UCSB Santa Barbara Department of History logo

UCSB History Associates

UCSB History Associates president Helen Murdoch
Helen Murdoch, History Associates President

From Our President:

The UCSB History Associates was created in 1987 with the dual purpose of bringing members of the community interested in history together with UCSB faculty through an annual program of lunches and lectures, and raising money to support graduate training in History at UCSB. We invite you to become part of this exciting and informative partnership.

View the Board Members

View History Associates Awards & Fellowships

Give to the History Associates Graduate Fellowship

History Associates Membership Form

History Associates YouTube Channel

History Associates Donation Form

View the Historía Archive

You can also reach us at historyassociates@ia.ucsb.edu and ucsbhapresident@ia.ucsb.edu.


Picture of shipThe History of the History Associates

The sketch above comes with a past (of course). Our founding president was Dick Cook, a former advertising executive who came to Santa Barbara to retire. He started sitting in on History classes and enjoyed them so much he wanted to do something to make it easier for others to make use of UCSB’s resources, and to help the History Department at the same time. To get the UCSB History Associates off the ground, he asked his friend, local artist Barnaby Conrad, to draw something for our first mailer.

That was in 1987. We started with about 50 members, and in our first year a beaming Dick Cook presided over the award of $600 in fellowships for graduate student support. Twenty years later, more than 200 History Associates have raised more than half a million dollars in support for present and former grad students who are teaching everywhere in the United States and abroad.

True to Dick Cook’s vision, the History Associates sponsor a series of talks and programs to bring together award-winning UCSB History faculty and interested members of our far-flung community. Recent events have ranged from talks on ancient Greek warfare to modern Middle East politics, from a panel discussion of The DaVinci Code to a behind-the-scenes viewing of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America.

We invite you to become part of this exciting and ongoing relationship. Members are eligible for reduced-price admission to a number of UCSB activities and receive the History Department’s Historía newsletter, published six times a year. It’s a great way to keep in touch with people and events in History.