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 1000 to 1700 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 Europe in the Medieval and Early Modern periods, 800-1700. 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.

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.

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.

Sectional crisis through progressivism. 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.

As much as religion or politics, technology has played a central, yet often overlooked role, in the shaping of the modern world. This lower-division undergraduate course presents a social history of technology from roughly the 17th century to the early 21st century. This course is based around a framework of the individuals, issues, and ideas that shaped the development of different technologies and the ways these interacted with one another across time, space, and peoples. In studying this history, we do not accept technology uncritically. Rather, we learn how its use has acted as a powerful force in modern society.

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.

An introduction to the basic issues and themes of Mexican history, from the pre-Hispanic era to the present.

A survey of the history of Chinese civilization from 2,000 BCE to the present, focusing on the origins and later development of political, social, economic, philosophical, religious, and cultural traditions.

Explores the relationship between infrastructure and ideology in the modern world. From urban planning to Bitcoin, we will look at the ways that infrastructure serves as a foundation for social life and as a source of stories and conflicts about the social order. Analyzes infrastructure from a global perspective and draws on examples from France to Singapore. Specific topics to vary by quarter.

Examines the social and scientific impacts of evolutionary ideas from around 1800 through Charles Darwin, the modern evolutionary synthesis, the birth of ecology, and molecular biology. Focus is on America and Western Europe.

Examines how major biological concepts-from evolution to biotechnology-inspired the visions of humanity’s future, as well as the understanding of life and society.

Explores the overlapping worlds of Renaissance Italy, 1300-1500: the vibrant merchant culture; the elegant courts of princes; intellectual circles like the Platonic Academy; famed mercenary captains and their troops; the underworld of male same sex relations, of criminality and prostitution; the lives of women in marriages, in convents and in poorhouses; the workshops and homes of the laboring poor. One central theme is the culture of patronage and the production of extraordinary art.

Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials. Topics addressed: defining a research problem, identifying an original topic, conducting research, citing sources, and presenting results. Intensive writing required.

Family structure; perceptions and ideals of intimate and familial relations; status, perceptions, and experiences of women in Western Europe c. 400-1400 A.D. Special attention on social, political, and religious contexts.

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.

A weekly reading seminar on special topics in the history of Latin America. Depending on the topic, it may include primary sources and works of fiction. Written assignments required.

A research seminar in Latin American 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. Topics addressed: defining a research problem, identifying an original topic, conducting research, citing sources, and presenting results. Intensive writing required.

This course explores and seeks to undo the severe impact the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and enslavement of African men, women, and children in the Americas did to collective perceptions about worth, dignity, gender, and race, in the Atlantic World and beyond. Through the reading of secondary sources, the Slavevoyages.org database, and primary sources, this course will cover aspects of the Atlantic World from the beginning of the sixteenth century, until the end of the nineteenth century. The course will guide everyone in a process of unpacking, reflecting, healing, and re-contextualizing the ways in which historical power dynamics have conditioned how we think of Blackness, Africa, its inhabitants, and people of African descent.  

Research seminar in the history of U.S. antislavery movements from the Revolution to the present. Explores political, social, and cultural approaches.

The history of the U.S. Supreme Court, legal thought, legal education and the legal profession since the late nineteenth century.

An undergraduate research seminar on US history designed to guide students in doing research. Each student will produce a substantial research paper on some aspect of American politics and/or culture since 1900.

A survey of the origins an formation of the American working class from thecolonial period to the late nineteenth century. Topics include workers and community, the coming of the industrial order, the 1877 labor strike, and workers and the trade union movement.

Studies in selected aspects of Chicano history and the United States-Mexico borderlands with an emphasis on social and economic history.

Historical, sociological, and psychological exploration of several interconnecting phenomena, including interracial and interethnic romance and marriage, and changing identities and social positions of multiracial and multiethnic individuals. Concentrates mainly on the United States, with selected international comparisons.

Analysis of developments in US involvement in the Middle East since 1900. Formation and execution of US foreign policy toward the region: interaction between US foreign and domestic affairs; perceptions and actions of nations and peoples of the Middle East.

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.

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.

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.  

A survey of Japanese social and cultural history from the mid-sixteenth century to the nineteenth century.

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. Students also gain a working knowledge of the UCSB Library’s online publication platform, which hosts the journal. Students utilize various digital humanities tools – podcasts, social media, websites – to promote the undergraduate research being published in Journal as well as host an annual showcase of scholars’ work.

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. AM. America.

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

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. E. Europe.

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. E. Europe.

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 workshop or present original research rooted in the humanities and social sciences and graduate students read and respond to their work as they develop their own research questions. The goal is to foster collaborative interdisciplinary scholarship on the intersection of racial, religious, and revolutionary thought and practice, irrespective of period or place Workload entails short bi-weekly reading responses; no term paper required. 2-quarter course.

Seminar introduces the important issues, themes, and literature in Latin American history during the pre- Columbian and colonial periods.

Research seminar in recent U.S. history. A research seminar for graduate students interested in any aspect of recent U.S. history.

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 research seminar on selected problems in Chinese history. Some working knowledge of the Chinese language desirable but not necessary.

A colloquium introducing the important issues, themes and literature in the history of the United States, from 1846 to 1917. 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.

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.

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.