Department of History, UC Santa Barbara

History Scholar-Activism: Living Our Work
2020-02-03 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Join us as we talk about how we—as historians and historians in training—approach our work as “scholar-activists” within the context of the academy. While not all of us identify as “scholar-activists,” we work with social justice and equity in mind.
Themes
Methodology: What does that look like? How do we describe it and/or think about it?
Historiography: What is it? How is it relevant to my work? And, where do I fit in?
Theory: What does theory look like in history? Can I talk about theory? Where and how can I learn more? Will my colleagues accept me?
Participants
Utathya Chattopadhyaya
Mhoze Chikowero
Lisa Jacobson
Kate McDonald
Light refreshments will be provided.
Click here to download the flyer for this event. All are welcome!

LAIS Tertulia | "Race and Caste in Latin America, India, and the USA: A Global Conversation"
2021-02-02 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom, CA
Latin American and Iberian Studies invites you to a Tertulia in the Time of COVID, 2020-2021! Two History Department faculty members will speak at this exciting event.
In her widely acclaimed book Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson complicates the category of race, as it is commonly understood in the US, by bringing caste to the fore. She discusses the “caste” historical experience of the US in light of those in Nazi Germany and India. Insofar as the term “caste” was first introduced in India by the Portuguese at a time when the Spanish and Portuguese empires had a global colonial reach, Wilkerson’s book provides a perfect pretext for the Program in Latin American and Iberian Studies (LAIS) to launch a global conversation. In this roundtable, UCSB faculty from Black Studies, History, and LAIS specialized in the US, India, and Latin America discuss their take on caste, race, and Isabel Wilkerson.
Speakers (UC Santa Barbara)
Utathya Chattopadhyaya is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He specializes in the history of modern South Asia, British imperialism, and agrarian commodities in global markets. His essays have appeared in A Cultural History of Western Empires, the South African Historical Journal, Historical Reflections, English Language Notes, and the edited volume Animalia: An Anti-Imperial Bestiary for our Times. He is currently working on a monograph on cannabis and empire in British India.
Cecilia Méndez is a Peruvian historian specialized in the social and political history of the Andean region. She is the director of the Latin American and Iberian Studies Program at UC Santa Barbara and an Associated Professor in History. Her work calls the attention on the importance of late eighteenth-century, and nineteenth-century political developments in shaping modern conceptions nationhood, citizenship, and “race.”
Terrance Wooten is an Assistant Professor in Black Studies. He is currently working on his first book manuscript, “Lurking in the Shadows of Home: Homelessness, Carcerality, and the Figure of the Sex Offender,” which examines how those who have been designated “sex offenders” and are homeless in the Maryland/DC area are managed and regulated through social policies, sex offender registries, and urban and architectural design. His scholarly interests are located at the intersections of Black studies, gender and sexuality studies, studies of poverty and homelessness, and carceral studies.
Join the Zoom meeting here: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/84061612112.

AfroLatinx Voices Series: Re-Writing Black Religions in the Atlantic World--A Conversation with Andrea Mosquera-Guerrero
2021-02-25 12:30 | Zoom, CA
How might we re-write the history and historiography of religion, race, and art in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic world? Prof. Andrea Guerrero-Mosquera (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco) will discuss the role of historians in uncovering and debating ideas about the past of people of African descent during the colonial period. She invites us to consider the ways art, material culture and performance can help us understand how people lived and experienced different forms of religiosity in the past, and how these practices helped develop different forms of Catholicism and cultural changes across the Atlantic world. She will also share her experience with the Red Iberoamericana de Historiadoras (Ibero-American Network of Historians), a digital humanities initiative that seeks to promote dialogues and connect historians across the globe.
Dr. Andrea Mosquera-Guerrero is a researcher at the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (National System of Researchers, Mexico) and co-founder of the Iberoamerican Network of Female Historians. She specializes in Afro-Latin American cultures in the Atlantic world during the colonial period, focusing on issues related to race and art.
Moderator: Andreína Soto is a Ph.D. candidate in History at UC Santa Barbara who specializes in African diaspora, legal and religious history, and digital humanities methods.
Zoom event: REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. You will receive a confirmation email with the link and password to the event. This event will be in Spanish and English interpretation will be available through the Zoom interpretation feature. This event will be recorded. If you require an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please contact Janet Waggaman at clas@berkeley.edu.

¿Cómo podríamos re-escribir la historia y la historiografía sobre religión, raza y arte en América Latina, el Caribe y el mundo atlántico? Andrea Guerrero-Mosquera discutirá el papel de los historiadores en el descubrimiento y el debate sobre el pasado de las personas afrodescendientes durante el período colonial. Nos invita a considerar las formas en que el arte, la cultura material y el performance pueden ayudarnos a comprender cómo las personas vivían y experimentaban diferentes formas de religiosidad en el pasado, y cómo estas prácticas ayudaron a desarrollar diferentes formas de catolicismo y cambios culturales en el mundo atlántico. También compartirá su experiencia con la Red Iberoamericana de Historiadoras, una iniciativa de humanidades digitales que busca promover el diálogo y conectar a historiadores alrededor del mundo.
Dra. Andrea Mosquera-Guerrero es investigadora del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (México) y es co-fundadora de la Red Iberoamericana de Historiadoras. Se especializa en las culturas afro-latinoamericanas en el mundo atlántico durante el período colonial, y se enfoque en las cuestions de arte y raza.
Moderadora: Andreína Soto es candidata de doctorado en historia en UC Santa Barbara. Andreína se especializa en estudios de la diáspora africana, historia de las leyes y la religión, así como métodos de humanidades digitales.
Evento por Zoom: SE REQUIERE REGISTRO. Recibirá un correo electrónico de confirmación con el enlace y contraseña para el evento. Este evento será en español, y habrá interpretación en inglés a través de la funcionalidad de interpretación de Zoom. Si necesita una adaptación para participar plenamente en este evento, comuníquese con Janet Waggaman clas@berkeley.edu.

Focal Point Dialogues | Winter 2022: Sovereignty, statehood, anti-slavery, and the law | Ada Ferrer's Freedom's Mirror
2022-03-04 13:00 - 15:00 | HSSB 4080, 4080 Humanities and Social Sciences Building, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Focal Point Dialogues was an initiative born in 2020 as a Department commitment to educate ourselves in the history of anti-Blackness. The idea was conceived in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and the national and international uprising it triggered. This education starts by understanding when did “blackness” become a thing, to begin with, and it requires from all of us leaving the “zone of comfort” of our specializations, and dare to explore…as we learn from each other, and from this year’s guest, Ada Ferrer. After an engaging dive into Herman Bennet’s African Kings and Black Slaves : Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic (UPenn Press, 2018) in the first iteration of Focal Point Dialogues in 2020-21, this academic year we focus on Ada Ferrer’s Freedom’s Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge U. Press, 2014).
The book can be downloaded here (You will need to have logged into your UCSB library account)
When : March 4th, 1-3 PM
Where: HSSB 4080 | Zoom link : https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/89886674499
The discussants for this session are:
Brad Bouley
Giuliana Perrone
Claudia Ankrah
Luke Roberts

Thinking About Career Options with a Degree in History: A Conversation with Alumni
2022-04-08 17:00 - 18:00 | University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Date: April 8th, 2022
Time: 5:00 PM
Venue: Click here to join
Zoom Meeting ID: 822 6050 0131
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Click here to download the flyer: Thinking About Career Options with a Degree in History

Focal Point Dialogues | Spring 2022: A revolution in Black consciousness”? World historical impact of the Haitian Revolution | Ada Ferrer’s Freedom’s Mirror
2022-04-29 13:00 - 15:00 | University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
Focal Point Dialogues was an initiative born in 2020 as a Department commitment to educate ourselves in the history of anti-Blackness. The idea was conceived in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and the national and international uprising it triggered. This education starts by understanding when did “blackness” become a thing, to begin with, and it requires from all of us leaving the “zone of comfort” of our specializations, and dare to explore…as we learn from each other, and from this year’s guest, Ada Ferrer. After an engaging dive into Herman Bennet’s African Kings and Black Slaves : Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic (UPenn Press, 2018) in the first iteration of Focal Point Dialogues in 2020-21, this academic year we focus on Ada Ferrer’s Freedom’s Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge U. Press, 2014).
The book can be downloaded here (You will need to have logged into your UCSB library account)
When : April 29th, 1-3 PM
Where: HSSB 4080
The discussants for this session are:
Xiaowei Zheng
Evelyne Laurent-Perrault
Mhoze Chikowero
Manuel Covo

History and Political Economy Colloquium with Dr. Giuliana Perrone | "Abolition and Capitalism" | Feb 24, 12 PM | HSSB 4080
2023-02-24 12:00 - 14:00 | HSSB 4080, 4080 Humanities and Social Sciences Building, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
The colloquium offers a forum for open, substantive discussions on how to approach political economy from a historical perspective; how to grapple with and benefit from the epistemological diversity surrounding political economy; and how a historical take on political economy can help contextualize and address urgent contemporary issues– at UCSB, in Santa Barbara/Southern California, in the U.S., and around the world – ranging from rent, inflation, and student debt to deepening, racialized inequality. For that purpose, we will center our own research and put our work into conversation across geographical, chronological, and field boundaries.
At our third meeting, we will discuss “abolition and capitalism” with Professor Giuliana Perrone, Assistant Professor, Department of History, UCSB.
Required Readings: Sinha – The Problem of Abolition in the Age of Capitalism (1) Perrone Chapter

From Table to Text: Borders and Boundaries in Food History
2023-03-03 - 2023-03-04 | CA
From Table to Text: Borders and Boundaries in Food History
March 3rd and 4th, 2023
A Virtual Conference Hosted by the History Department,
University of California at Santa Barbara
Organizers: Erika Rappaport and Elizabeth Schmidt
All paper panels will take place via Zoom. If you need assistance setting up a Zoom account, please let us know.
For questions please contact: Erika Rappaport, rappaport@ucsb.edu or Elizabeth Schmidt e_schmidt@ucsb.edu
Please see here for the draft program

History and Political Economy Colloquium with Dr. Utathya Chattopadhyaya | "Intoxication and Political Economy"
2023-04-07 12:00 - 14:00 | HSSB 4080, 4080 Humanities and Social Sciences Building, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, United States
We are excited to announce the fourth session of the History Department’s colloquium on history and political economy. The colloquium offers a forum for open, substantive discussions on how to approach political economy from a historical perspective; how to grapple with and benefit from the epistemological diversity surrounding political economy; and how a historical take on political economy can help contextualize and address urgent contemporary issues– at UCSB, in Santa Barbara/Southern California, in the U.S., and around the world – ranging from rent, inflation, and student debt to deepening, racialized inequality. For that purpose, we will center our own research and put our work into conversation across geographical, chronological, and field boundaries.
At our fourth meeting, we will discuss “Intoxication and Political Economy” with Professor Utathya Chattopadhyaya (flyer attached).
Please note that this session will take place in week 1 of the spring quarter.
In preparation for the meeting, please contact Manuel Covo to obtain a copy of the readings to be discussed. Everyone is welcome. Light refreshments will be served.
