First day of classes.For the official academic calendar, click the link:

For over half of a century, the University of Pennsylvania Museum has conducted excavations at the ancient site of Gordion in central Turkey. The site is best known as the capital of the Iron Age kingdom of Phrygia and the home of the semi-legendary King Midas, who ruled around 725 BC and whose enormous wealth […]

To the media and in the minds of the general public ‘maritime archaeology’ often suggests the study of shipwrecks, perhaps because of the prominent role they played in the development of the subject over the last half century. In reality maritime archaeology encompasses all past human activity relating to seas, interconnected waterways and adjacent locales. […]

Kevin Vennemann will be delivering an introduction to and a lecture from his widely acclaimed debut novel Close to Jedenew, published in German by the prestigious Suhrkamp Verlag 2005 and in English, by Melville House in 2008. A group of children from the rural village of Jedenew, which might or might not be located in […]

The Non-Aligned Movement was created to stand apart from the Cold War. Lorenz Luthi argues, however, that the Non-Aligned Movement was a product of the Cold War and was almost torn apart by it during the 1961-1973 period. From the start, Cold War issues--such as the division of Germany, nuclear weapons, the Middle East conflict, […]

In January 1942, three years before Americans arrived at Buchenwald and Dachau, Jewish photographers working for the Soviet press became the first liberators to photograph the unprecedented horror we now call the Holocaust. These photographers participated in a social project in which they were emotionally and intellectually invested; they had been dispatched by the Stalinist […]

The Ancient Borderlands Research Focus Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara is pleased to host the 3rd Biennial Graduate Student Conference on Ancient Borderlands. The full conference program appears below. FRIDAY, APRIL 13TH COFFEE/ MEET AND GREET-- starting at 2:00pm INTRODUCTIONS AND WELCOMING COMMENTS-- 3:00pm Dean David Marshall, Prof. John W. I. Lee, […]

It may mean Beach Boys and wood-paneled station wagons to you, but surfing today is more a matter of wave prediction data and real time animated film about key surf spots, published on surfing websites. Take a break from your taxes and come join us at noon on Sunday, April 15 at Moby Dick Restaurant […]

Prof. Bauer will discuss why humans are the only living creatures that kill their own kind in large numbers, and the essential similarities and difference between the Holocaust and other genocides. What do we mean by “genocide”? Why are humans the only living creatures that kill their own kind in huge numbers? What place does […]

The author of Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in 20th Century Hawaii will be speaking, following an introduction by Dr. Teresa Shewry (UCSB, English) of the Center for Literature and the Environment. Surfing has been a significant sport and cultural practice in Hawai'i for more than 1,500 years. In the last century, facing increased […]

This talk will examine debates surrounding immigration in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1960s and 1970s. South Africa in 1961 and Rhodesia in 1965 broke away from the British Empire and Commonwealth in order to continue to pursue racially-­‐based settler colonial rule. This was reflected in their immigration policies, […]

Dr. Susan Fitzpatrick-BehrensCal State Northridge Thursday, April 26 11:00-12:15 HSSB 2252 In the 1960s, paraprofessional health programs proliferated in the Maya regions of Guatemala’s western highlands.. The programs responded to medical needs in rural highland communities and coastal coffee plantations where there were neither hospitals nor doctors. By the 1970s, Maya leaders prepared through these […]

The history of Cahora Bassa reveals the persistence of “colonialism’s afterlife.” Under the 1974 Lusaka Peace Accord, which set the stage for Mozambique’s independence, in return for assuming the US$550 million debt incurred in building Cahora Bassa, Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), a Portuguese para-statal, received 82% of the shares, with the remainder going to […]