Assistant Professor in African American History

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in twentieth-century African American history, to begin July 1, 2023. We welcome applications from scholars who research any aspect of the African-American experience in the twentieth century, with a preference for candidates who focus on one or more of the following: gender, […]

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History Faculty, Anthony Barbieri and Sherene Seikaly win prestigious NEH Fellowships

Two members of the History Department Faculty, Anthony Barbieri and Sherene Seikaly were awarded two prestigious National Endowment of Humanities grants and fellowships. NEH Fellowships are a set of competitive fellowships awarded to individual scholars pursuing projects that embody “exceptional research, rigorous analysis, and clear writing.” Projects are evaluated based on their value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. […]

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MA Alumnus Helen Murdoch’s Vision as the new President of History Associates is to strengthen the ‘town and gown’ relationship

“Education gets pounded on a lot… As local educators we need to redeem history by coming together with the community, sink our teeth into the truths of history, and to showcase that history is not a one-sided narrative.” Helen Murdoch, an alumnus of the MA program in history at UCSB, took her place as the newly-elected President of UCSB History […]

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PhD alumnus Brian Griffith wins SIHS Article Prize for Modern Italian History

Brian Griffith, who earned his PhD in the department in January 2020 and is currently The Eugen and Jacqueline Weber Post-Doctoral Scholar in European History at UCLA, has been awarded the 2021 Society for Italian Historical Studies Article Prize for Modern Italian History for his article in Contemporary European History, “Bacchus among the Blackshirts: Wine Making, Consumerism and Identity in Fascist Italy, 1919-1937.”  […]

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Assistant/Associate/Full Professor in Public History

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a tenure-track position (rank open). We seek applications from scholars in any geographic and chronological specialization, with a preference for candidates with demonstrated experience in conducting field-related projects in collaboration with museums, archives, preservationist organizations, historical justice initiatives, local communities, and public agencies. The department is […]

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UCSB History Graduate Students Awarded Mendell Fellowships in Cultural Literacy

UCSB History Graduate Students Awarded Mendell Fellowships in Cultural Literacy

We are pleased to announce that five students have been awarded Steve and Barbara Mendell Graduate Fellowships in Cultural Literacy from UCSB’s Walter H. Capps Center for the 2021-2022 academic year. Amy Fallas is working on a dissertation that examines how a network of philanthropic societies socially engineered inter-religious partnership and became a pillar of Egypt’s landscape during the late […]

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A new book by Professor Barbieri, Ancient Egypt and Early China: State, Society and Culture

Ancient Egypt and Early China by Anthony K. Barbieri-Low book cover

Professor Barbieri has published another ground-breaking new book.  Ancient Egypt and Early China: State, Society and Culture (University of Washington Press, 2021), is the first extended comparative study of New Kingdom Egypt and early imperial China.  While it has become common in recent scholarship to compare Early China with Classical Greece or the Roman Empire, he argues that a comparison with Ancient […]

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Ebelechukwu Eseka’s Graduation Hat Trick

Photo of young woman in graduation stole

Congratulations are in order for graduating senior Ebelechukwu Eseka, a History minor and Sociology major. At the end of her undergraduate career, UCSB has recognized her impressive accomplishments in three high-profile ways. Eseka is this year’s winner of UCSB’s highest undergraduate honor, the Thomas More Storke Award for Excellence. At the June 12 College of Letters & Science commencement celebration, […]

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New Issue of The Public Historian Published

The Public Historian, Volume 43 No. 2, May 2021 book cover

The May 2021 issue of the academic journal The Public Historian has been published and can be viewed here. Since 1978, The Public Historian has made its mark as the definitive voice of the public history profession, providing historians with the latest scholarship and applications from the field. The Public Historian publishes the results of scholarly research and case studies and addresses the broad substantive […]

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Utathya Chattopadhyaya Named a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies

Utathya Chattopadhyaya headshot

Professor Utathya Chattopadhyaya has been named a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for 2021. The fellowship, which comes with a $60,000 stipend, will support his research project, Bengal Ganja: Cannabis and Empire in British India. “I am quite humbled and grateful for the award, especially given the kinds of financial pressures resulting from the pandemic,” he […]

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In Memoriam: Paul Baltimore (1971-2021)

We are heartbroken to note the passing of Paul Baltimore, who received his PhD in History from UCSB in 2014. Paul died in Sacramento on April 8, 2021, having taught for several years at community colleges in the area. He was forty-nine. A native of Philadelphia, Paul joined UCSB’s History doctoral program in 2006 to study the history of U.S. […]

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In Memoriam: Francis A. Dutra (1938-2021)

Frank Dutra at an outdoor restaurant in front of a couple buildings

Frank Dutra should be remembered not only as a careful archival scholar of early modern Portugal and Brazil, superb mentor to generations of graduate students in the History Department and the Latin American and Iberian Studies program, but also as a kind and generous colleague. Frank came to UCSB in 1967, shortly before completing his PhD in History at New […]

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In Memoriam: Chi-yun Chen (1933-2020)

Chi-yun Chen headshot on a boat

Chi-yun Chen, a devoted husband, father, and mentor, passed away peacefully in his sleep on December 1, 2020 after spending several quiet hours with his wife by his side. Professor Chen was a UCSB Professor Emeritus and a renowned scholar of Han Dynasty Chinese history and medieval Confucianism. His later research interests included East-West comparative perspectives on Chinese history and, […]

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Nelson Lichtenstein Publishes Two Edited Volumes from 2015 UCSB Conference

Beyond the New Deal Order: U.S. Politics from the Great Depression to the Great Recession edited by Gary Gerstle, Nelson Lichtenstein, and Alice O'Connor book cover

Journalists, politicians, and historians are comparing the Biden Administration’s ambitious economic and social agenda to that of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Illuminating that tentative and provocative judgement are two new collections of historical essays that were first offered as talks at a 2015 UC Santa Barbara conference. Entitled “Beyond the New Deal Order,” the conference was sponsored by the […]

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Senior Honors Thesis Applications 2021-22

The History Department is now accepting applications for the 2021-22 Senior Honors Thesis Program (HIST 194AH/BH). If you will be a senior next year, have at least a 3.5 GPA in the upper division major, and have completed or are currently enrolled in at least 4 upper division history courses, you may be eligible to apply! Please read the Invitation […]

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P/NP Grading Policy Changes for Spring/Summer 2021

The Academic Senate has announced that the P/NP grading exceptions implemented in the Winter 2021 quarter will now be extended to the Spring and Summer 2021 quarters as well. All history department major/minor courses may be taken for a P/NP grade in Spring and Summer 2021. You can find the Academic Senate memo with more information on this policy change HERE, and I highly […]

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Department of History and UCSB APIGSA Statement on Atlanta Murders

The UCSB Department of History stands in solidarity with the Asian Pacific Islander Graduate Student Alliance and with all of our colleagues, students, and family members who have been touched by the events in Atlanta and other instances of violence against Asians, Asian-Americans, and Asian Pacific Islanders. UCSB APIGSA Statement on the Murders of Daoyou Feng, Hyeon-Jeong Park, Julie Park, […]

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Hilary Bernstein’s Monograph “Historical Communities” Published

Historical Communities: Cities, erudition, and National Identity in Early Modern France by Hilary J. Berstein book cover

Congratulations to Professor Hilary J. Bernstein whose new monograph, Historical Communities: Cities, Erudition, and National Identity in Early Modern France, has been published by Brill. The book explores the outpouring of French local history writing from the 1560s to 1660s, with a special focus on how local scholars from a range of French cities, from large provincial capitals to much […]

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Cold War Working Group Calls for Undergrad “This Day in History” Blog Posts

Cold War Working Group, UCSB Center for Cold War Studies Logo

Cold War Working Group conveners Addie Jensen and Mattie Webb have developed a new opportunity for undergraduates to gain experience with public history through the Cold War Working Group’s blog. We are housed under the Center for Cold War Studies webpage, and are actively sourcing submissions for “This Day in History” blog posts. To summarize, “This Day in History” is […]

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P/NP Grading Policy Changes Winter 2021

Read below for an update on the changes to P/NP grading policies for the W21 quarter. ———————————————————————   As many of you may be aware, the Academic Senate has just given individual departments the option to accept P/NP graded courses towards major and minor requirements for the Winter 2021 quarter. The history department has decided to opt-in and allow this, so all history department major/minor courses […]

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Introducing the Cold War Working Group

Cold War Working Group, UCSB Center for Cold War Studies Logo

Doctoral candidates Addison Jensen and Mattie Webb announce the formation of the Cold War Working Group (CWWG), a subset of the Center for Cold War Studies and International History (CCWS). The CWWG is a collaborative, graduate student-led group intended to provide a supportive, welcoming environment for graduate students working on or around the Cold War and international histories. Jensen and Webb […]

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Save the Date for FOCAL POINT Dialogues in History

Panels for Focal Point Book: Herman Bennett, African Kings and Black Slaves: Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic

The History Department’s Colloquium Committee warmly invites you to attend the inaugural session of our FOCAL POINT Dialogues in History series.  Inspired by the History Department’s Statement on the George Floyd Uprising and its invocation to understand and interrogate our racialized past and the investments of disciplinary history within it, the series brings together History faculty and graduate students who have volunteered to […]

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Congratulations to Professor Sarah Case!

Congratulations to Professor Sarah Case, who has been awarded the Southern Association for Women Historians‘ Anne Firor Scott Mid-Career Fellowship. The Fellowship is given every two years to fund a second book or equivalent project in Southern Women’s History. Professor Case is currently working on a book on women undergraduates in the 1930s in the South, focusing on Georgia. Her […]

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New Issue of Studies in Late Antiquity Now Available

Studies in Late Antiquity, A Journal book cover

Studies in Late Antiquity, edited by UCSB’s Professor Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, is a forum for innovation and reflection on global Late Antiquity (150-750 CE) which questions and expands on received models and methods. Primary points of interest include interconnections between the Mediterranean and Africa, Iran, Arabia, the Baltic, Scandinavia, the British Isles, China, India and all of Asia, as well […]

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New Issue of The Public Historian Published

The November issue of the academic journal The Public Historian has been published and can be viewed here. Since 1978, The Public Historian has made its mark as the definitive voice of the public history profession, providing historians with the latest scholarship and applications from the field. The Public Historian publishes the results of scholarly research and case studies and addresses the broad […]

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New Majors’ Meeting

If you weren’t able to join us for the 2020 New Majors’ Meeting, you can view the recording below. History Department faculty and staff spoke about academic advising, research seminars, the honors thesis program, the history club, and more! 

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Undergrads Cook Up Some Food Histories

Cursive of Lemon Cheesecake on an aged piece of paper

Rather than have her students write traditional essays in HIST 193F: Food in World History, Elizabeth Schmidt, a graduate student in history, had something else in mind for her summer session class: Historical Recipe Projects and Food History Museum Exhibits. The results were delicious. Have a look!  I. Historical Recipes How did they do this, you might ask? Well, students […]

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Good News Comes in Threes

Congratulation banner with confetti

Three pieces of good news to celebrate! On 28 August 2020, Josh Rocha successfully defended his dissertation! His thesis, Military Spectacle in Interwar Britain: Militarism, Propaganda, and the Shadows of World War, is a fascinating account of how the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force used popular spectacles to compete for public and political support for their services during the 1920s […]

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UCSB History Department Statement on Floyd Uprising

History Department Statement  George Floyd’s slow, excruciating, and brutal death on May 25, 2020 has sparked a global uprising. The UCSB History Department grieves and stands in solidarity with colleagues and students on campus and in the community, and with Black people around the world. The Floyd Uprising has, like many Black led movements in the past, launched our reckoning […]

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Emergency Graduate Student Support

secondary UCSB logo in white with a navy background

Our students are facing unprecedented financial circumstances as a result of the global COVID pandemic. Fellowships and research grants have been cancelled or postponed, leaving many without income for the summer. As one grad student reports, “All potential summer internships in my field were cancelled, and they included a stipend and housing.” Another adds, “I am now faced with the […]

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New Student Wellbeing Website

To help support students as they face current  covid-19 and remote learning challenges, the university has created a new “Student Wellbeing” website. This website includes resources for financial and food insecurity, technology rentals, mental health, physical health, support groups and much more. Please visit the website HERE for more information. 

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Congratulations to Evelyne Laurent-Perrault!

Professor Evelyne Laurent-Perrault has recently been recognized for her accomplishments on multiple fronts. She received a Faculty Career Development Award and a Center for New World Comparative Studies Fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library. Additionally, the volume Demando mi libertad: Mujeres negras y sus estrategias de resistencia en la Nueva Granada, Venezuela y Cuba, 1700-1800, to which Professor Laurent-Perrault […]

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Civil Rights Scholarship of Nelson Lichtenstein Recognized by Journal of American History

In honor of Black History Month, the Journal of American History asked Professor Peniel Joseph of the University of Texas to curate a special on-line issue designed to highlight ten key articles, previously published in the JAH, illuminating the theme, “Black Power, American Democracy, and Dreams of Citizenship.” Among those selected was “Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the […]

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Alumna Caitlin Rathe’s LBJ Podcast Now Available

The first episode of a podcast that alumna Caitlin Rathe (PhD, 2019) has been a part of creating since August 2018 has gone live! The NEH-funded project, LBJ and the Great Society, tells the story of Johnson’s remarkable domestic policy legacy piecing together oral histories, telephone calls from the White House, and other archival audio sources. The podcast website describes […]

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JOB POSTING: TEMPORARY LECTURER IN HISTORY

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a pool of qualified temporary lecturers to teach a course (or courses) in History for upcoming openings. The number of positions varies from quarter to quarter and may include summer terms, depending on the needs of the department. Courses needed may include: • Hist 2A, 2B, […]

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“Gender and Intimacy across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands” out now! Read here.

The special issue, “Gender and Intimacy across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,” with guest editors Miroslava Chávez-García and Verónica Castillo-Muñoz has just been released! This issue focuses on the primacy of gender and intimacy in the 19th and early 20th C borderlands. Features articles by Celeste R. Menchaca on sexual regulation at the border, Erika Pérez on several generations of the biethnic […]

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Job Posting: Assistant Professor in Middle Period Chinese History

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in Middle Period Chinese history, c. 618-1644, to begin July 1, 2020. We welcome applications from scholars who research any aspect of Middle Period Chinese history. We are especially interested in candidates whose work connects with other scholars in the department and […]

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History Associates to Feature “Electric” Presentation by Prof. Stephan Miescher

flyer for History Associates to Feature "Electric" Presentation by Prof. Stephan Miescher

History Associates will kick off the 2019-2020 year with a presentation by UCSB’s Professor Stephan Miescher titled Ghana’s Electric Dreams. It is based on his forthcoming monograph on the history of Ghana’s most ambitious development project, the Volta River Project and the Akosombo Dam, and their importance for the process of nation-building. It will include the showing of part of a […]

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Prof. Kate McDonald Awarded NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant

Screenshot of Bodies and Structures 2.0

The NEH awarded UCSB History Professor Kate McDonald and her colleague, Prof. David R. Ambaras of NC State University, a $100,000 Level II Digital Humanities Advancement Grant to complete the second edition of their digital spatial history project, Bodies and Structures 2.0 and to create new analytical tools for Scalar, the project’s platform. Congratulations, Kate and David!

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History Senior Honors Colloquium

group image of students and professor from the 2019 History Senior Honors Colloquium

The History Honors Senior Thesis Colloquium was a great success this year thanks to Professor Adrienne Edgar and all the students, discussants, friends and family who put so much time and energy into the event.  The papers covered a wide range of themes but many examined how race, gender, and political machinations undercut individual rights in the 19th and 20th […]

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History Celebrates with Alumni at All Gaucho Reunion

History Celebrates with Alumni at All Gaucho Reunion

The history department welcomed back its alumni on April 26th as part of the campus homecoming event, All Gaucho Reunion.  We invited alumni to participate in a lunch and career-panel moderated by the president of our History Club, Veronica Andrade.  Four amazing former History undergraduates Avery Barboza (2018), Kilma Lattin (2002), Rebecca Stephens Loman (2006), and Avi Ross (2001) told […]

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UCSB graduate student wins article award

Congratulations to Doug Genens, who was recently awarded the 2019 Everett E. Edwards prize for his article “Fighting Poverty in the Fields: Legal Services and the War on Poverty in Rural California,” which is slated for publication in spring 2020. The Edwards prize is given to the best article by a graduate student accepted for publication in Agricultural History in […]

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UCSB grad lands job as Director of Academic Affairs at Marist College

Congratulations to Stephanie Seketa, a department graduate who has just been hired as the Director of Academic Affairs at Marist College in New York. This position manages college-wide projects (under the office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs) including: academic events such as commencement, convocation, and high-profile lectures; public relations; regulatory compliance and accreditation oversight such as leading faculty in […]

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New Issue of Studies in Late Antiquity Available!

Studies in Late Antiquity is edited by Prof. Elizabeth DePalma Digeser of the UCSB History Department.  Check out the contents of the latest issue below. Studies in Late Antiquity Spring 2019; Vol. 3, No. 1 THE EDITOR Embodying the Past Elizabeth Depalma Digeser Stud Late Antiq 2019; 3.1: 1-3 doi:10.1525/sla.2019.3.1.1 http://sla.ucpress.edu/content/3/1/1 VIEWPOINT ESSAY Advancing Feminism Online: Online Tools, Visibility, and […]

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Professors Juan Cobo and Verónica Castillo-Muñoz land fellowships

Both Professors Cobo and Castillo-Muñoz have been awarded prestigious library fellowships, which is a testament to the quality of their scholarship. Professor Cobo won a yearlong John Carter Brown Library fellowship for his project “The coming of the kingdom: the Muisca, the Catholic Reformation, and the Spanish monarchy in the New Kingdom of Granada.” The John Carter Brown Library, at Brown University, […]

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Another UCSB History Ph.D. gets on the tenure track

Congratulations to Tim Paulson, who has accepted a faculty position at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Tim’s graduate research, which combined economic, labor, social, and environmental history, focused on the history of the American beef cattle industry–from ranch to table–and its place in a changing world economy. In addition to his dissertation, Tim taught courses in three departments, held […]

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UCSB History Department PhDs get tenure track positions

Congratulations to Cheryl Jiménez Frei, who just accepted a position in Public History at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and to Ben Ma, who has accepted a position at the University of Macau after a year-long post-doc at the University of Freiburg in Germany. Future professors Frei and Ma graduated in 2017 under Professors Sarah Cline and Anthony Barbieri-Low, […]

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Professor Eileen Boris wins inaugural Rachel Fuchs Award

Eileen Boris headshot

Professor Eileen Boris is, along with Professor Nupur Chauduri, a winner of the Coordinating Council for Women’s History’s (CCWH) inaugural Rachel Fuchs award. The award recognizes and applauds service to the profession, including mentoring. It is named in honor of the late Rachel Fuchs, who served as President of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, as President […]

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Professor Kate McDonald Launches New Digital Spatial History Site

Bodies and Structures 1.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History is now live. The website, a collaboration between Kate McDonald and North Carolina State University professor David Ambaras, is a platform for researching and teaching spatial histories of Japan, its empire, and the larger worlds of which they were a part. It begins from the premise that space and place are fundamental […]

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Job Posting: Temporary Lecturer in History

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a pool of qualified temporary lecturers to teach a course (or courses) in History for the upcoming openings. The number of positions varies from quarter to quarter and may include Summer terms, depending on the needs of the department. Courses needed may include: • Hist 2A, […]

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Professor Nelson Lichtenstein in the News

Professor Lichtenstein in his library

Professor Nelson Lichtenstein was featured in a WalletHub piece about the best and worst cities for jobs in California. He was part of a panel of experts who was asked to weigh in on the employment future of California, the challenges that job seekers face and the policies that help to level the playing field for disadvantaged workers.You can find […]

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Job Posting: Assistant Professor in Early North American history, c. 1700-1830.

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in Early North American history, c. 1700-1830. Appointment begins July 1, 2019. PhD expected at time of appointment or candidate must have completed all requirements for a PhD in History or a related field (or equivalent degree), except the dissertation (or equivalent), […]

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Notice of Application for Alien Employment Certification

This notice is provided because of the filing of an application for permanent alien labor certification for the following position: Assistant Professor. Concerned applicants for this position should report to University of California, Santa Barbara Department of History responsible for placing this position. Any person may provide documentary evidence bearing on the application to the attention of the certifying Officer […]

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In Memoriam, Professor Emeritus Harold Clark Kirker

UCSB Emeritus Professor of History, Harold Clark Kirker, died in San Francisco on May 30, 2018, just a few days before his 97th birthday.  Professor Kirker, who served in the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army from 1943-45, received his PhD from U.C. Berkeley in 1957.  After teaching at M.I.T. for nine years, he served on the faculty at […]

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UCSB History PhD Rudy Guevarra wins Ford Foundation Award

Rudy Guevarra, a 2007 UCSB History PhD, has been named one of two recipients of a 2018 Ford Foundation Senior Fellowship.  They give this description of his pathbreaking work: Rudy P. Guevarra Jr., Associate Professor Arizona State University, Asian Pacific American Studies, School of Social Transformation“Aloha Compadre: Latinxs in Hawai’i, 1832-2010” My research over the last eighteen years has focused […]

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In Memoriam, Professor Emeritus Carl Harris

The History Department was saddened by the death of Professor Emeritus Carl Harris on May 14 of this year. Professor Harris, who joined the UCSB history faculty in 1968 and retired in 2011, combined theoretical breadth, innovative social science, and in-depth research in primary sources to produce influential scholarship on the nature and sources of political power in the United […]

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New issue of Studies in Late Antiquity now available!

Studies in Late Antiquity is edited by Prof. Elizabeth DePalma Digeser of the UCSB History Department.  Check out the contents of the latest issue below.   Studies in Late Antiquity Summer 2018; Vol. 2, No. 2   THE EDITOR The Chain of Hermes: Late Ancient Founders and Traditions Elizabeth Depalma Digeser Stud Late Antiq 2018; 2.2: 145-146 doi:10.1525/sla.2018.2.2.145 http://sla.ucpress.edu/content/2/2/145 ARTICLES […]

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UCSB Graduate Students Host Medieval Studies Conference

Last week, a number of UCSB History graduate students organized and participated in the biannual UCSB Graduate Student Medieval Studies Conference. This year’s conference theme was “The Politics of Pleasure: Social Networking in the Middle Ages.” The planning committee invited a number of scholars from diverse backgrounds to present on the varied ways in which pleasure leisure competition, entertainment, friendly […]

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UCSB Grad Dr. Holly Roose Heads Promise Scholar Program

Dr. Holly Roose completed her PhD in History at UCSB last June. Since then, Holly received offers of tenure-track professorships, but she has decided to pursue a higher calling.  She is now the Director of UCSB’s Promise Scholar Program.  The program guides several hundred students who have extremely high financial need through their university careers.  She advises them, makes sure they […]

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Professor Zheng Publishes New Book

Professor Zheng has just published her monograph The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China with Stanford University Press. China’s 1911 Revolution was a momentous political transformation. Its leaders, however, were not rebellious troublemakers on the periphery of imperial order. On the contrary, they were a powerful political and economic elite deeply entrenched in local society and well-respected both for […]

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