Department of History, UC Santa Barbara – UC Santa Barbara, History Department

Winslow Homer, Sunday Morning in Virginia (1877).
The lack of public education in the South--especially for African-Americans--is a part of Professor John Majewski's research into how slavery undermined economic creativity. For more on economic creativity and the coming of the Civil War, please see Prof. John Majewski's faculty page.
History 2A students digging rival canals at Campus Point Beach in Santa Barbara, CA.
Prof. Anthony Barbieri-Low’s HIST 2A class conducts the Wittfogel experiment. Click for more information.
Ancient Borderlands field trip to Ephesus (Summer 2010).
Click to view the Ancient Borderlands website.
The West End of London is one of the largest and most famous shopping and entertainment districts in the world. Learn more by studying Modern British History and getting involved in our research cluster, Commerce, Commodities and Material Cultures. (Click for details on research cluster.)
Prof. John W.I. Lee teaches an on-site seminar at the ancient Greek town of Priene, in modern Turkey.
Prof. Laura Kalman in the Reagan library archives.
Hagia Sophia in modern-day Istanbul was built by the emperor Justinian in the mid-fifth century to replace a church originally built by the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, for his new city, Constantinople. Why did "Constantinople get the works"? Unlike the song, it's not "nobody's business but the Turks." If you want to know why the city is now called "Istanbul," you can contact Prof. Hal Drake. (Click for Prof. Hal Drake's profile page)
US-Mexico border at Nogales, AZ 1910-14 (Click for Prof. Verónica Castillo-Muñoz's faculty page.)
The Great Wall of China
Prof. Tony Barbieri-Low's research and courses focus on Early China, East Asian civilization, and early Chinese history. He teaches graduate courses in specialized topics related to ancient China.
Our department is host to several interdisciplinary research and education initiatives involved in analysis of issues both past and present. (Click for details on Affiliated Centers and Programs)
Anne Clopton D’Ewes’s family Suffolk manor house (Click for Prof. Sears McGee's faculty page.)
Kochi castle on Shikoku island in southern Japan.
Prof. Luke Roberts’ research and courses focus on the Tokugawa era (1600-1868) and premodern Japan.
Arthur E Grimshaw: The Strand (1899) (Click for Prof. Erika Rappaport's faculty page.)
Porta Nigra, Trier, Germany, home of the north-western capital of the late Roman Empire.
Prof. Elizabeth Digeser's research and courses focus on Roman imperialism and the late Roman Empire.
Entrance of Las Inditas into Abiquiu Plaza, New Mexico.
Prof. James Brooks' research includes Southwest Borderlands History, Anthropology and History, Gender & Violence, and the Professoriate in the 21st Century.
Haifa (Click for Prof. Sherene Seikaly's faculty page.)
"The Children of Saint Nicolas" was a popular medieval story concerning the role of charity in relieving the plight of the poor. Prof. Sharon Farmer has published extensively on medieval poverty and charity.
“Pobladores” reading La Republica plebeya. (Click for Prof. Cecilia Méndez Gastelumendi's faculty page.)
The study of imperialism, labor and world history illuminates the connections between this tea plantation in Northern India and the historical nature of globalization and capitalism. Click to view more about our Empires, Borderlands and their Legacies research cluster.
Chinese laborers loading soybeans onto a Japanese merchant ship at the Port of Dalian (J: Dairen), c. 1909.
In the early twentieth century, Japanese imperialists used images such as this one to argue that Japanese enterprises were bringing "circulation" as well as "civilization" to East Asia. Prof. Kate McDonald studies the history of mobility in Japan and the Japanese Empire.
Monica is the face of a new multicultural Germany.
Prof. Paul Spickard studies race, migration, and membership in North America, the Pacific, Asia, and Europe. His current project is "Growing Up Ethnic in Germany."
Prof. Patrick McCray’s research and teaching connects the histories of modern science & technology with contemporary issues.
Madzimbabwe Civilization: the Great Zimbabwe City State.
Prof. Mhoze Chikowero teaches African History from deep time African perspectives.
Woodcut map of New England, 1677. Printed by John Foster, used to illustrate William Hubbard's "Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians," from the London edition.
Prof. Ann Marie Plane teaches an advanced course on New England cultural history; her research and teaching focus on the interaction between European colonists and Native Americans in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.
The change of aesthetics in data representation of the environmental sciences in the 20th century — from the sublime aesthetics of pictorial depictions of aurorae to the mechanical aesthetics of numbers and symbols — is part of Elena Aronova’s research on the history of environmental archives during the Cold War.