UCLA Department of History

Dr. Elizabeth O’Brien, History of Medicine, "Surgical Salvation: Mexico and the History of Reproductive Medicine, from Enlightenment to Eugenics"
2023-02-23 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 6275 Bunche Hall

Madina Thiam, Assistant Professor of History, NYU "Absolutely and Utterly Free: An Atlantic-Saharan Journey through Slavery and Race-Making, 1834-1836"
2023-02-16 12:00 - 13:30 | Bunche 6275 & Zoom
This talk follows Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Watara, a Timbuktu-born teenager who was enslaved in Jamaica from 1805 to 1834. Upon securing his manumission, Watara undertook a trans-Atlantic and trans-Saharan journey, in a bid to return home. A close examination of Watara’s words and writings about him, and a reconstruction of his trajectory, provides insight into the social and political forces that ushered in deep changes in the worlds of the British Atlantic and Muslim Sahel and Sahara, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As Watara sought to secure freedom while journeying across the Atlantic and Sahara, which strategies did he leverage? How did larger political changes in 1820s-1830s Sahel, Sahara, and Atlantic render his aspirations to freedom possible, and how did they restrict them? Scholars have previously written about Watara’s journey and writings by situating his autobiography within the broader genre of transatlantic slave narratives, and analyzing his trajectory as evidence of the retention of African cultural expressions among enslaved Black Muslims in the Americas.
This talk offers a new interpretation of Watara’s articulation and praxis of freedom, framing them in the broader contexts of the end of chattel slavery in the British Atlantic, booming trans-Saharan slave trade, and changing notions of race and enslaveability in the West African Sahel in the era of Islamic revolutions and state-building.
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Erin Rowe, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University "The Black Saints of the Carmelite Order: Ancient Ethiopia in the Early Modern European Imagination”
2023-02-15 14:00 - 15:30 | 6275 Bunche Hall
Beginning in the seventeenth-century, members of the Carmelite order adopted two ancient Ethiopian saints, Efigenia and Elesban. While their interest in ancient saints was tied to the order’s longstanding efforts to prove the antiquity of their order dating back to the Prophet Elijah, the inclusion of Ancient Ethiopia in these efforts tell a more complex story about how early modern Spaniards thought with and about Ancient Ethiopia. The inclusion of Ethiopia in early modern ideas about the Biblical Near East clashed with the treatment of enslaved people from West and Central Africa being brought to the peninsula in vast numbers, while devotion to Ethiopian saints by White and Black Spaniards transformed the spiritual and historical landscape.
*Co-sponsored by Department of History, CMRS-CEGS, The Atlantic History Colloquium, Peter H. Reill Chair in European Studies, and The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.

Dr. Tara Suri, History of Medicine, "Modeling 'The Human' Over the End of Empire"
2023-02-13 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall

Noelle Turtur (Weber Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA): “Challenging Fascist Corporatism in the Colonies: Truckers and the Italian Company for East African Transports (CITAO), 1937-40”
2023-02-06 16:30 | 6275 Bunche Hall

Brett Rushforth, Associate Professor, University of Oregon “Consuming Colonialism: The Atlantic World in Sixteenth-Century France”
2023-02-02 12:00 - 13:30 | Bunche 6275 & Zoom
Brett Rushforth, Associate Professor, University of Oregon
“Consuming Colonialism: The Atlantic World in Sixteenth-Century France”
Zoom RSVP Here

Dr. Devon Golaszewski, History of Medicine, "'Traditional Birth Attendants' and the Maternity Ward in Post-Colonial Mali"
2023-02-01 16:00
RSVP Here

Dr. Lucas Mueller, History of Medicine, “Global Toxins: Cancer and Environmental Health after Empire"
2023-01-30 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall

Dr. Elise Mitchell, History of Medicine, "Morbid Geographies: Smallpox and Slavery in the Early Modern Atlantic"
2023-01-24 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
RSVP Link: https://forms.office.com/r/vWQgY5yDQs

Atlantic History Colloquium: Melissa Morris, Assistant Professor of History, University of Wyoming
2022-12-01 12:00 - 13:30 | Bunche 6275 & Zoom
Pirates which infest that coast’: Illicit Trade and Imperial Rivalry in Seventeenth-Century Western Hispaniola
This presentation considers the illicit trade of tobacco and other goods from Western Hispaniola. French, Dutch, and English ships came from the 1560s to trade with the diverse groups living there—Indigenous, Spanish, and African. In response, in 1605-6, western and northwestern Hispaniola and other centers of tobacco cultivation were depopulated. The Spanish forcibly resettled residents, burned their towns, and issued a decree banning tobacco cultivation. These harsh measures, however, were far from the end of the island’s tobacco trade, or of interlopers’ presence. Some residents refused to move, and they were now joined by French and Dutch buccaneers. By 1630, they had several tobacco plantations in western Hispaniola. This chapter relies upon documents in several languages and from diverse archives to tell the story of the Spanish illicit trade and depopulations, the subsequent rise of interlopers who were loyal to no empire, and the eventual takeover of western Hispaniola by the French.
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Where Memory Leads: A Conversation with Saul Friedländer (with Sanjay Subrahmanyam)
2022-11-21 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
More info to come.

History of Science Colloquium: E. Bennett Jones (The Huntington Library)
2022-11-14 16:00 - 17:30 | Bunche 5288 & Zoom
The Indians Say: Storytelling, Settler Colonialism and American Natural History, 1722 to 1846
This talk discusses the use of information attributed to Indigenous sources within eighteenth and nineteenth century Anglophone natural history. Early modern naturalists studying North American flora and fauna frequently sought out the expertise of Indigenous people, who they simultaneously regarded as authoritative knowers and objects of study. But diplomatic alliances, specific cultural protocols, and regional dynamics all encouraged (or prevented) information sharing between settler naturalists and Indigenous people and these contexts in turn shaped how Anglophone naturalists presented and cited Indigenous expertise in published natural history. The talk explores the relationship between evidence, identity, and colonialism and examines how ideas about extraction and information underpinned the epistemology of early modern natural history. It also gestures towards present-day manifestations of these issues within scientific approaches to TEK (traditional ecological knowledge).

RSVP for Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEodO6vqzMuHdyICRUzt3ost8nF5jHEO8TX
RSVP for in-person: https://forms.gle/4YpigVHmijybhVYv9

Cuba and Cape Verde: Revolutionary Connections across the Pan-African Atlantic
2022-11-10 12:00 - 13:30 | Bunche 6275 & Zoom
Zoom: RSVP

Women in the Early Modern City: Suzhou and Paris
2022-11-07 12:00 - 15:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
View the event flyer and register here

Euclid and Descartes on the Potomac: The Geometrical Battle for the National Capital” Presenter: Amir Alexander (UCLA)
2022-10-31 16:00 | Bunche 5288 & Zoom
In person RSVP
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Glenn Penny's "German History Unbound" Book Discussion
2022-10-17 16:00 | 6275 Bunche Hall
The European Colloquium will host a discussion of Glenn Penny’s new book, “German History Unbound” on Monday October 17, at 4 PM in 6275 Bunche Hall. The discussant is Professor Carina Johnson of Pitzer College.

Data Deluges: Histories Past and Present
2022-09-15 09:30 - 2022-09-16 17:00 | Royce 306
“Data Deluges: Histories Past and Present” a conference organized by Ted Porter
September 14 and 15
Royce 306
RSVP: cbellwilson@g.ucla.edu
For more details, click here

Integrating Central and Eastern Europe into Atlantic History: Some Reflections
2022-05-19 12:30 - 14:00

History of Science Colloquium: Ylva Soederfeldt (Uppsala/ UCLA)
2022-05-16 16:00 - 17:30
May 16 Ylva Soederfeldt (Uppsala/ UCLA)
“Acting out Disease: Patient Organizations in Twentieth-Century Medicine”
Zoom RSVP: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMod-qhqz0oE9RdqRTVRaedLGCFEIrVhUfd
In Person RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1b1K-Jc87ZdjECauHsSaH4JWGu4G-t30dAoQfsk3SHbQ

6th Annual Undergraduate History Conference - "Intersectionality, Movements, and Resistance"
2022-05-13 10:00 - 14:30 | Zoom

Why History Matters: China, Russia, and the US: Enduring Legacies of the Cold War
2022-05-10 16:00 - 2022-09-01 17:00
~ A RECORDING OF THIS EVENT IS NOW AVAILABLE. ~
Zoom RSVP Here

The History of Gender & Sexuality Workshop
2022-05-05 09:00 - 15:30 | 6257 Bunche Hall

2022 Eugene Weber Prize Recipient Judith G. Coffin, "Sex, Love and Letters: Writing Simone de Beauvoir"
2022-05-03 16:00 - 17:00 | 6257 Bunche Hall
Judith G. Coffin, winner of the 2022 Eugen Weber Book Prize in French History, will speak about her beautifully written book, Sex, Love, and Letters: Writing Simone de Beauvoir, which explores the neglected archive of letters written to Simone de Beauvoir by ordinary women and men. This innovative cultural history examines the twentieth century as an embodied experience, showing the intimate connections between the geopolitical and the personal.

History of Science Colloquium: Alexandra Minna Stern (University of Michigan)
2022-05-02 16:00 - 17:30
May 2 Alexandra Minna Stern (University of Michigan)
“From State Coercion to Reparative Justice? Histories and Legacies of Eugenics and Sterilization in California”
Zoom RSVP: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEvdOmqrjojEtRUCEXGyTS_3KjPNovF6r6L
In Person RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1VuNtVVC2wj5HhtXpY9FXKdf43Tgp4W118aSpFY95x-E
This talk explores the history and legacies of eugenics and coerced sterilization in California from three angles. First, I provide an overview of the archival and collaborative research involved in reconstructing the demographic and contextual history of compulsory sterilization during the era of eugenic legislation (1909-1979). Second, I discuss the relevance of this history to contemporary issues in society and genetics, ranging from debates over acceptable building names on university campuses to the insidious biases of some reprogenetic technologies. Finally, I conclude by reflecting on the benefits and limits of reparations for eugenics, with specific attention to the recently implemented compensation program for survivors of coerced sterilizations in state-run homes, hospitals, and prisons in California.

Brian J. Griffith Hosting Book Talk on Dr. Diana Garvin's Feeding Fascism
2022-04-22 11:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
Brian J. Griffith will be hosting a book talk on Dr. Diana Garvin’s recently published book, Feeding Fascism, in conjunction with his HIST 132 course on April 22nd from 11am to 12pm via Zoom.
Zoom registration: https://www.tinyurl.com/feeding-fascism

Mutiny on the Black Prince: Slavery, Piracy, and State Capture in the Revolutionary Atlantic World
2022-04-21 12:30 - 14:00 | 6257 Bunche Hall
James Sweet, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Mutiny on the Black Prince: Slavery, Piracy, and State Capture in the Revolutionary Atlantic World
Location: Hybrid
Bunche Hall 6275
Zoom RSVP
Time: 12:30-2:00 pm
The slave ship Black Prince departed Bristol, England, in 1768, bound for Old Calabar in West Africa. Before reaching the African coast, the ship’s crew mutinied, murdering the captain and officers. The mutineers renamed the ship “Liberty,” elected new officers, and set sail for Brazil. This talk traces the dramatic story of the mutiny, as well as the merchant-owners’ response to the uprising. At the very moment that the American Revolution unfolded in North America, the Black Prince’s owners conducted a “shadow” revolution, mobilizing the power of the British Crown to seek justice and restitution on their behalf. This counter-revolution extended well beyond the realm of economic protectionism into corporate diplomacy, surveillance, arrest, extradition, and capital punishment. In this way, even in an era of professed liberty and freedom, the privatization of state power was already emerging, replacing monarchies with corporate oligarchies, presaging a new kind of political power in the Atlantic world.

Stella Ghervas (Newcastle University, U.K.), "The Black Sea and the Definition of Europe: War, Peace, and Empire"
2022-04-20 16:00 - 17:00
A Weber Chair In Modern European History recruitment talk by Stella Ghervas (Newcastle University, U.K.).
Link to RSVP to the Candidate Lecture.

History of Science Colloquium: Peiting C. Li (Cedars-Sinai)
2022-04-18 16:00 - 17:30
April 18 Peiting C. Li (Cedars-Sinai)
“When Herbs Become Drugs: Late Natural History and Early Clinical Trials in China”
Zoom RSVP: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwrce2vrDwuHtTE7HtTqJTG7iCo7vS39XWO
In Person RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ILInDOwf0IzCN9TMRv9cMWhPxtUCe8PIFSgGKZaoi2w
This talk discusses investigations of a Chinese herbal tuberculosis treatment as a window onto shifts in the production of scientific
medical knowledge in 1920-1930s Shanghai. Once a remedy for consumption local to the mountains of southern China and known by a variety of names in gazetteers and botanical sources, by the 1920s it was sold in Shanghai as a trademarked tuberculosis treatment, advertised in newspapers, and tested by the state’s nascent public health institutions. Doctors sought to understand the herb in modes ranging from textual studies reminiscent of late imperial natural history to systematic evaluation of the effects of treatment in patients. Tracing changes in the ways doctors analyzed this herb reveals the increasing importance of quantification and experimentation in medical writing at this time.

Pam Ballinger (University of Michigan), “Sovereign Anomalies: Postwar Trieste and the Problem of 'Hardcore' Refugees”
2022-04-14 16:00 - 17:00 | Royce 306
A Weber Chair In Modern European History recruitment talk.
Pamela Ballinger is Professor of History and the Fred Cuny Chair in the History of Human Rights in the Department of History at the University of Michigan. She holds degrees in Anthropology (B.A. Stanford University, M. Phil Cambridge University, M.A. Johns Hopkins University) and a joint Ph.D. in History and Anthropology (Johns Hopkins). She is the author of History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans (Princeton University Press, 2003), La Memoria dell’Esilio (Veltro Editrice, 2010), and the World Refugees Made: Decolonization and the Foundation of Postwar Italy (Cornell University Press, 2020). The World Refugees Made received the AAIS 2020 Book Prize (History, Society and Politics) and the Helen and Howard Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies/AHA). Professor Ballinger’s areas of expertise include human rights, forced migration, refugees, fascism, colonialism/decolonization, seaspace, and modern Mediterranean and Balkan history.
The RSVP link is here: https://forms.office.com/r/WDPCngd1Xa

The Age of the Gas Mask: Susan Grayzel
2022-04-11 16:00 - 18:00
Susan Grayzel’s talk on April 11th, from 4:00-6:00pm at 6275 Bunche Hall. Attendance for this event is also available via Zoom. Registration is required if attending via Zoom.
“The First World War introduced the widespread use of lethal chemical arms. In its aftermath, the British government, like that of many states, had to prepare civilians to confront such weapons in a future war. Over the course of the interwar period, it developed individual anti-gas protection as a cornerstone of civil defence. The Age of the Gas Mask traces the fascinating history of one object – the civilian gas mask – through the years 1915–1945 and, in so doing, reveals the reach of modern, total war and the limits of the state trying to safeguard civilian life in an extensive empire. Drawing on records from Britain’s Colonial, Foreign, India, Home, and War Offices and other archives alongside newspapers, journals, personal accounts and cultural sources, Susan Grayzel connects the histories of the First and Second World Wars, combatants and civilians, men and women, metropole and colony, illuminating how new technologies of warfare shaped culture, politics, and society.”
