History
-
Associate Professor of History Caitlin Keliiaa brings Native perspectives to cinematic series on California history
“People of the West,” a 10-episode documentary series, is a cinematic journey through 500 years of California’s Indigenous history, told through Native voices. Episodes like “First Contact,” “Gold Rush”, “Genocide” and “Boarding Schools” uncover hard truths behind myths of the American West. Among the historians and cultural experts who helped bring “People of the West”…
-
The deadly poison that changed medicine; History Professor Matt O’Hara will read from The Flying Death at Bookshop Santa Cruz on November 9
In The Flying Death: Poison, Plunder, And The Quest For A Miracle Medicine In The Amazon, UC Santa Cruz History Professor and Cowell/Stevenson Provost Matt O’Hara tells a complex but fast-moving story, in which scientific breakthroughs emerged alongside questionable medical experiments, commercial rivalries, and the exploitation of the Indigenous communities whose knowledge made the discoveries…
-
Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture to explore Japanese American redress and the legacy of incarceration
Forty-five years ago, more than 750 survivors and descendants of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II spoke before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. On Nov. 5, UC Santa Cruz will revisit that history with the Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture by civil rights attorney Donald Tamaki, along with the premiere…
-
UC Santa Cruz history professor tapped to lead historic slave trade database as it moves to Harvard
Slavevoyages.org, a free online database chronicling tens of thousands of slave-trade voyages, is heading to Harvard University, and UC Santa Cruz History Professor Gregory O’Malley has been chosen to lead it.
-
UC Santa Cruz research trip reconnects Filipino American families across the Pacific
A four-week research trip in the Philippines this summer by an intergenerational team from UC Santa Cruz, the Tobera Project, and the Pangasinan Polytechnic College (PPC) led to reunions and unexpected discoveries.
-
From Homer to Hollywood: The enduring fascination with The Odyssey
Ahead of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film release, UC Santa Cruz classics professors discuss the enduring fascination with The Odyssey
-
A Deep Read interview with Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life
The British biologist Merlin Sheldrake, this year’s featured author for The Humanities Institute’s (THI) seventh annual Deep Read, spoke with UC Santa Cruz about the strange, generative intelligence of fungi and what it can teach us about connection, creativity, and survival.
-
Long days, snacks, and scan-a-thons: student archivists stepped up to save a treasure trove of Okinawan-American memories
In a cramped conference room, a small group of students spent countless hours digitizing the photos, slides and artworks of the Okinawan American community in Los Angeles County. These students work for the Okinawa Memories Initiative.
-
Damming the Nile and the devastating cost of human progress
In her upcoming Nauenberg History of Science Lecture, World Wounds: The Damming of the Nile River and the Transformation of Medicine, Associate Professor of History Jennifer Derr will explore how massive infrastructure projects contributed to widespread illness, and offer insights into the global history of medicine.
-
Humanities skills are transferable skills
UC Santa Cruz humanities students graduate with a toolkit of transferable skills in high demand across fields ranging from academia to the entertainment industry and high-tech startups. Here are the stories of UC Santa Cruz humanities graduates thriving in a wide range of jobs.
-
Humanities graduates apply human-centered thinking in impactful careers
Across disciplines, they point to critical thinking, ethical reasoning, adaptability, and empathy as core strengths developed through humanities coursework.
-
A vision of freedom: the overlooked Black women activists who rallied for the vote in the Pacific Northwest
Long before women gained the right to vote nationwide in 1920, Black women in the Pacific Northwest were already working to shape political life—organizing clubs, building party networks, and mobilizing voters. Assistant Professor of History Quin’Nita Cobbins-Modica’s research shines a light on these overlooked political strategists. Her scholarship has earned her the 2025 Judith Lee…