Department of History, UC Santa Barbara

Who is Carrying the Temple Menorah? A Jewish Counter-Narrative of the Arch of Titus Spolia Panel
2015-01-26 00:00 (America/Denver) | CA
Since antiquity, scholars have almost universally — and correctly ? interpreted the menorah bearers of the Arch of Titus spoils panel as triumphal Romans celebrating the defeat of the Jews in the Jewish War of 66-74. Jews, however, have developed counter-memories for this monument. Since the Renaissance, the menorah bearers have been identified as Jews carrying their holy vessels into Exile. This understanding was embraced by many fin de siècle Zionists, who sought to “reverse” this exile with their own actions. In modern Israel this rather minor detail has achieved apocalyptic significance for the religious radical right. This talk explores the perimeters of Pierre Nora’s work on Lieux de Mémoire to include the changing voice of those whose defeat is commemorated, with implications for viewing similarly active? and radioactive– “places of memory” in our own world.
Steven Fine is the Dr. Pinkhos Churgin Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University and director of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project. Fine’s Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World was awarded the Joshua Schnitzer Book Award by the Association for Jewish Studies (2009). His most recent book is Art, History and the Historiography of Judaism in Roman Antiquity.
Sponsored by Ancient Borderlands RFG; the Dept. of Religious Studies; Division of the Humanities and Fine Arts.
More Information at the link below.
hm 1/20/15

The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men
2015-01-26 00:00
Eric Lichtblau unveils the secret history of how America became home to thousands of Nazi war criminals after World War II, many of whom were scientists and spies brought here by the OSS and CIA as possible assets against new Cold War enemies. Ironically, the Nazis began their flight to America in the months immediately after the war ended, even as thousands of Holocaust survivors were still being held in “displaced person” camps. Relying on a trove of once-secret government records and scores of interviews with participants in this little-known chapter of postwar history, Lichtblau tells the shocking and shameful story of how America became a safe haven for Hitler’s men.
Eric Lichtblau is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter in the Washington bureau of The New York Times and has written about legal, political and national security issues since 2002. Previously he covered the Justice Department in the Washington Bureau of the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice. Courtesy of The Book Den, copies of The Nazis Next Door will be available for purchase and signing at this event.
Sponsored by The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UC Santa Barbara, a program of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, is cosponsored by Department of Religious Studies, Congregation B’nai B’rith, Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, and Santa Barbara Hillel.
Website: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/endowments/taubman
More Information at the link below:
hm 1/20/15

Civil War and Revolt in the Achaemenid Persian Empire
2015-01-29 00:00
Sponsored by the History Department’s Pre-Modern Cultures and Communities research cluster.
rev. hm 1/11/15

Slavery in the Texas Borderlands
2015-01-31 00:00
This is the Second Annual JoBeth Van Gelderen Graduate Student Lecture.
To most Americans, the word “slavery” conjures
up images of plantations in the Old South. But in
the Texas Borderlands from 1700 to 1850, slavery
was much more diverse. In his lecture, Paul Barba
will explain how Spaniards, Comanches, Anglo
Americans, and Choctaws enslaved others through
processes of kin incorporation, making slaves by
making kin of their victims. In order to capture the
diversity of Texas slavery, Paul has been looking at
a wide variety of multicultural sources to construct a
more comprehensive picture of interactions between
these different cultures.
A luncheon of bbq beef and chicken will be served.
Cost is $20 for members, $25 for non-members.
Please rsvp: (805) 893-4388.
About the Speaker
Paul Barba is writing his doctoral dissertation,
titled “Enslaved in Texas: Slavery, Migration,
and Identity in Native Country’,” on a
fellowship from the University of California
Institute for Mexico and the United States. His
paper on “Peter Pitchlynn and the Navigation
of Choctaw-Anglo-American Narrativity” was
a finalist for the Organization of American
Historians’ Pelzer Prize.
UCSB Mosher Alumni House is at the entrance road for
Campbell Hall at the center of the campus, next to
convenient parking ($3 on weekends). For a map, go
to http://www.tps.ucsb.edu/mapFlash.aspx
hm 1/12/15
