UCSB Santa Barbara Department of History logo

Whose Cis-­‐Story Is This? Challenging Cis/Trans/Gender Oppositions in Feminist History

The last decade has seen the elaboration of histories of trans exclusion from feminist venues, and also the institutionalization of the term "cis." Both pose binary oppositions between transgender and not-trans that emphasize trans bodies as the critical signifier of gender identity. In this talk, I first consider narrative tropes of 1970s feminist exclusion of […]

“An Open Game”: DOOM, Game Engines, and the New Game Industry of the 1990s

AbstractShortly before the release of id Software’s computer game, DOOM, at the end of 1993, id released a news release announcing the game and promising to “push back the boundaries of what was thought possible” on contemporary computers. The press release is a remarkable litany of innovations in technology, gameplay, distribution, and content creation. It […]

New Promise, Old Premise: Workforce Education and Opportunity in American Nanomanufacturing

As once-thriving U.S. manufacturing sectors contract, the idea that unemployed citizens will now find work in nano-scale manufacturing draws commitments of educational resources across the country. So-called nanotechnician curricula proliferate at two-year institutions and their enrollments climb steadily. Yet industrial forecasters and even some instructors see few jobs of this kind on the horizon. This […]

When Janey Comes Marching Home: Portraits of Women Combat Veterans

To date, more than 280,000 women have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and surrounding regions. Their jobs include working as convoy gunners, searching homes, and conducting IED sweeps. On February 21, Laura Browder will discuss her book and exhibit (with photographs by Sascha Pflaeging) When Janey Comes Marching Home, which gives a presence and a voice […]

Graduate Symposium on the Cold War

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22HSSB 4020 9:00-10:00 AM--Meet-and-Greet Breakfast 9:45-10:00 AM--Welcome and Introduction Salim Yaqub and Ken Hough Session 1 10:00-11:45 Eric Fenrich, UCSB, Department of History "Nine Black Kids and a Silver Ball: Little Rock, Sputnik, and the American International Image" Comment: Cody Stephens, UCSB, Department of History Audience Q & A Henry Maar, UCSB, Department […]

Ontologies of Aerial Observation: Panoramic Reconnaissance and the Pre-History of Air War

Before the advent of aviation, industrializing nations sought to produce increasingly accurate surveys of territorial possessions, drawing on new technologies and sciences to interpret and reproduce sights and images. Kaplan will argue that most analysis of the imagery of air power?reconnaissance analog and digital photography?situates this kind of visual data as universalized panopticism; total, rational, […]

What We Know and How We Know It

“As an African American educator, one of my main concerns is that we all need tobe liberated from schooling that perpetuates America’s myths,” King has written. “One such myth that constrains our freedom of thought and our ability to pursue social justice concerns our national identity.” Her lecture will examine ways to break from these […]

Virginia’s Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in the Early Republic

This talk will focus on Prof. Taylor's new research project on African Americans during the War of 1812 and their dispersal throughout the Anglo-Atlantic world, including Canada's maritimes, the Caribbean, and Great Britain. Taylor is much admired by colonial and Early National period US historians, and familiar to many of our grad students who have […]

John Heritage: An English Wool Merchant and his World, 1495-1520

The chance discovery of a unique wool merchant's account book in the muniment room of Westminster Abbey gives us a detailed picture of the trading networks and business contacts of a wool monger who lived at Moreton-in-Marsh on the edge of the Cotswold Hills. Through him we gain an insight into a society of sheep […]