Department of History, UC Santa Barbara

Hamas
2009-04-20 00:00 (America/Denver)
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 second event will take place THIS MONDAY, APRIL 20, AT 5 PM IN THE MULTICULTURAL CENTER. The subject will be “Hamas.” The panelists will be Lisa Hajjar, Professor in the UCSB Law and Society Program, and Richard Hecht, Professor of Religious Studies. Professor Randy Bergstrom 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

"Keep on Saving": A Transnational History of How Other Nations Forged Cultures of Thrift When America Didn't
2009-04-23 00:00
Amidst the current financial meltdown, it has become painfully clear that Americans spent too much, saved too little, and borrowed excessively. Although we like to believe the rest of the world behaves “like us,” other capitalist nations have saved at much higher rates than Americans. Historically, Europeans, Japanese, and other Asians systematically encouraged saving by means of campaigns and institutions such as savings banks, postal savings, and school savings programs. Beginning in 1800, this lecture tells the global, interconnected story of savings-promotion, illustrated by savings campaign posters from around the world.
Sheldon Garon is the Dodge Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University. He explores relations between state and society in modern Japan, while also examining the transnational flow of ideas and institutions among several European nations, the U.S., Japan, and other Asian nations. Publications include The State and Labor in Modern Japan (1987) for which he received the American Historical Association’s John K. Fairbank Prize in 1988, and Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life (1997). His current transnational history, “Keep on Saving”: How Other Nations Forged Cultures of Thrift When America Didn’t, is under contract with Princeton University Press. With Patricia Maclachlan, he co-edited The Ambivalent Consumer: Questioning Consumption in East Asia and the West (2006). He recently served as advisor in the preparation of For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture: A Report to the Nation from the Commission on Thrift (2008).
Cosponsored by the EAC, the East Asian Cultures RFG, IHC, and the departments of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, History, Political Science and Economics.
LOCATION CHANGED ON 4/21 TO THE MARINE SCIENCES BUILDING AUDITORIUM.
It is next to Bren Hall on the East side of campus (campus map).
hm 3/31/09, 4/21.09

Centering Central Asia: Gender, State, and Nation
2009-04-24 00:00
The UCSB Center for Middle East Studies Conference “Centering Central Asia: Gender, State, and Nation” will be held on Friday, April 24 & Saturday, April 25, 2009. A schedule of events appears below.
Friday, April 24 at the Multicultural Center Theater
7:30-8:00 pm Nancy Gallagher, Professor, History Dept., UCSB. Talk on NGOs in Afghanistan
8:00-10:00pm Introduction of film by Director, Meena Nanji. Film “View from a Grain of Sand”
Saturday, April 25 in the McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020
8:45am-5:30 pm CONFERENCE
Panel 1: Gender and Society in Iran and Central Asia
Adrienne Edgar, Associate Professor, History, UCSB. “Gender, Nation, and Modernity in Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia”
Ashraf Zahedi, Resident Scholar, Beatrice Bain Research Group, University of California, Berkeley. “Rethinking Gender Policies in Afghanistan”
Nayereh Tohidi, Chair & Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies Dept.,California State University, Northridge. “Gender and Transition in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan”
Mary Hegland, Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology and Women & Gender Studies, Santa Clara University. “Gender, Family, Kin, Sexuality Transformation in Iran and Tajikistan”
Plenary Speaker: Janet Afary, Keddie-Balzan Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles.”The Sexual Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran”
Panel 2: Central Asia, Pakistan, and Iran in Global Perspective
Adeeb Khalid, Professor, Dept. of History, Carleton College. “After the Soviets: Islam in Contemporary Central Asia”
Shahnaz Rouse, Professor and Chair, Sociology Faculty, Sarah Lawrence College. “State Practices Versus Non-State/Civil Society Peace Initiatives in Pakistan”
Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, Ph.D. Candidate, UCSB. “A U.S.-Iran Détente?: Views from Iran”
Mona Sheikh, Visiting Research Scholar, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, UCSB. “Talking with Taliban Activists: Militant Jihad in Pakistan”
Plenary Speaker: Olivier Roy, Lecturer, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. “Imposing Emancipation: What is the West Doing There?”
5:30-6:30pm Reception, with music by members of the Middle East Ensemble
The conference is sponsored by the CMES and co-sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. All events are free and open to the public. For additional information please contact Laura Pollick, Center for Middle East Studies, 805-893-4245.
jwil 15.iv.09

Terror and Intercultural War in the Era of the American Revolution
2009-04-24 00:00
Peter Silver, Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University, will discuss his recent book and current research.
Professor Silver (Rutgers homepage) is a renowned historian of Early America. His first book, Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America ($13 & viewable at amazon), received both the 2007 Bancroft Prize and the 2007 Mark Lynton History Prize.
Welcome all! Light refreshments will be served, but feel free to bring a lunch.
hm 4/16/09
