HistCon News
Profs Banu Bargu & Max Tomba Co-editors of Prestigious Political Theory Journal
February 26, 2024
History of Consciousness Professors Banu Bargu and Max Tomba have been named co-editors of an influential scholarly journal that addresses the most pressing issues of the 21st century, from the crises of democratic government to future pandemics.
HistCon Student Pablo Escudero Vasconez Profiled by THI
February 22, 2024
HistCon graduate Pablo Escudero Vasconez discusses his research with The Humanities Institute.
History of Consciousness Statement on Academic Freedom
January 26, 2024
We write in response to UC officials’ series of public messages concerning campus activities related to Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Donna Haraway – Making Kin: Lynn Margulis in Sympoiesis with Sibling Scientists
January 17, 2024
Professor Emeritus Donna Haraway will be giving talk "Making Kin: Lynn Margulis in Sympoiesis with Sibling Scientists" on January 31 at UCSC as part of the new series History of Consciousness: GeoEcologies + TechnoScience Conversations. Talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Cultural Studies.
History of Consciousness Winter 24 Speaker Series
January 15, 2024
HistCon Winter 2024 Speaker Series begins!
California Ideology Conference Paper Submissions Open
January 1, 2024
The California Ideology Project (UCHRI) welcomes submissions for upcoming interdisciplinary conference on the theme of “the California Ideology” at UC Santa Cruz on April 6-7, 2024.
Massimiliano Tomba - Questioning the PresentTalk with The Center for Global Culture and Communication (Northwestern University) & The Center for Transcultural Studies
December 1, 2023
HistCon Professor Massimiliano Tomba will give a talk on his publication "Insurgent Universality" on December 8 as part of Questioning the Present: An Online Public Forum presented by The Center for Global Culture and Communication (An interdisciplinary initiative of Northwestern University's School of Communication) & The Center for Transcultural Studies.
María Puig de la Bellacasa - Worlding Soils Talk with University of Luxembourg and LUCA
December 1, 2023
HistCon Professor María Puig de la Bellacasa will give talk "Worlding Soils" on December 5 as part of the Luxembourg Centre for Architecture and Cultures of Assembly's Fall 2023 lecture series.
Robert Nichols – The Indian Wars Have Never Ended Talk
November 20, 2023
HistCon Professor Robert Nichols will give talk "The Indian Wars Have Never Ended" on November 29 as part of the Fall 2023 Center for Cultural Studies' colloquia series.
Critical Theory Roundtable Comes to UC Santa Cruz
October 9, 2023
Profs. Banu Bargu & Massimiliano Tomba to Join the Editorial Board of Political Theory
October 5, 2023
History of Consciousness Welcomes New Faculty
September 25, 2023
Prof. Isaac Julien Awarded Prize for Publication
July 1, 2023
History of Consciousness Professor Isaac Julien's recent publication has been awarded the 2023 Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award.
New Publication from Prof. Mark Nash
May 23, 2023
Congratulations to Mark Nash on His New Publication, "Curating the Moving Image" (Duke University Press: May 2023).
Upcoming Publication from Mumia Abu-Jamal
April 17, 2023
History of Consciousness graduate student Mumia Abu-Jamal's upcoming publication "Beneath the Mountain: An Anti-Prison Reader" to be published March 19 2024.
HistCon Alumnus Isaac Blacksin Interviewed by THI
April 7, 2023
History of Consciousness Spring 23 Speaker Series
April 4, 2023
All speaker information for the History of Consciousness Spring 2023 Speaker Series
Reproduction of Possibility: A Colloquium on Black Critical Thought
April 3, 2023
History of Consciousness graduate student Daniel Butler, alumni Colin Drumm, and incoming Post-Doctoral Scholar Taija McDougall will be presenting in the upcoming Reproduction of Possibility: A Colloquium on Black Critical Thought.
Prof. Massimiliano Tomba’s Insurgent Universality: Continuing the Debate Virtual Discussion
March 30, 2023
Prof. Massimiliano Tomba on the Historical Materialism Podcast
March 24, 2023
The Historical Materialism Podcast discusses "Insurgent Universality" with author Professor Massimiliano Tomba.
Prof. Robert Meister Interviewed in Historical Materialism
January 31, 2023
Giulia dal Maso interviews Professor Robert Meister in "Historical Materialism".
History of Consciousness Winter 23 Speaker Series
January 18, 2023
All speaker information for the History of Consciousness Winter 2023 Speaker Series
New Publication from Prof. Eric Porter
January 5, 2023
History of Consciousness in Solidarity with the UAW Strike
November 14, 2022
Prof. Massimiliano Tomba Awarded Prize for Publication
October 18, 2022
History of Consciousness Professor Massimiliano Tomba’s recent publication, "Insurgent Universality", has been co-awarded the 2021 David and Elaine Spitz Prize.
History of Consciousness Fall 2022 Speaker Series
September 27, 2022
The History of Consciousness department is pleased to invite you to our upcoming speaker series this fall quarter from October 12th - November 15th.
Prof. Banu Bargu & Prof. Massimiliano Tomba Awarded Fellowships
May 12, 2020
Nov 1 - 2 2019, Merrill Cultural Center
Against Orthodoxies: Working with Hayden White
October 15, 2019
Nov 1 - 2 2019, Merrill Cultural Center
You Have the Right to Be Brilliant: An Interview with Dr. Angela Davis
August 27, 2019
Colin Kaepernick interviews Dr. Angela Davis for Paper Magazine
UCSC emerita professor Angela Davis to be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame
July 10, 2019
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, The National Women’s Hall of Fame will host a weekend in New York honoring the achievements of women in the birthplace of the Women’s Rights movement. The highlight will be the induction of 10 prominent women into the Hall of Fame.
The Counterrevolution Takes A New Right Turn
May 22, 2019
The History of Consciousness Department hosted Dr. Bernard Harcourt, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, for a lecture entitled, "The Counterrevolution Takes a Right Turn."
Theses on Democracy or, The People, Steering
March 18, 2019
The History of Consciousness Department hosted Dr. Anne Norton, professor and department chair of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, for a lecture titled, "Theses on Democracy or, The People, Steering."
Sanctuary Practices Workshop, FEB 8th!
February 6, 2019
Please join us for our next Sanctuary Practices event: Sanctuary Practices Workshop February 8 @ 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm | Humanities 1, Room 210 “Sanctuary and Medieval Kings” – Elizabeth Allen
UCHRI Multicampus Faculty Working Group on “Sanctuary Practices”
October 22, 2018
Beginning at 10 AM on October 26th will be a full day of workshops broken up into three sessions, ending with a Keynote address from Prof. Anne McNevin, "Time, Sanctuary and Decoloniality: Notes from Manus Island Prison." This address will be taking place on October 26th, from 4-6PM in Humanities 1, Room 210. Please see the agenda and promotional materials below for more information! More information on the event here: https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/sanctuary-subjectivity-practices-workshop/
No No Boy Project will be visiting UCSC and the Santa Cruz Community!
October 22, 2018
On October 28th and 29th, the No No Boy Project will be visiting UCSC and the Santa Cruz Community. No No Boy is performed by Erin Aoyama and Julian Saporiti (PhD students from American Studies at Brown University). It is a multi-media concert illuminating untold stories of Asian American displacement and exile through oral history, film, and folk songs.
Histcon Emeritus Faculty to Receive Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award
October 15, 2018
Global Human Rights Activist Angela Davis to Receive Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award!
Histcon alum featured in The New Yorker
August 6, 2018
Karlene Faith featured in The New Yorker for her role in co-founding the Santa Cruz Women’s Prison Project while a graduate student in the History of Consciousness.
In Various Constructs: Remembering Cecil Taylor
July 30, 2018
Professor Eric Porter writes about pianist, composer, poet, philosopher Cecil Taylor for Viewpoint.
The becoming-black of the world? On Achille Mbembe’s Critique of Black Reason
July 2, 2018
New article in Radical Philosophy by Professor David Marriott.
2017-18 Graduate Student & Faculty Accomplishments and Milestones
June 9, 2018
History of Consciousness is pleased to announce the awards, publications, and achievements of graduate students, faculty and recent alumnae.
Mistaken Identity Book Discussion
May 24, 2018
Book discussion of Mistaken Identity with author Asad Haider and commentary by History Professor and Humanites Dean Tyler Stovall and History of Consciousness Professor Banu Bargu.
Work In Progress: Alirio Karina
May 20, 2018
Graduate candidate Alirio Karina will present work on Thursday, May 31, in Hum 1, 420.
Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory
May 16, 2018
Announcing the Inaugural Issue of Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory, featuring essays by Professor Banu Bargu and Professor Massimiliano Tomba.
Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Works In Progress
April 19, 2018
Trung P. Q. Nguyen, History of Consciousness graduate candidate, will present "Crude Nightmares: Oil, the Refugee, and the Futures of National Reproductivity" as part of the Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Works In Progress on Friday, May 25.
In Search of “Values as Yet Uncaptured by Language:” Learning from Great Historical Paradigm Shifts
April 18, 2018
Eric Porter, History of Consciousness Chair and Professor of History, will speak at A Language of Conservation Project Colloquium on May 4.
Pacific Island Worlds Symposium
April 10, 2018
In this symposium, artists and scholars explore creative expression and research that chart Pacific Island Studies in the 21st century.
Work In Progress: Christian Alvarado
April 9, 2018
Graduate student Christian Alvarado will present work on Thursday, April 12th, in Hum 1, 420.
Poetics of Mu Video
March 12, 2018
The History of Consciousness is happy to announce that video is now available of Professor Sora Han's talk entitled "Poetics of Mu."
The Abuse of Property Video
March 12, 2018
The History of Consciousness is happy to announce that video is now available of Professor Daniel Loick's talk entitled "The Abuse of Property."
Jennifer Doyle at Cultural Studies
March 3, 2018
Jennifer Doyle, Professor of English at UC Riverside, will give a talk on Wednesday, May 16th at Cultural Studies addressing issues from her recent book Campus Sex, Campus Security (Semiotext(e) / Intervention, 2015).
Unintelligible: Noise Against Capture
March 2, 2018
Graduate student conference exploring the potentials of a critical sound studies with keynote speaker Jeramy DeCristo Assistant Professor of American Studies at UC Davis.
Prospective Graduate Visiting Day Panel
March 2, 2018
Prospective Graduate Visiting Day on Thursday, March 15th will feature a graduate student panel with presentations by Alirio Karina, Colin Drumm, and Lindsay Weinberg.
Work In Progress: Key MacFarlane
March 2, 2018
Graduate student Key MacFarlane will present work on Thursday, March 8th, in Hum 1, 420.
Mistaken Identity
March 1, 2018
Congratulations to History of Consciousness doctoral candidate Asad Haider on the publication of his book Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump.
Black Radical Tradition
February 28, 2018
Congratulations History of Consciousness graduate Erin Gray, History of Consciousness doctoral candidate Asad Haider, and UCSC graduate Ben Mabie on their edited volume, Black Radical Tradition, coming out this November from Verso!
Daniel Loick, "The Abuse of Property"
February 4, 2018
The History of Consciousness is excited to host Daniel Loick, Visiting Professor for Critical Social Theory at Goethe-University Frankfurt, for a lecture entitled, "The Abuse of Property."
Sora Han's “Poetics of Mu”
February 4, 2018
History of Consciousness Alumni Speaker Series: Sora Y. Han, Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine.
Black on Black-ness
January 22, 2018
INTERVAL presents a workshop and screening with the The Black Aesthetic (Oakland) as they think through the contemporary proliferation of various black signs whose aesthetic and commercial ownership holds a slippery relation to black people.
Take Back The Fight: Resisting Sexual Violence from the Ground Up
January 22, 2018
Take Back the Fight: Resisting Sexual Violence from the Ground Up, Interference Archive’s summer 2017 exhibition in Brooklyn, New York will be in Santa Cruz at the Felix Kulpa II Gallery for the month of February 2018.
Whither Fanon?
November 24, 2017
Professor David Marriott's Whither Fanon? Studies in the Blackness of Being will be published by Stanford University Press in June 2018 as part of the Cultural Memory in the Present Series.
Queer/Animal/Theory: Psychoanalysis & Subjectivity
October 25, 2017
Cultural Studies talk by Carla Freccero, Distinguished Professor of Literature and History of Consciousness, and Professor of Feminist Studies, at UC Santa Cruz.
Neil Brenner: Is the World Urban?
October 23, 2017
UCSC Sociology Colloquium co-sponsored by the History of Consciousness Department exploring the question, In what sense is the 21st century world "urban"?
Jet Noise and The Production of Environmentalism(s) in the 1970's Bay Area: Disruptive: Noise as Material
October 20, 2017
Lecture on October 20 at the University of California, Berkeley by Eric Porter, Professor of History and History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz sponsored by UCHRI, Townsend Center for the Humanities, and Arts Research Center.
Imaginactivism: A Speculative Fiction Workshop on Environmental Justice, Flourishing and Cohabitation
October 18, 2017
Speculative Fiction Workshop with Joan Haran and Martha Kenney and interventions from Starhawk, Donna Haraway, and Elizabeth Stephens.
Finance-as-Conspiracy/Market-as-Theory
October 8, 2017
Professor Meister delivers paper entitled "Finance-as-Conspiracy/Market-as-Theory" as part of the Corporate Planning Panel at the University of Chicago Conspiracy/Theory Conference.
Letter from Professor Banu Bargu
September 18, 2017
It is with great excitement that I am joining the History of Consciousness Department. I am looking forward to meeting you, learning from you, and working with you.
Letter from Professor Massimiliano Tomba
September 11, 2017
It’s a great pleasure to join this amazing Department and start working with all of you.Your projects look terrific! I am very excited to meet all of you in person and work with you.
In Memoriam: Teresia Teaiwa
September 8, 2017
Remembering History of Consciousness graduate Dr. Teresia Teaiwa.
Those Who Resist
August 14, 2017
"Today we must remember Heather Heyer and all those who left their homes in the morning to fight for justice, knowing that they might not come back. These people are never angels or saints. They are ordinary people, like you and me. Their refusal could not be silenced."
Feminism, Capitalism, and Critique: Essays in Honor of Nancy Fraser
July 1, 2017
Feminism, Capitalism, and Critique: Essays in Honor of Nancy Fraser edited by Professor Banu Bargu and Chiara Bottici.
Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene
May 1, 2017
Carla Freccero, Distinguished Professor of Literature and History of Consciousness and Professor of Feminist Studies and Donna Haraway Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies included in edited volume.
Dark Deleuze in the Dark
February 11, 2017
Dark Deleuze in the Dark is a conceptual conversation conducted in the dark with Professor Andrew Culp that addresses themes from his work on interruption, un-becoming, and escape.
"On Decadence: Bling Bling" and "Introduction to Boggs" in e-flux #79
February 1, 2017
History of Consciousness Professor David Marriott and History of Consciousness Graduate Candidate Patrick King contribute writing to e-flux #79, February 2017.
AK Thompson: Epistemologies of the Visual From Raphael to Late Capital
November 24, 2016
In this presentation, Keywords for Radicals editor AK Thompson will discuss the theoretical and aesthetic foundations of the project’s data visualization in order to evaluate the promise and perils of this technique in the age of the infographic.
Queer/Animal/Theory: Psychoanalysis & Subjectivity
November 15, 2016
A lecture by Professor Carla Freccero at New York University.
"Liquidity" in Derivatives and the Wealth of Societies
November 1, 2016
Professor Robert Meister of the History of Consciousness contributed chapter on "Liquidity" to the volume Derivatives and the Wealth of Societies, edited by Benjamin Lee and Randy Martin.
Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
September 1, 2016
Donna J Haraway Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies book published by Duke University Press offers provocative new ways to reconfigure our relations to the earth and all its inhabitants.
History of Consciousness Graduate Book Publications
June 20, 2016
Sheila Peuse has pieced together a list of Book Publications by History of Consciousness Graduates.
Patricia Piccinini and Donna Haraway in Conversation
April 1, 2016
Thursday, May 5, 2016 Digital Arts Research Center (DARC) 108 Australian artist Patricia Piccinini will join UC Santa Cruz professor emerita Donna Haraway for a conversation about their shared interest in what Haraway calls "technoculture and speculative fabulations" at 6 pm, May 5.
Differences Now Affiliated Faculty
June 23, 2014
Difference/s Now?
June 3, 2014
Following upon History of Consciousness’s previous focus on crises in the cultures of capitalism—and in in dialogue with the emergent program in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies—the HISC department at UCSC announces a new concentration: "Difference/s Now?"
President Obama nominates UCSC alumnus as NEH chair
April 14, 2014
President Obama announced today his intent to nominate UC Santa Cruz alumnus Dr. William “Bro” Adams as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Donna Haraway “Sympoiesis: Becoming-with in Multispecies Muddles.”
October 29, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013 - 5:00pm - 7:00pm Porter Room D245 Porter College, UCSC
UCSC Screening of: Free Angela! And All Political Prisoners
October 10, 2013
7pm - Friday, October 25th, 2013 - UC Santa Cruz, Classroom Unit - 2Free Angela! is a brilliant documentary that captures the sensational murder and kidnapping trial of Black Communist and UCLA Professor Angela Davis in the early 1970's.
In Memoriam: Alumnus Tim Murphy
October 1, 2013
University of Alabama Associate Professor and History of Consciousness alumnus, Tim Murphy, passed away on March 15, 2013. He died in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, from complications related to Cystic Fibrosis.
ex.pose: beatriz da costa
August 21, 2013
Donna Haraway, Alex Juhasz, and Catherine Lord discuss Dying for the Other, the last project on which artist Beatriz da Costa worked before she tragically passed away after a long battle with cancer.
HISC Alumna, Lata Mani, Publishes New Book
May 20, 2013
The Integral Nature of Things analyzes a revealing paradox: prevailing ways of thinking obscure the interrelations between things even as interdependence and indivisibility continually assert themselves.
New Orleans Suite Music and Culture in Transition
February 4, 2013
join the post-Katrina conversation about New Orleans and its changing cultural scene. Using both visual evidence and the written word, Watts and Porter pay homage to the city...
HISC Alumna, Krista Geneviève Lynes, Publishes New Book
January 23, 2013
In her first book, Krista Geneviève Lynes makes visible how sites of political struggle, exploitation, and armed conflict can be theorized and interpreted through a feminist politics of location, attentive to the frictions and flows within transnational circuits of exchange...
Remembering Beatriz da Costa
January 7, 2013
Beatriz da Costa, our colleague from UCI in art/engineering/politics/critical theory, who was also a HistCon graduate student, died on December 27, 2012, in New York City...
HISC Announces New Collaborative Vision of Concentrations
December 3, 2012
The HISC department at UCSC announces a new collaborative vision for its graduate program involving the creation of projects (called concentrations) as part of a two-year admissions cycle...
WILDNESS - A film by Wu Tsang
November 30, 2012
WILDNESS - a film by Wu Tsang Screening & discussion w/director Wu Tsang & co-writer Roya Rastegar UC Santa Cruz Media Theater Monday, December 3, 7:00pm
"Repatriation and Second Life: Return of the Masks to Kodiak Alaska"
November 13, 2012
"Return of the Masks to Kodiak Alaska"
Lewis Watts: New Orleans Suite ~ Curator's Walk Through
October 29, 2012
New Orleans Suite presents a window into the landscape of life in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina. Vivid black and white photography exposes the contrast of devastation and humanity in such a rich sector of American jazz culture. Additionally the gallery will showcase some of Watts' new work from Cuba, where he is continuing his photographic research
Affect Across the Disciplines II
October 18, 2012
Affect Studies offers new opportunities to traverse the boundaries between the humanities, social sciences, and engineering. This year’s panel features presentations by UCSC graduate students whose varying approaches to the study of “affect” demonstrate the breadth of the field and its interdisciplinary possibility.
HISC alumnus Sean Burns's book: ARCHIE GREEN awarded the CLR James Award
May 14, 2012
HISC alumnus Sean Burns's book, "ARCHIE GREEN : The Making of a Working-Class Hero", is awarded the CLR James Award for Best Book of 2011 by the Working Class History Association.
Trevor Joy Sangrey "'Put One More "S" in the USA'..." discussion and reading
May 3, 2012
"'Put One More "S" in the USA': Pamphlet Literature and the Productive Fiction of the Black Nation Thesis"
Charles Post: The American Road to Capitalism - a reading and discussion
April 2, 2012
The American Road to Capitalism: Studies in Class Structure, Economic Development and Political Conflict, 1620-1877; Thursday, April 12, 2012 3 PM – HUM 1, Rm 420
HISC Alumnus Publishes Book: Freedom in Entangled Worlds
April 1, 2012
A page-turning blend of cultural analysis, human rights reportage, and ethnography, Eben Kirksey documents the West Papuan freedom struggle.
HISC Alum Publishes Book: Freedom in Entangled Worlds: West Papua and the Architecture of Global Power
March 19, 2012
"In this remarkable book, Eben Kirksey attends to West Papuan indigenous thinkers and activists as they craft practical, surprising, and generative freedom projects in the fissures of power exercised by Indonesian occupiers, global financial interests, and foreign governments. Freedom in Entangled Worlds is shaped by explorations of complex messianisms, attention to the pragmatics of unexpected collaborations, and Kirksey's own unassuming and sustained commitment to the worlds and dreams of his West Papuan teachers."—Donna Haraway, University of California, Santa Cruz
A conversation on prison abolition, legal violence, and trans politics
February 1, 2012
John Mowitt: Radio Silence
January 2, 2012
HISC alum, Greg Youmans, has published new book: WORD IS OUT: Stories of Some of Our Lives
December 7, 2011
HISC alum,Sean Burns publishes new book: ARCHIE GREEN
November 7, 2011
HISC graduate student, Eric Stanley, publishes book: Captive Genders
November 4, 2011
HISC alumna, Joanne Barker publishes new book!
October 10, 2011
HISC alumna publishes new book! Quantum Anthropologies: Life at Large
September 20, 2011
Professor Marriott's New Publication: Bloods
June 24, 2011
Congratulations to David Marriott. His new book will be released on May 15, 2011.
Jim Clifford elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
June 23, 2011
Jim Clifford, noted "ethnographic historian," will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October.
James Clifford
June 22, 2011
The winner of the chancellor's on-campus photography contest is a dreamy scene of a misty path curving away out of sight into fog-enshrouded redwoods caught by Professor James Clifford of the History of Consciousness Department.
Angela Davis, Professor Emerita
June 22, 2011
Angela Davis explores modes of systematized inequalities within education and incarceration, and questions the liberating role of education.
Professor Haraway 2011 Pilgrim Award Recipient
June 1, 2011
Professor Haraway: Science Fiction Research Association's 2011 Pilgrim Award Recipient
Anika Walke: 10 Grads in 10 days
June 1, 2011
History of Consciousness Graduate Student, Anika Walke, was featured in an article profiling outstanding students in graduating class of 2011.
2010-11 TA Award Winners
May 19, 2011
Congratulations to Trevor Sangrey and Logan Walker!
Paul Festa: “Apparition of the Eternal Church” and “The Glitter Emergency”
March 10, 2011
The UCSC Center for Cultural Studies, departments of History of Art and Visual Culture, History of Consciousness, and Literature, and the Queer Theory Research Cluster present two films by Paul Festa, with live musical accompaniment.
Sandra Koelle: Colloquium Series
February 23, 2011
Intimate Bureaucracies: Roadkill, Policy, and Fieldwork in the Shoulder
Donna Haraway: Colloquium
November 10, 2010
"Staying with the Trouble: Becoming Worldly with Companion Species"
