News

We are thrilled to announce that Professor Cathryn Carson has been appointed as the next chairman of the UC Berkeley History Department. Trained in Physics and the History of Science at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, Cathryn joined the Berkeley faculty in 1996 and she currently holds the Thomas M. Siebel Presidential Chair in the History of Science.

On Monday April 12, UC Berkeley will host “Race and responsibility: a conversation on Black-Jewish relations and the fight for equal justice.” The event is headed by Associate Professor of History Ethan Katz, and will feature Eric K.

Dear Cal History Community, 

The magazine U.S. News & World Report released its rankings of the Best Graduate Schools and Programs for 2022, and the History Department was ranked as the #1 History Program in the country!  While rankings don't fully capture the great accomplishments of our History community, we're happy to take a moment to celebrate this great recognition of our program. 

Our full rankings speak to the breadth and strength of our History Program: 

Dear History Community,

I write to announce the passing on March 10, 2021 of Robert Middlekauff, Preston Hotchkis Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.  Born in 1929 and raised in Yakima, Washington, Bob received his B.A. from University of Washington in 1952.  After serving in the Marines between 1952-1954 including deployments to Korea and Japan, he earned his M.A. from the University of Washington in 1957 and his Ph.D. in History from Yale University in 1961.  

Congratulations to Associate Professor Ethan Katz, whose article “Jewish Citizens of an Imperial Nation-State: Toward a French-Algerian Frame for French Jewish History" has been awarded an Honorable Mention for the William Koren Jr.

Dr. Robin Mitchell

Congratulations to Fallon Burner (BA ’20), whose undergraduate History thesis "Healing Through Language: Revitalization and Renewal in the Wendat Confederacy" is now included in an online exhibit with the Craigleith Heritage Depot, a museum branch of the Blue Mountains Public Library in Ontario, Canada. The exhibit is called “Indigenous History and Culture” and features primary sources critical to Wendat history.

History alumnus Brandon M. Schechter (Ph.D. ’15) was awarded the Paul Birdsall Prize by the AHA for his book, The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects (Cornell, 2019), which was based on Brandon’s 2015 History dissertation.

Today, we highlight the historical texts produced by our own History faculty, who, in contributing to scholarship about African-American history, have expanded how scholars interrogate North American history as a whole. 

Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Gloria Yu, who has been awarded a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship!

Today, the Los Angeles Times Book Awards announced that Associate Professor Stephanie Jones-Rogers has won the 2019 Book Prize in History, for They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South!

Congratulations to Associate Professor Stephanie Jones-Rogers, whose book They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (Yale University Press) was named an L.A.

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Wednesday, February 5th for this year’s History Homecoming! History Homecoming, the Department's annual event for alumni and friends, features a faculty panel on a historical theme followed by a catered reception.

 This month, the Latin American Studies Association awarded Elena Schneider the Bryce Wood Book Award for her title The Occupation of Havana: War, Trade, and Slavery in the Atlantic World.

This month, Professor Michael Nylan’s translation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was released by W.W. Norton. Nylan is the first female scholar to translate this 2500-year-old classic text into any language.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Ethan Katz and fellow editors Lisa Moses Leff, and Maud S. Man­del, whose anthology Colonialism and the Jews (Indiana University Press, 2017) has been selected as a Finalist for the 2019 National Jewish Book Awards! The win­ners of the 2019 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards will be hon­ored on March 17, 2020 at an awards din­ner and cer­e­mo­ny in Man­hat­tan.

Associate Professor Daniel Sargent has been selected to join the 2020 UC Berkeley Faculty Leadership Academy! Each year, a limited number of tenured faculty are selected to participate in this leadership development program designed for faculty who are dedicated to enhancing their leadership abilities on the Berkeley campus.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Stephanie Jones-Rogers, whose book They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South was named as one of the “Ten Best History Boo

On September 16th, Associate Professor Brian DeLay spoke on a panel titled “The 2nd Amendment: American Society’s Interpretation Across Time", at the Free Speech Movement Café in Moffitt Library. The panel, which also included Franklin Zimring, Professor of law, Paul Pierson, Professor of political science , and moderator Hannah Shearer, Litigation Director at Giffords Law Center, debated current issues around the Second Amendement from legal, historical, and political science perspectives.

 The Southern Historical Association has announced Assistant Professor Caitlin Rosenthal as the 2019 winner of the Francis B. Simkins Award, for Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management (Harvard University Press, 2018). 

According to the SHA's press release:

Today, Associate Professor Elena Schneider was announced as the winner of the Murdo J. MacLeod Book Prize by the Latin American and Caribbean Section (LACS) of the Southern Historical Association. This prestigious prize was awarded for Schneider’s 2019 title, The Occupation of Havana: War, Trade, and Slavery in the Atlantic World.  

On August 30th, to mark the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in North America, UC Berkeley will host an initiative throughout the 2019-2020 academic school year, called "400 Years of Resistance to Slavery and Injustice".

On August 2nd, Associate Professor Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers was interviewed for The Washington Post about her most recent publication, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South. In this interview, Jones-Rogers  details her research process, discusses the stereotypes about white women that her research directly challenges, and the public reaction to her findings. 

On June 20th, assistant professor Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers was featured on an episode of KQED's radio program Forum, titled "As House Takes Up Reparations Bill, How Should the U.S. Pay Its Debts to the Enslaved?"

Assistant Professor Ronit Stahl has been awarded the 2018 Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for her book Enlisting Faith: How The Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion and State in Modern America (Harvard University Press, 2017). The prize, awarded by the American Society of Church History, honors outstanding scholarship in church history by a first-time author and comes with a cash award of $2500.

Research Associate Alison Klairmont Lingo’s translation and edition, Louise Bourgeois, Midwife to the Queen of France: Diverse Observations (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: Toronto: Iter Press, 2017) has been awarded the Josephine Roberts Award for the best scholarly edition published in 2017 in the field of early modern women and gender.

After serving in senior administrative roles within the College of Letters and Science (L&S) for a decade, Carla Hesse will return to her full-time faculty position after the completion of her terms next summer. A talented and versatile leader with a fervent belief in the power of a liberal arts education, Carla has served as executive dean of L&S since 2014 and as dean of its Division of Social Sciences since 2009.

In selecting The Work of the Dead, a book by UC Berkeley history professor Thomas W. Laqueur, to receive the 2018 Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies, the jury praised its examination of how and why the living have cared for the dead in western Europe since the 18th century as a monumental achievement.

In her recent post on the Berkeley Blog, Stephanie Jones-Rogers, assistant professor of history, explores the ways the U.S. legal system has historically sanctioned deadly force against African Americans, and how that history connects to the prevalence of police shootings of African Americans today.