Viewing entries tagged
History Department
Harvard University professor and filmmaker Vincent Brown spoke at a UCSB Key Passages series talk titled “Black History’s Warning to the World” and gave insights on the past, present, and future of Black history in the United States and internationally.
The newly opened exhibit Creative Currents: Student Expression in the Arts at UC Santa Barbara’s Sara Miller McCune Arts Library showcases decades of student creativity, spanning from 1960 to 2017. Curated by graduate student Carlyle Constantino, the exhibit highlights emotionally resonant works while exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the evolving role of curation in amplifying historically overlooked voices.
UCSB Film and Media Studies professor Mona Damluji recently discussed her journey into children's literature and the inspiration behind her socially-conscious works. Damluji published her debut children’s book, Together, in 2021, emphasizing the power of collective action. Her upcoming book, I Want You to Know, dives deeper into personal and political narratives. Written as a poem for her children, the book reflects on the generational effects of war, particularly in the Middle East, and explores themes of displacement and resilience. Damluji aims to open dialogue about complex histories, colonialism, and intergenerational trauma.
At an HFA Speaks event “Post-Election Reflection,” three UCSB faculty panelists gathered to discuss the threats America faces in human rights, academic freedom, and democracy under a Trump administration.
Filmmaker and director Persis Karim visited UC Santa Barbara for a screening of her film The Dawn is Too Far, hosted by the Center for Middle East Studies. The film details how art serves as a cultural creative outlet for many Iranian immigrants who moved to America.
Jewish Israeli Rotem Levin and Palestinian Osama Iliwat discussed their transformative life experiences and the different realities they face in the same land, in a discussion hosted by UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. As violence escalates in the Middle East, leaving many devastated, the two activists are holding conversations around the world, to encouraging individuals to listen to one another and challenge presumptions. By doing so, they aim to foster a future of peace and freedom for all.
Cinema sound editor Javier Umpierrez joined UCSB Film and Media Studies professor Greg Siegel for a post-screening discussion on the 2021 fantasy mystery film Memoria, which was the inaugural feature of “Panic!,” a fall series presented by UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center. Umpierrez spoke about his role in Memoria’s sound design and the film’s portrayal of bodies and locations recording history.
Historian Evan Axel Andersson spoke on amulets and daily life in ancient Roman Egypt at the 2024 Van Gelderen Lecture, hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s History Department. Andersson discussed how these ancient artifacts did much more than adorn—serving as vital protective and spiritual tools.
UC Santa Barbara's Walter H. Capps Center hosted Diane Winston, Knight Chair of Media and Religion at the University of Southern California, for a lecture on her book Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan's Evangelical Vision. She spoke about the role religion played in both Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump's presidency and how media helped popularize the politics of the Christian right.
Ending Poverty in California (EPIC) is a non-profit that is seeks to change attitudes toward those living in poverty and better enact policies and administer solutions. EPIC’s president Devon Gray and its chief adviser for storytelling and narrative, George Kaufmann, joined UCSB History department professor Alice O’Connor for a panel discussion.
Sarah Dunne, a doctoral candidate in UC Santa Barbara's History department, gave a talk about Queer bookstores and their historical significance—how they created vital community spaces for LGBTQ members and had first-hand involvement in gay liberation advocacy. A rise in the number of Queer bookstores occurred in the 70s after the first bookstore dedicated to LGBTQ work opened in 1967, the Oscar Wilde Bookstore.
Lerone A Martin, Stanford religious studies professor who directs the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, recently talked about the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the FBI for half a century. Hoover curated networks and worked with prominent white evangelists to promote and strengthen Christian nationalism. Martin used recently declassified documents to expose the religious culture in the FBI during Hoover’s era, which has had long lansting repercussions.
UC Santa Barbara History graduate student Andrea Serna has been sponsored for her research by the American Councils for International Education’s Title VIII Combined Research and Language Training Program. Serna will use this fellowship to research her dissertation topic, exploring how new borders affected early Soviet republics. In this interview she explains what her plans are for the time that she will spend on the fellowship abroad.
Humanities and Fine Arts Dean Daina Berry and Film lecturer Wendy Jackson joined student moderator Maya Johnson for a panel discussion celebrating Black life in America. They discussed a variety of topics surrounding Black life both personally and within academia, in honor of Black History Month this February.
UCSB’s Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies recently hosted Andreas Bernard, a visiting professor from Leuphana University Luneberg, for a talk on the history of epidemics. He said past theories regarding infections and diseases established successive origin stories that have affected epidemiological narratives today.
UC Santa Barbara’s Carsey-Wolf Center hosted the filmmakers Valerio Ciriaci and Izaak Liptzin to discuss their film Stonebreakers. The speakers talked about the protests surrounding the Columbus monuments during the Black Lives Matter movement and finding new ways to memorialize history.
Writing Program lecturer Christian Thomas recently developed UCSB’s first interactive, choose-your-own-adventure game for an undergraduate writing course. The game responds to the player’s choices, and exposes students to Rome’s rich history of art and archaeology,
With a passion to protect the environment, Jian Hong Shi interned at the Environmental Defense Center, the only public-interest environmental law group from Los Angeles to San Francisco and a partner organization of the Sara Miller McCune Endowed Internship and Public Service Program housed within the Walter H. Capps Center. “In addition to writing updates for our monthly emails, I wrote an item in our biannual printed edition,” she said. “It was about our recent achievement securing a 100-foot buffer between the new Heritage Ridge development project and the Los Carneros Creek, which will protect sensitive wildlife habitat.“
London-based artist Wajid Yaseen said that cassette tapes give a rare glimpse into the lives and immigration experiences of Pothwari-speaking people, whose language has no written form. The lecture was hosted by UCSB’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music, Ethnomusicology Forum, Library Special Collections, and Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
UCSB’s honors history students Cole Grissom, Madeline Josa, and Raana Naghieh recently spoke about the impact of women on politics in settings ranging from Ancient Rome to Georgian England, at a colloquium hosted by the History department.
