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.

In this course, you will learn how historians, art historians, archaeologists, journalists and creative professional have interpreted different types of primary sources, including received texts, inscriptions, archaeological data from tombs and settlement sites, sculpture, paintings, and other works of art and architecture concerning the reign of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) in Egypt. We will pay close attention to how they use evidence, and the nature of their arguments and narrative structure.  You will then model these practices in your own interpretation of this pharaoh and his times.  No experience with Egyptian history necessary.

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 with permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.

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 with permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.

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

Explores how science, technology and/or medicine have helped shape modern societies (roughly 1850-present). Themes include formation of scientific and technical communities, the interactions of science with political and popular culture, and the social context of knowledge production.

Exploration of same-sex intimacies and gender variance in ancient Greek, pre-modern Oceania, medieval Europe, Tokugawa Japan, modern Africa, and North America. Introduction to the theoretical questions in the study of sexuality and how scholars have used these tools.

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

Examines how sex and gender legitimized the process of settler colonial rule across the globe. Students interrogate the ways that ideas about sex and gender privileged particular selves at the expense of others in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Pays particular attention to the economic, political, and cultural structures of colonial rule that settlers established to remove and erase Indigenous peoples and histories. Also consider how those dispossessed, disenfranchised and discriminated against resisted settler-colonial rule into the twenty-first-century world.

Research seminar in modern Russian and Soviet 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.

The rise of a world religion and the emergence of a new multi-ethnic society under its aegis; the evolution of social and political institutions within the Universal caliphate; the creation of a specifically Islamic culture and intellectual life.

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

The intersection between leisure and politics is a consistent feature of African history, and it is a complex, creative intersection that produces and transacts history in dynamic ways. Utilizing ancient transcripts and records of performative cultures, contemporary music, primary and secondary interpretations of African cultural life, this course provides a deep and timely exploration of the fertile intersection between cultural performativity and power from ancient times to the present. Performative cultures are therefore political, and so also are they spiritual, economic and deeply embedded in questions of science and technology.

Africa is the only continent with a Muslim majority, with more than a quarter of the worlds 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 worlds 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.

A history of the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed on the causes of the Civil War, the outstandingdevelopments of the war itself, and the major consequences of the reconstruction period.

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

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.

Research seminar that examines the history of consumption and consumer cultures in the United States. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary sources, to produce an original research paper.

Eurasia is the largest geographical feature on earth. It gave birth to the earliest civilizations and fostered the antecedents of many modern cultures. Yet, in much historical writing, the regions of Eurasia are treated as isolated units with independent trajectories. This is an artifact of nationalism and ignores the key role that trans-Eurasian interaction played in world history. This course investigates the movement of people, technology, ideas, and images across Eurasia from 3,000 BC to the present. It encourages one to think of a past world without national boundaries, a vast interconnected organism inside which materials and ideas were transmitted in all directions, adapted to the cultural and environmental needs of specific areas.

Leads students to understand some of the most important ideas, theories, and concepts in Modern China.

The history of Japan since World War II, dealing with the American occupation, economic recovery and growth, social change, and political development.

A research seminar on Japanese History. Course culminates in a 10-20 page research paper. Topics vary by quarter.

This course examines the main ideologies guiding the establishment of various representations of sexuality from prewar scientific writings to contemporary popular culture. Same course as Japanese 162 and Anthropology 176.

We will be collectively creating the first Social Justice Tour of Santa Barbara! This course offers a unique fusion of public history, social history, ethnohistory, ethnic studies, historical tourism, civic engagement, storytelling, and cultural geography. Students will use archival research to design and deliver a site-specific public history tour created for invited guests from across campus and the local community. Our course will rely heavily on a hands-on approach to learning, researching, and practicing public history methodologies appropriate for documenting, interpreting, and presenting experiences of marginalized communities. The course will help students gain understanding and insights into the issues of collecting and presenting historical information about communities and individuals around the social categories of race, Indigeneity, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class; and help develop critical collaboration skills within the practice of public history.

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.

Through this year-long internship, students work under faculty direction to produce an issue of the UCSB History Department’s Undergraduate Journal. Students meet every two weeks and gain practical experience in scholarly publishing disseminating calls for papers, soliciting undergraduate contributions, locating peer reviewers, facilitating revisions with authors, and bibliographic and copywriting work. They also gain a working knowledge of the UCSB Library’s online publication platform, which will host the journal. Students utilize various digital humanities tools – podcasts, social media, and websites – to promote the undergraduate research being published in the Journal as well as host an annual showcase of scholars’ work. This is part one of a two-quarter internship. Students will earn 4 units total upon completion of HIST 196JB. Use HIST 196JC to earn credit for journal participation beyond two quarters.

Students gain practical experience by working in organizations or initiatives engaged in addressing poverty and inequality through policy analysis, advocacy, direct social provision, community action, and/or political organizing. Opportunities to cultivate problem-solving, communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills needed to work effectively in institutional or collectively organized settings and to gain exposure to professional, post-graduate educational and training, and related career opportunities in anti-poverty and social justice fields. Students work under faculty supervision to produce reports, a research paper, or other types of creative material based on their experiences. This course fulfills a requirement for the Minor in Poverty, Inequality, and Social Justice. Must be taken for a letter grade. Cross-listed with GLOBAL 196SJ. Formerly cross-listed with GLOBAL 177SJ.

The nation has figured prominently in both freedom and unfreedom across the African diaspora. By considering key interventions in studies of Black internationalism and the African diaspora, participants will learn about the various ways Black people have operated internationally and nationally to secure rights and liberation in opposition to white supremacy and imperialism from slavery to the present. In so doing, we will take an intersectional approach to consider how categories including identity, economic status, race, gender, and sexuality shape Blackness, transnationalism, and the nation.

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. May be repeated for credit. Open to both M.A. and Ph.D. candidates.

Intensive study of specific problems in the history of science. Topics vary from year to year, and students may therefore repeat the course for credit.

This course is a methods and historiography reading seminar led by faculty specializing in the history of South Asia, Middle East, and Africa. The course aims to familiarize students with historical methods, source-criticism, archival practices, and epistemic genealogies of socio-cultural conventions about the past rooted in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The emphasis on power and epistemology in archives explores questions about historical ethnographies in pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial contexts, critical approaches to reading/hearing/sighting historical traces, working with oral sources, readings of texts in African and Asian languages, embodied historical practices, and unpacking colonial recording conventions.

Research seminar in selected issues in comparative history. Such topics might include urban history, history of religion, slavery, the family, gender systems, and consumer societies. Themes vary with instructor.

Research seminar in selected issues in comparative history. Such topics might include urban history, history of religion, slavery, the family, gender systems, and consumer societies. Themes vary with instructor.

Two-quarter graduate seminar on digital history with a strong practical focus. Includes training in the use of digital tools and digital methodologies. Students produce a digital history project by the end of the second quarter based on their own research.

Seminar introduces the important issues, themes, and literature in Latin American history, from the independence movements to the end of the nineteenth century.

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.

This year-long interdisciplinary colloquium brings together graduate students and UCSB scholars who study the histories of women, gender, or sexuality across time and space. It introduces students to current literature and contemporary debates through readings, discussion, and public presentations by visiting scholars, UCSB scholars, and graduate students. Participants will meet every other week. Preparation might include coordinating readings for discussion, writing a chapter/article for peer review, or presenting original research to colloquium members.

A year-long professional colloquium on major topics and new work in Public History. Leading practitioners share theory and practice of the discipline in talks, workshops, and occasional field visits. Relevant reading and writing assigned. Meets three to four times per quarter.