Department of History

Survey of the peoples, cultures, and social, economic, and political systems that have characterized the world’s major civilizations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania from prehistory to 1000 CE.

Survey of the peoples, cultures, and social, economic, and political systems that have characterized the world’s major civilizations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania from 1700 to present.

Survey of the history of Modern Europe, 1650-present. Discusses the major social, political, religious, and cultural characteristics and developments of the period, as well as key interactions between Europe and other parts of the world. Weekly discussion sections are an important feature of this course, enabling students to develop and expand upon material presented during the lecture hour.

Deals with major issues in Latin America’s historical formation: pre-Hispanic cultures, Spanish conquest, role of colonial institutions, development of trade, eighteenth- century reform,independence, formation of nations; and identify major issues in current Latin American affairs.

Through studying a particular topic in history, students gain insight into historical methods and skills. Course designed for freshmen and sophomore history majors or prospective majors. Others may enroll by permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.

World War I to the present. A survey of the leading issues in american life from colonial times to the present. The course focuses on politics, cultural development, social conflict, economic life, foreign policy, and influential ideas. Features discussion sections.

A general introduction to the history, politics, culture, and social life of the modern Middle East. Begins with the nineteenth century Ottoman reforms known as the Tanzimat and moves on to cover capitalist consolidation, the rise of European colonialism, the state-building process, social movements, Cold War politics, and the growth of the oil industry. Pays particular attention to how twentieth century transformations shaped new modes of identification including nationalism and citizenship, feminism, sectarianism, pan-Arabism, Third Worldism, Islamism.

1800 – 1945. History 49-A-B-C is a general survey course designed to introduce students to major themes in African history. The course focuses on African civilizations and identities, European colonial conquests, governance and colonial economies, African resistance and engagement with global capitalism. Weekly discussion sections are an important feature of this course, enabling students to develop and expand upon material presented during lecture.

A basic introduction to the history of Japanese culture from its origins to the present day, with particular emphasis on the evidence of architecture and painting (presented through audiovisual modules). Selected examples of fiction and poetry will also be used.

An undergraduate research seminar in World history. Topics will vary based on the instructor. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.

Examines the relationship between history and fiction in several historically-based novels and films. Course themes and content will vary based on instructor.

Explores the creation of early modern scientific and religious knowledge by focusing on one of the most famous conflicts between the two: The Trial of Galileo. During this class students study the foundations of early scientific knowledge, read primary sources related to early modern understanding of the natural world, and seek to understand how conflicts between different regimes of knowledge have been navigated in the past. The influence of Galileo’s trial on the perception of science and the Church in European history are considered at the end of the course.

Examines the evolving relationships between science and Cold War geopolitics through key episodes from the natural as well as social sciences on both sides of the ideological divide. Topics examined include: science/state relationship, arms race, the military-industrial-academic complex, Big Science, government secrecy, the space race, environmentalism.

Seminar, with a required research paper, on the relationship between science and technology and society. Topics, one each course, will include Hiroshima and Nagasaki, arms race, arms control, science and social responsibility, politics of science, scientific advice to government, civilian uses of nuclear energy. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.

A seminar in early modern European history, 1450-1700. Students develop research skills and use them to complete a research topic of their choice in early modern European history. Emphases will vary with instructor and offering.

European history from the end of World War II to the present.

European history from the fall of Napoleon to the end of the nineteenth century.  

Spring 2020 will have a special focus on 19th century Italian History. 

Culture, society, and politics in Britain since 1914. Topics include the impact of war on society, the economy and empire; the welfare state and changing roles of women, consumer and youth cultures; the new left and new right.

Research in modern British social, cultural, economic, and political history. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.

A seminar on a topic in African history. A research paper is required.

Africa is the only continent with a Muslim majority, with more than a quarter of the world’s Muslims living there. Americans tend to associate Islam with Arabs, but Africans greatly outnumber Arabs in the religion. There are more Muslims in Nigeria than in Egypt, more in Ethiopia than Iraq. 1/6th of the world’s Muslims reside in sub-Saharan Africa. How did this come to be? How has the adoption of Islam by Africans shaped their history? And, conversely, how have Africans shaped Islam? We answer these questions by exploring 14 centuries of Islamic African history. We also explore Islam as a system of religious meaning by studying the teachings and writings of African Muslims.

Twentieth-century Latin America: the export economies, industrialization, the rise of U.S. hegemony; populism and military dictatorship in the postwar period; the Mexican and Cuban revolution; Vargas, Peron, Cardenas, Castro, and Allende

A continuation of History 159A. From 1900 to the present.

Readings and assignments assist students in using historical/social science methods to develop a 20-page research paper on some aspect of their internship.

Analysis of developments in foreign affairs after 1945. Formation and execution of foreign policy; interaction between foreign and domestic affairs.

Capstone seminar for the Minor in Poverty, Inequality, and Social Justice. Students participate in structured discussion and in-depth reflection of the knowledge acquired through interdisciplinary coursework and internship experiences, to produce a final paper, series of essays or policy briefs, and/or other kinds of creative products in consultation with the course instructor. Students will present their work at a public symposium, providing an opportunity to hone their public speaking skills, while contributing to community understanding of how poverty and inequality can be addressed through purposive social research and action.

A study of dominant and alternative representations of American values and identity in high and popular culture.

Examines how race, ethnicity, and class have shaped changing attitudes toward and experiences of sex roles, sexuality, child rearing, work patterns, and relationships among men, women, and children. Also explores changing conceptions of the state’s role in family life.

California as a case study of national trends, and as a unique setting with its special problems and culture.

A study of the political, economic, social, and intellectual impact of the city upon American history, and the impact of history upon the growth of American urbanization.

Sixth to seventeenth centuries.

Research seminar in the history of modern China. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.

Explores the cultural, economic, and geopolitical roles of food and drink in world history. Topics include: trade, production, and consumption; global food chains; morality and food reform; identities and body image; scarcity, food scares, and food security.

Historical Literature on 20th Century Europe

This seminar will introduce graduate students to major issues in the historiography of 20^th-century Europe.   While the course is designed to help students prepare for the M.A. and Ph.D. exams in Modern European history, all interested students are welcome.  Because the literature on Modern Europe is so vast, this course does not aim to be comprehensive but to provide a starting point for examining some of the most important historiographical debates about Europe between World War I and the collapse of communism.  Requirements include two oral presentations and a 15-20 page historiographical essay.

The advent of the world wide web and the development of tools to digitize massive amounts of historical source material are augmenting and changing the ways historians find and analyze sources, as well as how they present their work. This reading seminar explores recent literature on these developments. It includes practice in using the internet to gather sources, collaborate with amateur and professional historians, present one’s findings, and interact with consumers of historical representations.

A reading course in a field of the professor’s specialty. Introduces the student to the sources and literature of the field in question. Written work as prescribed by the instructor. LA. Latin America.

HIST 201 ME: The Body and Revolution in Middle East History Spring 2020

The opening salvo of the Arab uprisings in December 2010 was Muhamad Bouazizi’s self-immolation. In the last ten years of political upheaval in the Arab world and the Middle East more broadly, the body has come to the surface, once again, as a site of resistance and submission, of triumph and defeat, of survival and death. In the singular and the collective, bodies challenged calcified orders and norms. In individuals and groups, bodies proposed an alternate public, a different political vision. How do we position the body in politics? What can it teach us about the past, the present, and the future in the Middle East? We will approach the body not as a transparent surface, an instrument, an obstacle, an extension, or a passive object, but as a borderland and a threshold. We will study the experiences and histories of laborers, prisoners, protestors, activists, and every day people. Our aim is to read up, across, and through prisms of class, gender, and colonialism to question the contours and limits of the normal, the healthy, the abled, and the pious.

HIST 201S: History of Science in the Early Modern World

The seminar explores the study of the natural world during the early modern period (roughly 1500 to 1800), highlighting the cultural, intellectual, and political elements that allowed knowledge to be made. In particular, we will challenge triumphal narratives of the Scientific Revolution by examining the ways in which geography and local context affected ideas about the natural world, the role of gender in knowledge-making, and how non-elite and artisanal practices also contributed to the creation of early science. A focus throughout the course will be on how the exchanges between European and non-European intellectual communities shaped contemporary understanding of the natural world. The seminar is intended for graduate students in history and related fields.

A general introduction to selected historiographical issues and historical methods.

This is a two-quarter research and writing seminar.  We want students to reflect on ways in which their research interest may cross a boundary, whether cultural, national, temporal, disciplinary, epistemological, or some other kind. 

A two-quarter in-progress sequence course with grades for both quarters issued upon completion of History 203B. Students must have taken 203A in winter 2020. 

How do human beings manage relations between the seen and unseen worlds? This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between spirituality and radical social change, especially?though not exclusively?among people of color. Visiting scholars and activists will workshop or present original research rooted in the humanities and social sciences and graduate students will read and respond to their work as they develop their own research questions. Short weekly reading responses and one 8-10 page paper are required each term. The goal is to foster collaborative interdisciplinary scholarship on the intersection of racial, religious, and revolutionary thought and practice, irrespective of period or place. 2-quarter course.

A research seminar in selected topics in the history of Europe, 1815 to the present.

This year long interdisciplinary colloquium brings together graduate students who study Japanese history and culture. It introduces current scholarship on Japan via readings, discussions and presentations by visiting scholars, UCSB scholars and graduate students. The colloquium meets bi- weekly. Students will prepare readings for discussion, write a seminar-length paper and present their paper to the colloquium once during the year.

A colloquium introducing the important issues, themes, and literature in the history of the United States, from 1917 to the present. Historiographical in nature, the course assumes a basic familiarity with the period.

Hosts leading scholars of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. whose work touches upon the history and character of work, employment, labor, poverty, race, ethnicity, political economy, and public policy. The colloquium meets three to four times per quarter.

Writing/reading workshop, professionalization seminar, and guest lecture series for graduate students working in area of history of science/technology. Meets monthly throughout the academic year.