Professor Collins’ contributions to […]

Are we witnessing a ‘General Strike’ in our own time? W.E.B. Du Bois defined the shift from slavery to freedom as a “general strike” — and there are parallels to today […]

The Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Modern German Studies discusses his experiences at UCSB. The UCSB College of Letters & Science web page features this profile of Prof. Michael North, who […]

The Organization of American Historians has appointed UCSB Professor Verónica Castillo-Muñoz to its Distinguished Lectureship Program. She will serve as a Distinguished Lecturer until 2022. Congratulations, Dr. Castillo-Muñoz!

Professor Utathya Chattopadhyaya has been named a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for 2021. The fellowship, which comes with a $60,000 stipend, will support his research […]

The Latin American and Iberian Studies Program’s undergraduate conference has been featured in the UCSB Current! Check it out here. Several members of the History department faculty are part of […]

Rather than have her students write traditional essays in HIST 193F: Food in World History, Elizabeth Schmidt, a graduate student in history, had something else in mind for her summer […]

UCSB offers priority registration, preferred housing, academic mentoring, and other support services for student veterans. UCSB offers priority registration, preferred housing, academic mentoring, and other support services for student veterans. […]

Neushul and Westwick’s highly readable history traces surfing from a sport of Hawaiian kings & queens to a billion-dollar worldwide industry. Peter Neushul and Peter Westwick’s new book on the […]

In addition to the latest US News & World Report rankings, updates link to Times Higher Education and Washington Monthly‘s rankings —————— Update 12/9/10: edhat.com: “UCSB in Citation Leader.” Update […]

“UCSB Historian Examines Ford, Carter Presidencies and the Rise of Conservatism” (Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– It was the decade of disco music, mood rings, and leisure suits. Oil and energy […]

UCSB Press release about exhibition curated by Prof. Farmer and History students This exhibit was curated by six undergraduate history majors and Prof. Sharon Farmer. It is on display in […]

 Paola De La Cruz Paola de la Cruz, a History of Public Policy major, has received the Thomas More Storke Award for Excellence, which is the campus’s highest student honor […]

In addition to Prof. Kate McDonald’s first book, a study on travel in imperial Japan, and Prof. Hal Drake’s examination of miracles in the fourth century Roman empire, summer and […]

Prof Kalman remarks on portrayal of LBJ; others quoted in Jan. 2015 UCSB Current Several critics of the recently released film Selma have remarked that the portrayal of President Johnson […]

Matthew Avery Sutton — who received his PhD in History at UCSB in 2005 — has been awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for the 2016-2017 academic year. His Guggenheim Fellowship will support […]

Congratulations to this year’s winner of the Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award, Dr. Mateo M. Farzaneh, for The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the Clerical Leadership of Khurasani. Dr. […]

Rudy Guevarra, a 2007 UCSB History PhD, has been named one of two recipients of a 2018 Ford Foundation Senior Fellowship.  They give this description of his pathbreaking work: Rudy […]

April Haynes (UCSB History PhD 2009) has won the 2016 SHEAR (Society for the History of the Early American Republic) book prize for her 2015 monograph, Riotous Flesh: Women, Physiology […]

Most faculty who have been around for a while and perhaps a few grad students will remember Jessica Chapman, who studied Vietnamese history at UCSB and wrote a great book: […]

Nicole Archambeau and Ellie Shermer selected from amongst 1200 applicants in national competition. The UCSB History Department is delighted to announce that two of our recent alumnae– Nicole Archambeau and […]

2009-10 job successes continue despite difficult economic situation. UCSB History Ph.D.s continue to distinguish themselves on the academic job market, even in an economic situation that has resulted in the […]

[vimeo 160296399 w=801 h=450] Finding Your Inner Rockstar: UCSB Department of History from UC Santa Barbara on Vimeo.

Dr. Peter Westwick, a lecturer in UCSB’s Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, has been awarded the 2008 Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award from the American Institute […]

We are pleased to announce that five students have been awarded Steve and Barbara Mendell Graduate Fellowships in Cultural Literacy from UCSB’s Walter H. Capps Center for the 2021-2022 academic […]

A whole spate of good news has come through at the end of the academic year! Congratulations to the following current and former graduate students on their accomplishments. The community […]

Also alumni/ae news and history majors going to grad school. JOBS & POSTDOCS Rafaela Acevedo-Field (Latin America; Prof. Cline) has accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professorship in History at Whitworth University […]

Congratulations to Stephan Miescher who has been awarded the 2023 Sidney M. Edelstein Prize from the Society for the History of Technology, honoring A Dam for Africa: Akosombo Stories from […]

This list of publications gives a sample of the interesting and innovative research produced by historians at UCSB. (note: missing from the photograph is Prof. Lee’s A Greek Army on […]

Alumni and graduate students have been prolific as well. Update: See also this 10/6/08 UCSB press release. Update 2: Some 2008 graduate student and alumni publications added at bottom, as […]

Congratulations to the Professor of Soviet and Central Asian History at the Department of History, UCSB, Adrienne Edgar. Her new book Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples: Ethnic Mixing in […]

History Department Statement  George Floyd’s slow, excruciating, and brutal death on May 25, 2020 has sparked a global uprising. The UCSB History Department grieves and stands in solidarity with colleagues […]

Congratulations to Cheryl Jiménez Frei, who just accepted a position in Public History at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and to Ben Ma, who has accepted a position at […]

Dozens of scholarships and fellowships were distributed. For more information on the individual awards and what they are for, see our Awards page. If you click on the name of […]

Prof. Rappoport is a co-organizer. Visit the link below for more information. There will also be a one-day registration option at the conference. The one-day fee will be 1/3 the […]

Santa Barbara’s newsweekly The Independent reports that UCSB History alumna Monica Orozco, previously director of the Mission’s archive and library, will soon become the institution’s first lay director. For the full […]

UCSB Alumna Betty K. Koed ’83, MA ’91, PhD ’99 retired as Historian of the United States Senate this past October 2023. She served as the first female Historian of […]

2009 PhD Ingrid Dineen-Wimberly makes generous gift, to be matched by History Associates. An excerpt from the article in the July 20, 2012 UCSB GradPost: With gratitude for the assistance […]

Prof. Pat Cohen named outstanding graduate mentor; Laurence Christian selected as outstanding teaching assistant. Two History Department members have won campus-wide outstanding teaching awards for 2008-2009. Professor Patricia Cohen won […]

Public invited to panel discussion on Tuesday, March 5th. (Santa Barbara, Calif.) — The announcement by Pope Benedict XVI that he will resign his office at the end of the […]

He will be studying the University of California’s Natural Reserve System Santa Barbara, Calif. –– Four assistant professors at UC Santa Barbara have been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER […]

Last week, a number of UCSB History graduate students organized and participated in the biannual UCSB Graduate Student Medieval Studies Conference. This year’s conference theme was “The Politics of Pleasure: […]

Congratulations to Doug Genens, who was recently awarded the 2019 Everett E. Edwards prize for his article “Fighting Poverty in the Fields: Legal Services and the War on Poverty in […]

Congratulations to Stephanie Seketa, a department graduate who has just been hired as the Director of Academic Affairs at Marist College in New York. This position manages college-wide projects (under the […]

Dr. Holly Roose completed her PhD in History at UCSB last June. Since then, Holly received offers of tenure-track professorships, but she has decided to pursue a higher calling.  She is […]

After 18 years in the making, Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, professor of Chinese history in at the Department of History here at UCSB, released his fifth book on July 28th, 2022. […]

Doctoral Candidate in Public History, Melissa Barthelemy, was interviewed by CBS News KCAL9 about the Spontaneous Memorials created for Kobe Bryant and the other victims of the helicopter crash near […]

April 27-29th marked the 49th annual conference of the Western Association of Women Historians in San Diego. UCSB was extremely well represented at the conference, with more than a dozen historians on […]

Using new kinds of evidence, Fleming recreates lives of common folk in early medieval Britain Robin Fleming received a B.A. (1977) and a Ph.D. (Warren Hollister, 1984) from UCSB. She […]

UCSB alum Jacob Darwin Hamblin is the most recent winner of the Watson and Helen Miles Davis Prize from the History of Science Society. The prize – awarded for the […]

Page with links to news & commentary to foster discussion of this issue(Jan. 2011 to Feb. 2012) Feb. 22, 2012, U to the Rescue blog: “Police Violence and the First […]

President Janet Napolitano and the Chancellors of the University of California on Jan. 29 issued the following statement: We are deeply concerned by the recent executive order that restricts the […]

Feminist scholar Khanum Shaikh is affiliated with the History Department for 2010-2012 For more information, see Khanum’s webpage on the UCLA Women’s Studies website. Her UCSB email is: kshaikh(a)history.ucsb.edu. hm […]

Christian Thought and Racial Science, and Travel in Imperial Japan are their topics. The Religious Pursuit of Race: Christian Thought and the Development of Modern Racial Science With this fellowship […]

Department faculty’s latest accolades from the American Catholic History Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science December 2011Prof. Stefania Tutino‘s Empire of Souls: Robert Bellarmine and the […]

Thanks to the collective efforts of Professors John Lee, Giuliana Perrone, Jarett Henderson, and Anthony Barbieri, Veronica Castillo-Munoz, and graduate student (and VP Advocacy of History Grad Student Association) Emma […]

The UCSB History Department excelled with the most number of donors in the Humanities and Fine Arts during UCSB Give Day 2018.   Thank you to everyone who supported our department […]

The revamped History Department Newsletter for Summer 2020 is now available. Click here for the full interactive version, or download the PDF below. History Department Newsletter (Summer 2020)

If you weren’t able to attend the Education Abroad Program information session for History majors, you can view the recording below!

Studies in Late Antiquity (SLA) is a forum for innovation and reflection on global Late Antiquity (150 – 750 CE) which questions and expands on received models and methods. Primary points […]

Attention History, History of Public Policy and Law, and Medieval Studies majors! If you will be a senior next year, have at least a 3.5 GPA in the upper division […]

Speakers explore how cultural and political commitments shape people’s experience of their own biology. Details on the events listed here are posted in the Events calendar listing of this website. […]

Students and their families visited the History Department table to learn about studying History at UCSB. On Saturday, April 13th, the History Department’s information table at the Spring Insight Open […]

Numerous admitted students stop by History Department table On Saturday, April 4, 2009, the History Department’s Table at the Academic Fair offered friendly advice and information about the History major […]

HIST 209B: The Academic Profession of History, Prof. Cohen, Spring 2012 The class will meet Thursdays from 11 to 1. Listed below are weekly topics as I’ve done them in […]

In honor of Professor Sherene Seikaly‘s thirteen years of service as editor of Arab Studies Journal, the Spring 2020 issue–the final issue under her supervision–has graciously been made open access. You […]

Historia has more in-depth articles about many of the News items on this webpage, as well as features such as the Chair’s column. The current issue (and all past issues) […]

The departmental support group has been bringing historians and community members together since 1987. This year is the 20th anniversary of the UCSB History Associates. The departmental support group was […]

The History Department is now accepting applications for the 2021-22 Senior Honors Thesis Program (HIST 194AH/BH). If you will be a senior next year, have at least a 3.5 GPA […]

  Senior Honors Thesis student Zingha Foma has been chosen as the first  Parker-Tiampo Family Scholar.  The scholarship will support Foma’s research on her senior honors thesis, “The Origin of […]

Professor Sherene Seikaly is among the scholars, activists, and other notables who have created a short video, “When I See Them, I See Us.”  The video examines the similarities (and […]

The History Department’s Colloquium Committee warmly invites you to attend the inaugural session of our FOCAL POINT Dialogues in History series.  Inspired by the History Department’s Statement on the George Floyd Uprising and […]

History Dept. continues to dominate campuswide awards Apr. 11, 2010: The History Department is pleased to announce that Prof. Sarah Cline has been selected as a recipient of an Outstanding […]

Dr. Sarah Case, who is Managing Editor for The Public Historian, published her book Leaders of Their Race: Educating Black and White Women in the New South last year. It has just been reviewed […]

Interactive Campus Memorial for Victims of Isla Vista Killings UC SB’s only on-campus memorial wall honors victims of IV killings By Sara Bush, News-Press Correspondent hm 7/21/14

She provides historical perspective and a prediction. Ex-Benedict: Pope Gives Two Weeks’ Notice By Nick Welsh When Pope Benedict XVI announced this week he was resigning from the Chair of […]

UCSB Visitors: Looking to learn a little about our fair city? Here are some links to get started. Santa Barbara is a very special place. If you’re new to the […]

In fact, UC campuses including UCSB regularly offer both U.S. History and Western Civilization courses. Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently sent a letter to MSNBC anchor Rachael Maddow […]

Feel like time traveling? Zip back to the end of 2020 with The Archive! The History Department newsletter, now called The Archive, last appeared in email inboxes in December 2020, but […]

Dr. Stephanie Seketa, who recently earned her PhD from the History Department in the field of Modern Britain, has published an article in the journal Enterprise & Society. You can […]

Public History PhD Student Melissa Barthelemy has been awarded the Margaret T. Getman and William J. Villa Service to Students Award, for the exhibit that she curated, “We Remember Them: […]

Two UCSB History faculty — Giuliana Perrone and Sherene Seikaly — have been awarded UC Presidents’ Research Fellowships in the Humanities, which will enable them to spend the 2018-2019 academic […]

Professor Lansing to receive Marraro Prize; Professor Barbieri-Low takes Breasted Prize. Two UCSB History faculty have won major book prizes from the American Historical Association. Carol Lansing will receive the […]

Both Professors Cobo and Castillo-Muñoz have been awarded prestigious library fellowships, which is a testament to the quality of their scholarship. Professor Cobo won a yearlong John Carter Brown Library fellowship […]

UCSB History professors Verónica Castillo-Muñoz, Sherene Seikaly, and Sharon Farmer celebrate their new books with Chancellor Henry Yang. Prof. Castillo-Muñoz has just published The Other California: Land, Identity and Politics […]

Professor Zheng has just published her monograph The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China with Stanford University Press. China’s 1911 Revolution was a momentous political transformation. Its leaders, however, […]

Prof. Gabriela Soto Laveaga has won the 2007 Best Article Prize for Health, Science, and Society at the Latin American Studies Association meeting in Montreal. The full citation for her […]

History loves a mystery, and one of the most enduring is the identity of The Man in the Iron Mask. Voltaire got it wrong. So did Alexander Dumas. But Paul […]

Listen to the podcast by Professor Sherene Seikaly as part of the Ottoman History Podcast series. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/230675809″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=’166′ iframe=”true” /]

Men of Capital examines British-ruled Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s through a focus on economy. In a departure from the expected histories of Palestine, this book illuminates dynamic class […]

Professor Sherene Seikaly has won this year’s prestigious Plous Award from UCSB’s Academic Senate. Established in 1957, and named after Harold J. Plous, an Assistant Professor in UCSB’s Department of Economics, […]

Professor Rappaport’s new book A Thirst for Empire has been chosen as the featured review in the next issue of the American Historical Review. Check it out here!

The following are the transcripts from the Academic Senate’s recent awards ceremony during which Professor Erika Rappaport and Professor Salim Yaqub received their distinguished teaching awards. Professor Rappaport joined the Department […]

Professor Alagona has been awarded a visiting fellowship for fall, 2018 at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, where he will be working on his […]

Dr. Giuliana Perrone has been named as one of this year’s Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars by the American Society for Legal History for her paper entitled “Slaves into Citizens: Legitimizing […]

Award honors those who illuminate Mixed racial and cultural experience. Professor Paul Spickard has been awarded the Loving Prize by the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival, a project of […]

Professor Nelson Lichtenstein was featured in a WalletHub piece about the best and worst cities for jobs in California. He was part of a panel of experts who was asked […]