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“Modernist Worlds at War: Wells, Welles, Spielberg, and Anglo-American Paranoia”

Jed Esty is the author of Unseasonable Youth: Modernism,Colonialism, and the Fiction of Development (Oxford 2012) and A Shrinking Island: Modernism and National Culture in England (Princeton 2004), and is currently at work on a new project entitled Ages of Innocence: Culture and Literature from Pax Britannica to the American Century. Jed Esty will be […]

Single Puritan Girls in Tudor England

It was reportedly H.L. Mencken who defined a Puritan as a person who was “haunted by the fear that someone, somewhere might be happy.” But if the 17th century Puritan Simonds D’Ewes was any example, Shakespeare might have been closer to the truth in his comedy about The Merry Wives of Windsor. UCSB History Prof. […]

IHC Open House: Annual Theme “Anthropocene”

IHC Public Events Series for 2014-15: The Anthropocene: Views from the Humanities The Anthropocene, a newly-coined geologic term, designates the age during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. While subject to the forces of nature, the human species is itself a force that acts upon the natural world. […]

The History and Causes of the Syrian Uprisings

Dr. Bassam Haddad will be addressing the causes behind the Syrian uprisings and the various factors that led to the twists and turns that still engulf Syria, and, of late, beyond. Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East Studies Program and teaches in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, […]

History of the Present: World War I and the Origins of Our Time

This panel in the McCune Conference Room (HSSB 6020) will be moderated by History Professor Alice O'Connor.It is open to all -- families welcome! Many aspects of our modern world have their origin in the violent global rearrangements following World War I (1914-1918). UCSB history faculty will discuss the far-reaching legacies of the war in […]

Fray Angelico Chavez and the Colonial Southwest: Historiography as Re-materialization

This is the annual Tibesar Lecture of the Academy of American Franciscan History. Prof. Ellen McCracken will discuss Franciscan Fray Angelico Chavez (1910-1996), one of New Mexico's foremost 20th century intellectuals, whose historiography crucially involved strategies of re-materialization of New Mexico history. The many innovative material practices in which he engaged increased the understanding of […]

“Fiber Theft in the Medieval Silk Industry”

The Pre-Modern Cluster in the Department of History announces its first event, a brown bag lunch presentation. All interested faculty and grad students are welcome to attend. hm 10/22/14

UCDC and UCCS Meeting for HIST Majors

Wednesday October 29th 3:30-4:30pm in HSSB 4020 Come learn about courses and internships at the UC Centers in Washington D.C. and Sacramento. Come learn about the new changes and great opportunities and hear stories from students who just returned from UCDC!

The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World

Kati Marton, award-winning former NPR and ABC News correspondent andbestselling author, discusses her critically-acclaimed book,  The Great Escape: Nine Jews who Fled Hitler and Changed the World. As the New York Times writes, The Great Escape "describes the crossroads where art and politics meet, the perils of dictatorship and the horrors of war, all of […]

Suffragettes At Home:’ Representations of Domestic Labour in the Feminist Press, Britain 1908-1914

In 1910, the Vote (the newspaper of the Women’s Freedom League) launched a photography competition inviting their suffragette readers to send in photographs of themselves engaged in domestic labour. The result was a bizarre series of images depicting the leaders of the militant suffrage movement performing mundane household tasks, such as cleaning the stove and […]