Exploring History at UCLA: A Deep Dive into Faculty Research and Resources

The UCLA Department of History stands as a beacon of historical scholarship, offering one of the most comprehensive, diverse, and successful graduate programs in the nation. From the pre-colonial history of the Americas to the present day, faculty expertise spans a vast range of topics and geographical regions. The department provides students with the opportunity to delve into specific areas of history while encouraging them to expand and rethink the field through individualized, specialized, and creative research.

African History Program

These are exciting times to be a historian of Africa. The African History Program at UCLA embraces an interdisciplinary and translocal perspective. UCLA faculty represents a unique combination of expertise. The scholarly excellence generated by UCLA’s graduates has long been recognized both nationally and internationally.

Faculty and Their Expertise

With three professors of African history, UCLA offers a strong combination of regional specialization, methodological expertise, and theoretical debate. Courses cover many geographic areas and time periods of African history, from the distant past to modern times, with a current emphasis on Northwestern, Western, and Eastern African history. The program challenges traditional geographic and cultural divides, viewing the Sahara Desert not as a barrier but as an active space with historical connections. Africa is not limited to the confines of a continent but extends through the Atlantic to Europe and the Americas, eastward through the diasporas of the Indian Ocean, and across the Sahara to the Mediterranean world.

Hollian Wint: Combines economic anthropology and feminist theory to illuminate the political and intimate economies of East Africa and the Indian Ocean, connecting regional dynamics to broader histories of empire and capitalism.
Andrew Apter: Brings an anthropological perspective to West African religion and politics, locating coastal-hinterland relations within Black Atlantic modernity.
Edward A. Alpers:
Ghislaine Lydon:
William H. Worger:

Resources and Opportunities

UCLA is an internationally recognized center for the study of Africa. In addition to the James S. Coleman African Studies Center, founded more than fifty years ago, UCLA has a number of research centers and departments with expertise in Africa. These include the African American Studies Department and the French and Francophone Studies Department where several scholars specialize in the study of international relations and development in Africa, African literature, and postcolonial and philosophical discourse; the Department of World Arts and Cultures with strengths in western and Central African performance, art and religion; the Departments of Geography, Anthropology and Comparative Literature with specialists of Africa and the Maghrib; the Center for Oral History Research which offers methodology workshops and is developing its role as an archival repository for digital oral sources; the Fowler Museum with the largest collection material from Africa and the Africa Diaspora west of the Mississippi; the Marcus Garvey Papers Project housing the official Garvey archives; and the Young Research Library, a top-rated resource with archival holdings, collections of rare books, journals, microfilm and digital resources for the study of Africa. Recently added digital collections include Ethiopic Manuscripts, the David Livingstone Spectral Imaging Project, and the Medu Art Ensemble Collection. UCLA is also the home of the African Activist Association, one of the oldest and most dynamic graduate student organizations in North America.

The city of Los Angeles offers a propitious environment for studying African history. It is home to sizeable communities of Africans from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and beyond. Every summer, a month-long African festival and marketplace brings together artists and vendors from across the African Diaspora. During Black history month, the Pan-African Film Festival is a unique opportunity for students and faculty to meet and view the latest movies and documentaries. There are a range of performances, restaurants and clubs run by the African community of LA.

Success and Placement

Since 1957, 121 students have successfully completed dissertations in African history at UCLA. Graduate students in African history have received national awards, particularly Fulbright grants and scholarships from the Social Science Research Council. They have an outstanding record in both job placement and publishing their monographs by reputable university presses. Ninety percent of students entering the graduate program in African history since 1981 who completed their doctorates have secured permanent employment, the majority in university positions.

Future Outlook

Informed reports suggest that there will be a continuing demand for historians of Africa for the foreseeable future. Many of our students have competed successfully for positions that emphasize World History, African Diaspora, and other non-Western fields of specialization together with African History. All applications to enter the program from individuals interested in the professional study of African history are welcome.

Application and Funding

In addition to the materials requested of all students applying to the UCLA graduate program in history, those applying to the Africa field must also provide a sample of their written work. All applicants to the graduate program in history are considered for merit-based financial aid by faculty members in each field, with all final decisions made by the department’s Graduate Admissions Committee. Starting in 2013-2014, all students admitted to the department will receive a 5-five recruitment package.

For financing their doctoral research and fieldtrips, students can apply to both UC-based and national funding agencies. The most important national fellowships that support research in Africa are the Fulbright-Hays administered by the Department of Education (DOE), the Fulbright fellowships administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE), and the grants awarded by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The deadlines for application to these programs are usually in September, October or November of each year. Awards that have a narrower thematic and/or geographic focus are offered annually by theCouncil for American Overseas Research Centers (such as the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal, and the American Institute of Yemeni Studies in Sana’a, Yemen), the Belgian American Educational Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T.

History students can apply for Teaching Assistantships through their seventh year of study but not beyond. The Graduate Division awards a restricted number of highly competitive dissertation fellowships. Some outside agencies also offer write-up awards, such as the Mellon Foundation/ACLS, American Association of University Women, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation (for topics on education).

Chinese History Program

The study of Chinese history at UCLA is a vibrant and multifaceted endeavor, supported by a dedicated faculty and enriched by the university's extensive resources. The program offers students the opportunity to explore Chinese history from the Song dynasty (10th-13th centuries) to the twentieth century, encompassing both pre-modern and modern periods.

Faculty and Research Interests

The faculty, including Professors Goldman, von Glahn, and Zhang, are experts in various aspects of Chinese history. Their expertise extends to thematic subjects such as:

Socio-economic history (von Glahn and Zhang)
Socio-cultural and urban history (Goldman)
Religious culture and society (von Glahn)
Gender history (Goldman)
Environmental history (Zhang)
Material culture (Goldman and Zhang)
Borderland and ethnicity (Zhang)
Oceanic history (von Glahn and Zhang)

The faculty favors inter-disciplinary approaches to Chinese history, and all cross dynastic and disciplinary boundaries in their research and teaching.

Interdisciplinary Connections

The study of Chinese history at UCLA is enhanced by the existence of strong programs in Japanese History, European History, Gender History (including the cross-field working group on Gender and Sexuality), Economic History, History of Science and Technology, and World History within the History Department, as well as excellent programs in classical and modern Chinese literature, East Asian Buddhism, and Korean history and culture in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.

UCLA also has strong programs in a wide range of social science and humanities disciplines, including faculty specializing in China in Anthropology (Yunxiang Yan and Nancy Levine), Geography (Cindy Fan), Art History (Hui-shu Lee), Archaeology (Lothar von Falkenhausen and Li Min), Ethnomusicology (Helen Rees), Theater (Sean Metzger), Law (Alex Wang), and Sociology (Ching Kwan Lee and Min Zhou).

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Center for Chinese Studies

The UCLA Center for Chinese Studies enhances collaboration among scholars of Chinese Studies by sponsoring visiting professors, workshops, conferences, and research projects in all areas of Chinese history, society, and culture.

Application Expectations

The Department encourages applications from highly qualified candidates in Chinese history. Successful applicants are expected to have excellent undergraduate training as evidenced by GPA, TOEFL or IELTS for international students, letters of recommendation and, when appropriate, samples of historical research.

US History Program

The Young Research Library is one of the five largest in the nation, and there are additional superb rare book collections in all periods of American history at the nearby Huntington and Clark libraries. Furthermore, UCLA is home to an array of interdisciplinary research centers and programs, many of which run lecture series, hold conferences, sponsor research programs, offer classes, and provide fellowships to graduate students in corresponding fields of study.

Interdisciplinary Research Centers

US history graduate students have been especially active in the Center for the Study of Women, the Institute of Industrial Relations, and the four research centers for American ethnic studies (the Chicano Studies Research Center, Bunche Center for African American Studies, American Indian Studies Center, and Asian-American Studies Center). Students have also interacted with Area Studies research centers (Centers for African Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Japanese Studies, etc), Environmental Studies, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Studies, and more that could not be listed comprehensively.

Luskin Center for History and Policy

The Luskin Center for History and Policy (LCHP) at UCLA serves as a bridge between historical scholarship and contemporary policy debates. By fostering collaboration between historians and policymakers, the center aims to provide historical context and insights to inform decision-making on pressing social, economic, and political issues.

Research Projects

The Luskin Center invites applications for undergraduate and graduate student researchers interested in two ongoing research projects:

The Legacy of Race and Racism at UCLA: This project focuses the lives of African American students on campus from the first years of the university, highlighting exceptional individuals, newly ingrained bias, structural obstacles, and moments of protest and uprising.
How Does UCLA Respond to Crisis?: This project seeks to understand how UCLA, and the larger UC system, responded to past crises, especially the 2008-09 recession.

People

Hiba Zaidi: Hiba Zaidi is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, with a keen focus on the historical dimensions of societal dynamics and data policy. As a Graduate Student Researcher at the Luskin Center of History and Policy, Hiba delves into the intersection of society and data policy, specifically investigating biases in data that historically omit marginalized groups.
Ben Zdencanovic: Ben Zdencanovic (pronounced sten-CHAN-oh-vich) is a Postdoctoral Associate at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Ben is a historian of the United States in the world, domestic and international politics, and economic and social policy. Ben earned his doctorate with distinction from the Department of History at Yale in 2019, where his dissertation was the winner of the Edwin W. Small Prize for outstanding work in United States history.
Rose: Rose is responsible for the daily management of the Luskin Center for History and Policy, as well as production of LCHP’s podcast, then & now.

Faculty Publications and Engagements

UCLA History Department faculty members are actively engaged in research and public discourse, contributing to scholarly conversations and sharing their expertise with the wider community.

Andrew Apter has published an article titled “Historical Ethnography and the Ritual Archive: The 2024 Jensen Memorial Lectures” in the December 2025 issue of the German anthropology journal Paideuma: Journal of Cultural Anthropology vol.
Andrea S. approach to Europe and the rest of the world in the UCLA Newsroom piece, “The 360: Greenland, Europe, NATO and a new world order“.
Sanjay Subrahmanyam gave an interview, titled Indian Temptations, on the current state of intellectual and cultural life in India which was published in Granta (No.

Administrative Staff

The Department of History is supported by a dedicated administrative staff who ensure the smooth operation of its various programs and activities.

Ann: Ann manages all administrative services in relation to the department’s staffing, teaching, and programs. They also manage the front desk and department sponsored events.
Esther: Esther oversees the financial accounting for the department, including faculty, grant, postdoc, student, and operational funds, as well as for the Public History Initiative and Luskin Center for History and Policy.
Esteban: Esteban processes procurement, reimbursement, payment, and travel requests for the department (including faculty, postdocs, students, staff, and guests) as well as for the Public History Initiative and Luskin Center for History and Policy.
Frank: Frank oversees the department’s Computer Resource Center and staff. The Department Technical Analyst assists staff, faculty, and students with computer and other technical needs, including troubleshooting and resolving technical issues.
Tessa: Tessa directs the department’s student affairs staff and functions, including oversight of all activities related to undergraduate and graduate counseling; student policies, procedures, and processes. In addition, she manages graduate admissions recruitment as well as financial support for graduate and undergraduate students.
Judy: Judy counsels graduate students on University and departmental requirements for the Ph.D. degree.
Brittany: Brittany functions as both an academic counselor for undergraduate students and scheduler. The Undergraduate Counselor meets one-on-one with History undergraduates to advise them on their academic planning.
Janette: Janette provides undergraduate advising for History majors. She also manages orientation services and workshops for new students, undergraduate curricular changes, the Honors Program, and contract courses.

Other Faculty

Robin D.G.
Benjamin L.
Michael Meranze: Ph.D.
Carla G.
Robert Dallek: Ph.D.
Ellen DuBois: Ph.D.
Thomas Hines: Ph.D.
Sanford M.
Michael Salman: Ph.D.
Richard Weiss: Ph.D.
Mary Yeager: Ph.D.
Mary Corey:Ph.D.
David N.
David Myers is a Professor and the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He has written extensively in the fields of modern Jewish intellectual and cultural history, with a particular interest in the history of Jewish historiography. He has previously served as Robert N.
Roselyn A. Campbell is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of California, Riverside. Her research focuses on evidence for state-sanctioned violence in the past, particularly in ancient Egypt, and seeks to understand how violence and trauma are performed and understood on the physical and cultural body. She also explores themes of identity and otherness in the past and the history of cancer in antiquity.
Mary Bejanyan is a fourth-year History major and Public Affairs minor originally from Glendale, California with hopes to pursue a career in law in the future.

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