Latest News

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 […]

Sarah Case and Norah Kassner have curated a UCSB Library exhibition about UCSB forerunner Anna Blake Normal School, which runs until Dec. 20, 2018. See this Aug. 7 UCSB Current […]

Mexican peasants played an important role in the sourcing of synthetic hormones for birth control. Twenty years ago, NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement — removed barriers to […]

We are heartbroken to note the passing of Paul Baltimore, who received his PhD in History from UCSB in 2014. Paul died in Sacramento on April 8, 2021, having taught […]

Secondary-level female education played a foundational role in reshaping women’s identity in the New South. In Leaders of Their Race: Educating Black and White Women in the New South, Sarah […]

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: […]

History Graduate Student Picks Up Coveted Academic Senate Award for 2012-13 Nicole Pacino was awarded the UCSB Academic Senate’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award for 2012-13. Past winners of this award […]

With articles on political mudslinging in history, power teachers, student bloopers and more. In this issue: — John Majewski to speak on political mudslinging — Ingrid Dineen-Wimberly starts new fund […]

You can read the article here: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/l-a-teachers-prepare-to-strike

Prof. Erika Rappaport’s book A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World was recently awarded the biannual Book Prize at the Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies (the PCCBS is an […]

Studies in Late Antiquity, edited by UCSB’s Professor Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, is a forum for innovation and reflection on global Late Antiquity (150-750 CE) which questions and expands on received […]

With Spring 2018 registration beginning soon, here are some History classes to consider.  And, check out our full Spring 2018 schedule of classes. History 9: Introduction to Historical Methods– Hiroshima […]

The History Department welcomes its 7 newest members! Standing (l. to r.): Eun Ah Kim, Annette Kassis, Joshua Rocha, Hanni Jalil, Director of Graduate Studies Sharon Farmer, History Chair John […]

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 […]

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 […]

Historian Eric Foner spoke at UCSB on Tuesday March 3 From an article in the UCSB Current: Foner’s talk focuses on his latest book, “Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History […]

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 […]

Recently, a number of faculty members in the History Department have received awards and honors from various professional organizations and on-campus entities. Join us in congratulating the following faculty members […]

Middle East Medievalists honor Humphreys for his contributions to the field. Middle East Medievalists (MEM), an affiliate of the Middle East Studies Association, brings together scholars studying the Islamic lands […]

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 […]

“Analyzing Culture with Google Books: Is It Social Science?” OPINION: Discovering fun facts by graphing terms found among the 5 million volumes of the Google Books project sure is amusing […]

Contributes to UCSB’s 2013-14 Critical Issues in America Series on “The Great Society at 50.” Prof. Alice O’Connor, an expert on poverty and U.S. social policy, appeared on NPR’s Marketplace […]

The following History graduate seminars will be offered in Spring 2008. For more information on a particular seminar, please contact its instructor. Ancient History 201E: The Roman Revolution. Prof. Digeser, […]

Studies in Late Antiquity is edited by Prof. Elizabeth DePalma Digeser of the UCSB History Department.  Check out the contents of the latest issue below.   Studies in Late Antiquity […]

The United States’ long record on race is, shall we say, checkered. Even in a time when an African-American sits in the White House and mixed-race families are common, issues […]

Congratulations to James F. Brooks, whose French translation of his book Mesa of Sorrows: A History of the Awat’ovi Massacre, was just reviewed in Le Monde.   https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2018/06/21/histoire-massacre-au-sein-du-peuple-hopi_5318705_3260.html    

“Education gets pounded on a lot… As local educators we need to redeem history by coming together with the community, sink our teeth into the truths of history, and to […]

Opinion piece drawn from McCray’s forthcoming book Prof. Patrick McCray recently wrote an opinion piece for CNN about the novel ways in which the United States is pursuing spaceflight capability […]

The Premio del Rey is awarded to the best book on medieval Spain published in the past two years. Prof. Blumenthal’s 2009 book has won the AHA’s Premio del Rey […]

Professor Bouley’s Pious Postmortems: Anatomy, Sanctity and the Catholic Church in Early Modern Europe explores the complex connection between the spiritual and physical realms in Catholicism by exploring the widespread practice of […]

Read below for an update on the changes to P/NP grading policies for the W21 quarter. ———————————————————————   As many of you may be aware, the Academic Senate has just […]

Perlstein’s new book is on “The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan.” The August 31, 2014 New York Times Book Review section’s interview with Rick Perlstein contained this […]

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a tenure-track position (rank open). We seek applications from scholars in any geographic and chronological specialization, […]

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, […]

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. […]

Click here to watch a short interview with Prof. McDonald about her recent book, Placing Empire: Travel and the Social Imagination in Imperial Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2017).

He is also quoted in a June 7, 2012 AP news report on the Wisconsin election. Nation’s unions lost big in the Wisconsin showdown By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Some […]

This Monday, Professor McDonald’s new book Placing Empire: Travel and the Social Imagination in Imperial Japan was written up in the UCSB Current.  Congratulations, Professor McDonald!

Professor April Haynes, a 2009 PhD graduate of the UCSB History Department, has been awarded the Mellon New Directions Fellowship, which will pay for a two-year research leave and one […]

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 […]

Crime and Punishment in the Russian Revolution Mob Justice and Police in Petrograd Tsuyoshi Hasegawa “This book makes a fundamental contribution to our understanding of the Russian Revolution by revealing […]

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 […]

Two faculty positions have just been filled: Sub-Saharan Africa and Modern China To read the original job announcements please go to SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA FACULTY POSITION (application deadline: Nov. 7, 2008) […]

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 […]

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 […]

An overview of the latest books and articles from UCSB historians. Beth Depalma Digeser, The Threat to Public Piety: Christians, Platonists and the Great Persecution (Cornell UP, 2012) (amazon) In […]

The History Department was saddened to learn that our colleague Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Russell passed away on April 12. We would like to share with you the message of condolence […]

The program of courses, panel discussions, conferences, public lectures, and symposia runs throughout the 2013-14 academic year. A new History Department webpage has been launched as part of an ongoing […]

David Baillargeon, who works with Prof. Erika Rappaport on the British colonial empire, has just accepted a position as college fellow at the University of Nottingham. It is a three […]

Awat’ovi Pueblo is among the loneliest of places I’ve walked. Once the most vibrant town in the ancient Puebloan Southwest, center of a vast exchange network of decorated pottery, maize, […]

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 […]

Erika Rappaport’s new book, A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World garners another major review. This time in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, Holiday Edition. […]

Congratulations to Professor Hilary J. Bernstein whose new monograph, Historical Communities: Cities, Erudition, and National Identity in Early Modern France, has been published by Brill. The book explores the outpouring […]

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 […]

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 […]

Alumni and supporter newsletter features in-depth articles about department news & events This issue’s news includes features on: — Adam Sabra named Cleveland Dodge Professor (p. 1) — Lectures on […]

Professor Miroslava Chavez-Garcia has received the Bolton-Cutter Prize from the Western History Association for the best article in Spanish Borderlands history for her piece “Migrant Longing, Courtship, and Gendered Identity in […]

“He Likes Cats,” about a homeless man in Santa Barbara, available on edhat.com The community news aggregator has published Frank’s latest story “He Likes Cats.” Edhat also has photos of […]

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) […]

Let the Games Begin With the 2016 Olympics just over in Brazil, UC Santa Barbara scholars including Prof. John W.I. Lee discuss the origins and significance of the Games.  Click here to […]

Congratulations are in order for graduating senior Ebelechukwu Eseka, a History minor and Sociology major. At the end of her undergraduate career, UCSB has recognized her impressive accomplishments in three […]

9/21/17 update: On Friday October 13 there will be a book launch with Prof. Rappaport and guest speakers, in UCSB Theater-Dance West 1701 auditorium, from 5 to 7pm. Recent books […]

Dating from the 3rd-2nd centuries BC, the texts are a gold mine of information for ancient China’s social and legal history. In an ancient tomb in China’s Hubei Province, archeologists […]

Journalists, politicians, and historians are comparing the Biden Administration’s ambitious economic and social agenda to that of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Illuminating that tentative and provocative judgement are two […]

Recent books, articles, awards & achievements of UCSB historians UCSB Historians keep busy publishing new and innovative historical research. Here are the most recent titles, awards and achievements, listed alphabetically […]

The first episode of a podcast that alumna Caitlin Rathe (PhD, 2019) has been a part of creating since August 2018 has gone live! The NEH-funded project, LBJ and the […]

UCSB Emeritus Professor of History, Harold Clark Kirker, died in San Francisco on May 30, 2018, just a few days before his 97th birthday.  Professor Kirker, who served in the […]

Alumni and Supporter Newsletter Features In-Depth Articles about Department Events Articles include: — panel discussion of Pope Benedict XVI March 5 — Historians take to the airwaves — Len Marsak […]

The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill that changed oil and gas exploration forever On Wednesday, May 20, 2015, over 100,000 gallons of oil gushed from an underground pipeline north of […]

U.S. historian Majewski one of ten UC professors named in new book. Ten University of California faculty members and lecturers are included in The Princeton Review’s new guidebook for the […]

Alumni and supporter newsletter reports on the end-of-year awards garnered by undergrads, grads and faculty In this issue: –Chinatown event set for June 13 –Honors for Sarah Cline and Paul […]

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 […]

“Confederate Monuments Always Embodied a White Heritage of Hate” in Haaretz, Aug. 17, 2017 The coupling of neo-Nazism with neo-Confederate hate displayed in Charlottesville has helped strip away the thin […]

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 […]

The Hopi community of Awat’ovi existed peacefully on Arizona’s Antelope Mesa for generations until one bleak morning in the fall of 1700—raiders from nearby Hopi villages descended on Awat’ovi, slaughtering […]

Professor Hasegawa has added to his impressive list of publications The February Revolution, Petrograd, 1917. It is the most comprehensive book on the epic uprising that toppled the tsarist monarchy and ushered […]

Prof. Lindemann was able to save his house from the firestorm. See his story and a Santa Barbara Independent article about how. The photos on the left are some shots […]

10:00am – 12:00pm; HSSB 4020 We are pleased to invite you to the Annual UC Santa Barbara History Department Graduation Reception. Please join the History faculty and your fellow students […]

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. […]

A collection of essays co-edited by Prof. Elena Aronova titled Science Studies during the Cold War and Beyond: Paradigms Defected, has recently been published. This book – a contribution to the history of science […]

History Professor Brad Bouley gave a lecture on “The Black Plague, 1346-1351″ that was recorded recently by UCSB Admissions and made available to our incoming students for the coming academic […]

Professor Miroslava Chavez-Garcia has just published her new monograph, Migrant Longing: Letter Writing Across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, with the University of North Carolina Press. Drawing upon a personal collection of more […]

With news about many recent faculty and graduate student awards and accolades The new issue of Historia, the UCSB History Department’s newsletter for alumni and supporters, is now available for […]

Cover stories: Hire of new environmental historian; “Did Comanches call the shots?” [12/10/08: temporarily unavailable] The current and all past issues of Historia, the newsletter of the UCSB History Associates, […]

Congratulations to Tim Paulson, who has accepted a faculty position at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Tim’s graduate research, which combined economic, labor, social, and environmental history, focused on […]

Job # JPF01193 The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a pool of qualified temporary lecturers to teach a course (or courses) in history […]

Display in Library’s Special Collections runs through April 30, 2012. History professor John Majewski and Ph.D. student Maria Fedorova have curated a wonderful exhibit on the Emancipation Proclamation in the […]

In honor of Black History Month, the Journal of American History asked Professor Peniel Joseph of the University of Texas to curate a special on-line issue designed to highlight ten […]

Prof. Lichtenstein and Prof. Richard Applebaum have been awarded five-year chairs; they will focus on Human Rights in the Workplace: At Home and Abroad. Richard Appelbaum and Nelson Lichtenstein have […]

The November issue of the academic journal The Public Historian has been published and can be viewed here. Since 1978, The Public Historian has made its mark as the definitive voice of the […]

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. […]

Until now, all History majors have had to take a Proseminar course (with a “P” in its course number). Starting in Fall 2007, new courses with “DR” (Directed Readings) in […]

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 […]

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 […]

The History Department was saddened by the death of Professor Emeritus Carl Harris on May 14 of this year. Professor Harris, who joined the UCSB history faculty in 1968 and […]

The full text is available in this News item.>br> UCSB History Ph.D. Elizabeth “Ellie” Shermer (homepage) was the 2009 commencement speaker at the June 14 ceremony for those receiving graduate […]

Doctoral candidates Addison Jensen and Mattie Webb announce the formation of the Cold War Working Group (CWWG), a subset of the Center for Cold War Studies and International History (CCWS). The […]

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a pool of qualified temporary lecturers to teach a course (or courses) in History for the […]

View the slideshow featuring the research projects of undergraduates who graduated at the virtual June ceremony. Included are students’ senior honors theses, History of Public Policy and Law senior theses, […]

Bodies and Structures 1.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History is now live. The website, a collaboration between Kate McDonald and North Carolina State University professor David Ambaras, is a platform for […]