UCLA Department of History

History of Science Colloquium: Theodore Porter (UCLA) "Democracy Counts: On Sacred and Debased Numbers”
2020-11-02 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Nov. 2, 2020, 4:00pm, PST
Theodore Porter (UCLA), “Democracy Counts: Sacred and Debased numbers”
Commentary by Amir Alexander (UCLA)

The Trump Administration’s systematic rejection of accurate numbers in such domains as public health and the census is of a piece with Trump’s denial of the possibility of fair elections. Taken seriously, it comes down to a rejection of democratic government. This colloquium is oriented around Porter’s blog, “Democracy Counts,” which has been made available with this announcement, and which you are encouraged to read. Amir Alexander will provide a commentary, to be followed by a wide-ranging discussion on numbers and politics.

This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy
Please register here to receive the zoom link.
https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/democracy-counts-on-sacred-and-debased-numbers

Protesters shout outside the Miami-Dade County election office Nov. 22, 2000. (Colin Braley/Reuters)

Alejandra Dubcovsky, "Iquenibilahacu, iquibitila, Killed but not Extinguished, Centering Native Women in the Early South"
2020-10-29 12:30 - 14:00 | Zoom
Alejandra Dubcovsky, Associate Professor of History, UC Riverside
“Iquenibilahacu, iquibitila, Killed but not Extinguished, Centering Native Women in the Early South”
Time: October 29, 2020 12:30-2:00pm
You can register for this event here.

CMRS Conference: Varallo and the Sacri Monti of Northwestern Italy
2020-10-29 09:00 - 2020-10-30 12:00 | Zoom
CMRS Conference
Varallo and the Sacri Monti of Northwestern Italy
Thursday-Friday, October 29-30, 2020
9 am–12 pm Pacific Time

This conference, organized by Geoffrey Symcox (History, UCLA), explores the history and extraordinary art of the Sacri Monti and highlights the contributions of young scholars to this new field of research.
The cluster of pilgrimage centers known as the Sacri Monti, or Holy Mountains, in the western Italian Alps, is attracting increasing scholarly attention. In part this is because in 2003 they were named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, in recognition of their unique artistic character. The first Sacro Monte, at Varallo in the alpine foothills north of Turin, was founded in the late fifteenth century by a Franciscan friar, as a substitute version of Jerusalem for pilgrims who could not make the journey in person. He designed it as a topographical replica of the Holy Places, centering on the Holy Sepulcher. Subsequently, the artists working at Varallo in the sixteenth century, who were mainly local men, reconfigured this original topomimetic concept into a sequence of dramatic tableaux recounting the life and Passion of Christ. These were housed in individual chapels, and were composed of large numbers of realistic, life-size painted terracotta figures, backed by frescoes. In this form, Varallo became the prototype for a “second generation” of Sacri Monti founded at different places across the western Italian Alps in the seventeenth century under the impulse of the Counter-Reformation. Together, as UNESCO’s recognition attests, they constitute a cultural artifact unparalleled elsewhere in Italy or in the rest of Europe.
The conference will be held as two meetings on Thursday and Friday, October 29and 30, for about 3 hours each day. Speakers will make the full version of their papers available to all participants online at least a week before the conference, with ancillary materials as necessary. In their session they will give a brief summary of their paper, to be followed by remarks from a commentator, and discussion.
Please click here to register for the conference on Zoom.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2020
9:00 – 9:10 am Pacific Time
Welcoming remarks by UCLA-CMRS Director Zrinka Stahaljuk
9:10 – 9:30 Geoffrey Symcox (History, UCLA)
“Changing Historical Perspectives on Varallo and the Sacri Monti”
9:30 – 9:50 Edoardo Tortarolo (University of Eastern Piedmont, Vercelli)
“Belated Religiosity: the Valsesia as a Terra Separata and the Ambiguity of Padre Giacobini”
9:50 – 10:20 Comment: Geoffrey Symcox (History, UCLA)
General Discussion
10:20 – 10:40 Break
10:40 – 11:00 Matthew Vester (History, West Virginia University)
“The Social and Economic Context of the Western Alps: Some Examples from the Val d’Aosta”
11:00 – 11:20 Marianne Ritsema van Eck (History, Leiden University)
“The Observant Franciscans, the Bedrock of the Sacri Monti”
11:20 – 11:50 Comment: Nicholas Terpstra (History, University of Toronto)
General Discussion

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2020
9:00 – 9:10 am Pacific Time
Announcements, etc
9:10 – 9:30 Grace Harpster (Art History, Georgia State University)
“Grates, Graffiti, and Sacred Sculpture: Reforming the Sacro Monte of Varallo under Carlo Borromeo”
9:30 – 9:50 Rebecca Gill (National Gallery, London)
“Mystery and the Multisensory at Galeazzo Alessi’s Sacro Monte di Varallo”
9:50 – 10:20 Comment: George Gorse (Art History, Pomona College)
General Discussion
10:20 – 10:40 Break
10:40 – 11:00 Kennis Forte (Art History PhD Candidate, Queens University, Ontario)
“Symptom and Symbol: Goiters as a Link between Art, Landscape and Local Devotion at the Italian Sacri Monti”
11:00 – 11:20 Carla Benzan (The Open University, London)
“Embodied Vision and the Sculptural Summit: Varallo/Novi Ligure/Milan”
11:20 – 11:50 Comment: Claire Farago (Art & Art History, University of Colorado, Boulder)
Concluding Discussion led by Nicholas Terpstra (History, University of Toronto) and Geoffrey Symcox (History, UCLA)

Co-sponsored by the UCLA Department of History and the UCLA Division of the Humanities.
Please click here to register for the conference on Zoom.

CMRS@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU | CMRS.UCLA.EDU | FACEBOOK
Organized by Geoffrey Symcox (UCLA)
“Varallo and the Sacri Monti of Northwestern Italy”
Time: October 29th & 30th, 9:00am-12:00pm
Zoom registration links for Day 1 and Day 2

Why History Matters - Reckoning With Our Rights: The Legacy of Voter Access in California
2020-10-01 17:00 | Live streaming via Zoom
The event recording is now available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WQ8KoVdi3No

Carla Pestana
Chair and Professor
Joyce Appleby Endowed Chair of America in the World
UCLA Department of History
&
The UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy
invite you to attend
Why History Matters
Reckoning With Our Rights:
The Legacy of Voter Access in California

a panel discussion featuring
Alex Padilla
California Secretary of State
Alisa Belinkoff Katz
Associate Director, LA Initiative – UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
Lorrie Frasure
Interim Director, Bunche Center for African American Studies
Associate Professor, UCLA Department of Political Science
Dean Logan
Recorder/County Clerk, Los Angeles County Registrar
moderated by
Zev Yaroslavsky
Executive Director, LA Initiative

Thursday, October 1, 2020
5:00 p.m. PDT
Live streaming via Zoom

Please submit your questions in advance of the webinar via email to:
hnadworny@support.ucla.edu (by Wednesday, September 30 at 12:00 p.m.)
Instructions to join the webinar will be provided once your registration has been confirmed.

About the Why History Matters series: The UCLA Department of History is proud to present the series “Why History Matters.” The series is dedicated to the belief that historical knowledge is an indispensable, and often missing, ingredient in public debate. Over the course of the year, “Why History Matters” events will bring historians into conversation with prominent public officials and personalities on issues of contemporary relevance.
In collaboration with

UCLA College
1309 Murphy Hall, PO Box 951413
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1413

The Early Modern Global Caribbean
2020-09-18 09:00
Atlantic History Presents
The Early Modern Global Caribbean
A Virtual Conference at The Huntington Library
September 18, 2020 9:00AM
For the conference schedule, please click here.

Animals, Agency, and Slaving in the Atlantic World
2020-04-23 10:00 - 16:30
Atlantic History Presents
Animal Slavery Conference
April 23, 2020 10:00AM – 4:30PM
Zoom Link – https://ucla.zoom.us/j/856588866

Frank Biess, “German Angst: Fear and Democracy in Postwar Germany” - POSTPONED/CANCELLED
2020-04-09 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Frank Biess
“German Angst: Fear and Democracy in Postwar Germany”
Postponed/Cancelled

Corinna Treitel, "Alternative Modernities in the German Past: Occultism, Natural Diets, and the Urge to Health" - POSTPONED/CANCELLED
2020-04-06 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Corinna Treitel
“Alternative Modernities in the German Past: Occultism, Natural Diets, and the Urge to Health”
Postponed/Cancelled

Deborah Coen, “Climate Change and the Enigma of Usable Knowledge”
2020-03-16 16:00 | 5288 Bunche Hall
Deborah Coen, Yale University
“Climate Change and the Enigma of Usable Knowledge”
One of the most pressing challenges for historians of science today is to explain the failure of scientific knowledge of anthropogenic climate change to motivate timely action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To date explanations have focused on such factors as the role of industry-funded disinformation campaigns, the disconnect between scientific research and the information needs of policy-makers, the reluctance of scientists to engage in advocacy, and the inexperience of US geoscientists with public engagement due to the secrecy imposed on their research during the Cold War. This presentation will lay out an alternative (yet complementary) framework for answering this question, drawing on research in progress. I will argue, first, that the image of climate scientists as disengaged from the public derives from a focus on theorists and global modelers at the expense of those working at the regional scale (many of whom identified as geographers or ecologists rather than physicists or chemists). Indeed, from the early days of research on the “Carbon Dioxide Problem” in the 1970s, there was no lack of effort to make the science of anthropogenic climate change actionable and accessible—or, in the parlance of the day, “usable.” Indeed, “usable knowledge” was a buzzword of the 1970s and ‘80s that significantly shaped climate research at multiple major international institutions. These projects evolved quite independently of each other (and were, in some cases, even marked by mutual hostility), yet all took usability as their goal. However, what usability meant to this population of researchers was far from uniform. My aim, then, is to study how ideals of usable knowledge formed, circulated, and confronted each other in the community of climate researchers from the 1970s to today, at times in dialogue with practitioners of Science & Technology Studies. My hypothesis is that the past four decades have seen an overall trend towards an increasingly narrow definition of usability, reflecting the growing dominance of a top-down model of risk management. Yet the climate field has also generated creative resistance to this trend, which requires a historical perspective to appreciate properly.

March 16, 2020, 4:00pm | Bunche Hall 5288

Event Cancelled - "Kings and Slaves: Diplomacy, Sovereignty, and Black Subjectivity in the Early Modern World"
2020-03-12 12:00 - 13:30 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Please note that this event has been cancelled.
Atlantic History Speaker Series Presents
Herman Bennett
“Kings and Slaves: Diplomacy, Sovereignty, and Black Subjectivity in the Early Modern World”
Thursday, March 12
12:00PM – 1:30PM
History Conference Room, 6275 Bunche

Marjan Wardaki, "Knowledge-Migrants at Empire's Dusk: Education, Technology, and Scientific Knowledge between Berlin, Bombay, and Kabul, 1921-1960"
2020-03-10 14:00 - 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
“Knowledge-Migrants at Empire’s Dusk: Education, Technology, and Scientific Knowledge between Berlin, Bombay, and Kabul, 1921-1960”
Marjan Wardaki
March 10, 2020, 2:00pm – 4:00p.m. | Bunche Hall 6275

Otniel Dror, “Supra-Maximal Super-Pleasure”
2020-03-09 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Otniel Dror, Hebrew University and UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics
“Supra-Maximal Super-Pleasure”
This talk presents the discovery of a new post-World War II “supramaximal” “super-pleasure” region in the brain (of laboratory rats). This discovery of an instantaneously-produced insatiable self-perpetuating super-pleasure captured the imagination of contemporaries and of generations to come. It inaugurated a major transformation whose repercussions and off-shoots are very much still with us today, including the development of a neurophysiology of decision making, risk taking, addiction, affective neuroscience, and more. I argue that the excessiveness of the newly-discovered supramaximal super-pleasure challenged existing models of organisms, of the self, and of nature and society. It challenged basic conceptions of the self and of organisms by presenting a pleasure that disrupted the fundamental and necessary balance between pleasure and pain. I reconstruct the laboratory enactments and models that constituted this new pleasure as “supramaximal,” instant, and insatiable, suggest several postwar contexts that situate the new pleasure, and examine expert and vernacular reactions to the new super-pleasure.
March 9, 2020, 4:00PM | Bunche 6275

"The Right to Vote Then and Now: A Symposium on the 100th Anniversary of the Ratification of the Woman Suffrage Amendment"
2020-03-08 13:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Royce Hall – Room 314, 10745 Dickson Ct, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
“The Right to Vote Then and Now: A Symposium on the 100th Anniversary of the Ratification of the Woman Suffrage Amendment”
March 8, 2020, 1:00pm-4:00pm | Royce Hall 314

Marques Vestal: "Tenant Lessons on Rent and Housing in a Time of War: WWII Rent Control in Los Angeles, 1942-1950"
2020-03-04 16:00 | 6339 Bunche
“Tenant Lessons on Rent and Housing in a Time of War: WWII Rent Control in Los Angeles, 1942-1950”
Marques Vestal (UCLA)
March 4, 2020, 4:00pm | Bunche Hall 6339

Aro Velmet, “Pasteur’s Empire: Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World”
2020-03-02 16:00 | 5288 Bunche Hall
Aro Velmet, University of Southern California
“Pasteur’s Empire: Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World”
March 2, 2020, 4:00pm | Bunche Hall 5288

Stephen G. Gross, “Germany in the Age of Oil and Atoms: Price Wars and the Politics of Energy, 1950-1980”
2020-02-27 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
“Germany in the Age of Oil and Atoms: Capital, Price Wars, and the Politics of Energy, 1950-1980”
Stephen G. Gross
February 27, 2020, 4:00pm | Bunche Hall 6275

Glenn Penny, “Unbinding German History”
2020-02-24 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
“Unbinding German History”
Glenn Penny
February 24, 2020, 4:00pm | Bunche Hall 6275

"Women's Vote: Past, Present and Future"
2020-02-18 12:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
History of Women, Men & Sexuality Group presents
Ellen Carol Dubois, ” Women’s Vote: Past, Present and Future”
A book talk to commemorate 100 years of the 19th Amendment

“Japanese American Reparations: History And Community in Addressing Past and Present Injustices” Panel
2020-02-13 17:00 - 19:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Panel with Valerie Matsumoto (UCLA), Richard Katsuda (NCRR), Kathy Nishimoto Masaoka (NCRR), Traci Kato-Kiriyama (Tuesday Night Project), Glen Kuo Kitayama (Teacher at LAUSD)

Thabisile Griffin, "Ann Barramont's Petition to Sell: Property Struggles and Colonial Insecurity in 18th Century St. Vincent"
2020-02-13 12:00 - 13:30 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Atlantic History Speaker Series Presents
Thabisile Griffin
UCLA History
Ann Barramont’s Petition to Sell: Property Struggles and Colonial Insecurity in 18th Century St. Vincent
Thursday, February 13
12:00PM – 1:30PM
6275 Bunche Hall

Choon Hwee Koh: “The Sublime Post: A History of Empire and Power through the Ottoman Postal System”
2020-02-12 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Candidate lecture (Early Modern Ottoman History) by Choon Hwee Koh
“The Sublime Post: A History of Empire and Power through the Ottoman Postal System”
February 12, 2020 at 4 pm, 6275 Bunche Hall

Akif Yerlioglu, "New Remedies in Early Modern Ottoman Medicine: Some from the New World, Some from Tombs"
2020-02-05 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Candidate lecture (Early Modern Ottoman History) by Akif Yerlioglu
February 5, 2020 at 4 pm, 6275 Bunche Hall

Governor Michael Dukakis (Northeastern): "How the U.S Killed Iranian Democracy – and Dealing with the Consequences"
2020-02-04 12:00 - 14:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
“How the U.S Killed Iranian Democracy – and Dealing with the Consequences”
Governor Michael Dukakis (Northeastern)
February 4, 2020, 12:00pm-2:00pm | Bunche 6275

Lukas Rieppel, “Assembling the Dinosaur”
2020-02-03 16:00 | 5288 Bunche Hall
Lukas Rieppel, Brown University
“Assembling the Dinosaur”
Dinosaur fossils were first found in England, but a series of late-nineteenth-century discoveries in the American West turned the United States into a world center for vertebrate paleontology. Around the same time, the United States also emerged as an economic powerhouse of global proportions, and large, fierce, and spectacular creatures like Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Triceratops became powerful emblems of American capitalism. Tracing the links among dinosaurs, capitalism, and culture during this era, Lukas Rieppel reveals how these giant reptiles became intertwined with commercial culture, philanthropic interests, and the popular imagination during America’s long Gilded Age.

February 3, 2020, 4:00pm | 5288 Bunche Hall

Truth and Nonviolence in Post-Truth Times: An International Conference on Mohandas Gandhi
2020-01-30 16:30
Day 1: Thursday, January 30 begins 4:30 PM at Ackerman Union, Viewpoint Room
Day 2: Friday, January 31 begins 9:30 AM at YRL Main Conference Room
Day 3: Saturday, February 1 begins 9:30 at YRL Main Conference Room
Day 4: Sunday, February 2 begins 9:30 at Royce 314
For more information and details, please refer to the attached flyer.

Dr. Maria Todorova, "Imagining Utopia: The Lost World of Socialists at Europe’s Margins"
2020-01-30 16:00 - 18:00
“Imagining Utopia: The Lost World of Socialists at Europe’s Margins”
a Talk by Dr. Maria Todorova
Gutgsell Professor of History and Center for Advanced Study Professor at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Presented by the UCLA Department of History’s European Colloquium

Thursday, January 30, 2020, 4-6PM
UCLA Faculty Center, Sierra Room

Tyler Kynn, “The Seasonality of Ottoman Power: Pilgrims and Imperial Patronage Networks in Early Modern Mecca and Medina”
2020-01-30 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Candidate lecture (Early Modern Ottoman History) by Tyler Kynn
“The Seasonality of Ottoman Power: Pilgrims and Imperial Patronage Networks in Early Modern Mecca and Medina”
January 30, 2020 at 4 pm, 6275 Bunche Hall

Margaret O'Mara (University of Washington): "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America"
2020-01-30 14:00 - 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
“The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America”
Margaret O’Mara (University of Washington)
January 30, 2020, 2:00pm-4:00pm | Bunche Hall 6275

Open House at Luskin Center for History and Policy
2020-01-24 13:00 - 15:00 | 6339 Bunche
Open House at Luskin Center for History and Policy to explore research project on American soft power in the Middle East
January 24, 1-3 pm | Bunche 6339

Kittiya Lee, "Dressed to Impress: the Tupi sovereign body in Pero Vaz de Caminha's 1500 Letter from Brazil"
2020-01-23 12:00 - 13:30 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Atlantic History Speaker Series Presents
Kittiya Lee
CSULA, History
“Dressed to Impress: The Boundaries of Friendship and the Tupi Sovereign Body in Pero Vaz de Caminha’s 1500 Letter from Brazil”
Thursday, January 23
12:00PM – 1:30PM
History Conference Room, 6275 Bunche Hall
