In this talk, Professor Erika Rappaport of the UCSB History Department explores how tea shops emerged in the 18th century and came to be defined as “women’s spaces” in 19th century and early 20th century Europe and North America — but as “male spaces” in parts of Africa and South Asia. These institutions helped build mass markets but also shaped the “gendered” meanings surrounding selling and drinking tea. Original manuscripts will be on display.

Speaker: Goran Nikšić is the City Archaeologist and Architect for City of Split in Croatia (Service for the Old City Core), and the Senior Lecturer on architectural conservation at the University of Split.  He holds his degrees from the University of Zagreb (Ph.D.), the University of York, and the University of Belgrade.  His areas of specialization are architectural conservation and the history of architecture, particularly Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance architecture.  From 2004 on he has served as an expert for…

During the Reformation, the Catholic Church suffered a crisis in one of its oldest and most powerful institutions: belief in the saints. To support the veneration of these individuals, canonization officials turned, it would seem paradoxically, to medical science. Canon lawyers and physicians thought that medicine could be used to prove miracles. The category of supernatural was, however, a tricky one and so canon lawyers, theologians, and doctors developed a range of techniques to establish the bounds of nature. This…

In this talk, Dr. Erika Rappaport, Professor and Chair of the Department of History at UCSB and historian of British consumer culture, explores how Queen Victoria became the first media monarch. Queen Victoria was unmatched in bringing the monarchy into the modern age, becoming the subject of intense media attention, criticism and adoration. In her reign we can see the first hints of what has become the modern role of the monarchy as cultural icon and celebrity. Erika Rappaport is…