Department of History, UC Santa Barbara

New Surveys in the Ancient Harbor District of Roman Ephesos
2009-04-06 00:00 (America/Denver) | CA
More than a century of archaeological work at Ephesos on the west coast of Turkey has unearthed impressive marble public buildings of the high Roman imperial period. But are these urban monuments the best representation of the overwhelming majority of the city’s ancient inhabitants?
A new project has generated promising evidence about other districts of the city. Recent geomorphologic research has revealed the first detailed outline of the ancient coastline. Magnetometry imaging and ground-penetrating radar surveys, along with excavations conducted within the framework of this project, have indicated plentiful building activity of non-monumental structures in these areas. Together, all of these provide a more complete picture of the urban landscape.
Admission is free. Presented by the Santa Barbara County Archaeological Society.
For more information contact the Museum of Natural History at 805.682.4711.
jwil 02.iv.09

The Gaza War and Its Aftermath
2009-04-06 00:00
There is an exciting and timely series of events taking place this spring: The Shalom/Salam Conversations, in which members of the UCSB faculty and community will address aspects of the Israel/Palestine dispute. There will be three events this spring, all on Monday at 5 pm in the Multicultural Center. The series is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts and by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.
The first event will take place THIS MONDAY, APRIL 6, AT 5 PM IN THE MULTICULTURAL CENTER. The subject will be “The Gaza War and Its Aftermath.” The two panelists will be Walid Afifi, Professor in the UCSB Department of Communications, and Arthur Gross-Shaefer, Rabbi and Professor at Loyola Marymount University. Professor R. Stephen Humphreys of the UCSB Department of History will moderate.
Free Pizza and beverages will be served. Please join us for this important event!
hm 4/6/09

2nd Annual Ask a Vet Forum
2009-04-08 00:00
Student Veterans at UCSB will be hosting the second annual “Ask A Vet Forum” on Wednesday, April 8. The purpose of this event is to promote better understanding of student veterans’ issues and to increase awareness of veterans amongst the campus community. Student veterans will address their difficult transition from soldier to student and discuss topics of controversy regarding their military service. Audience members will be able to ask the veterans any questions they desire. Last year, this event proved to be a huge success and students and veterans left having felt a better understanding of one another.
jwil 25.ii.09

Virgil's Aeneid from the Aztecs to the Dark Virgin: Latin Poetry and Ethnohistory in Colonial Mexico
2009-04-09 00:00
Virgil’s epic on the fall of Troy and foundation of Rome came to Mexico in the wake of the Spanish conquest. The poem had a role in the earliest accounts of Aztec traditions compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún and his native collaborators, and in the transmission of classical learning that had begun to develop in New Spain in the 1520s. From the mid-1600s, the reading and literary imitation of Virgil in Latin inspired poetic panegyrics of the ‘Dark Virgin’, the Lady of Guadalupe, who supposedly appeared to a native Mexican in 1531. Much of this lecture will focus on Villerías’ Guadalupe, a remarkable epic from the early 1700s in order to show how Virgil (and some other classical authors) helped to inform creole constructions of identity and indigenous history during the colonial period, and to highlight the richness and complexity of Latin culture in Mexico.
The speaker is Professor Andrew Laird, University of Warwick and National Autonomous University of Mexico.
jwil 31.iii.2009

Empire's Adversaries: Cold War Critics of Colonialism in the United States, 1945-1960
2009-04-10 00:00
John Munro is a graduate student in the History Department at UCSB. His dissertation looks at anti-colonial discourse in the United States between World War II and the 1960s. A recipient of awards from the UC Labor and Employment Research Fund, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, John has published on whiteness studies, African-American anti-imperialism, and US empire.
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy and the Policy History Program. For more information contact Leah Fernandez.
jwil 07.iv.09
