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Advisor: Matthew Vitz
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Advisor: Edward Watts
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Justin Brennan
BA History, Willamette University, 2024Research Interests: Modern Germany: Migration and the EconomyCurrently, I have two main interests in modern Germany. The first are questions on the integration (particularly economic) of German expellees after WWII and migrants from outside countries. The second are questions on the economy. My undergraduate thesis on the political influence of large firms and cartels in Germany from 1880-1945 is one example of my fascination with German economic history, especially its transnational entanglements.Advisor: Frank Biess -
MA (Hons) History and Politics, University of Dundee - 2019
MPhil in World History, University of Cambridge – 2020Research Themes: Latin America, Mexico, Housing, Urbanism, Neoliberalism, Coffee and Commodities, Global History, Social History, Oral History, Economic History.
Tentative Dissertation Title: A Decent Home: Social Housing in Mexico during The Neoliberal Transition, 1972-1992
In my doctoral research, I investigate the history of social housing in Mexico between 1972- 1992. I approach the role and motivations of state intervention in the housing market in response to demographic and urban growth in the late twentieth century. Architects and urban planners were important actors in the production of social housing space and urban development in Mexico that I analyze to appreciate the influence of modernist architectural discourse and values on these architects and their projects in Mexico. The peak production of social housing in Mexico coincided with economic crisis and the neoliberal transition. I consider how urban development and social housing were impacted by these political economic circumstances during the 1980s. Moreover, understanding the lived experience of social housing is an important element of my research. I conduct oral history with residents of social housing to consider why they took up social housing, how they built community, how they adapted to the challenges of working-class neighborhoods, and what aspirations and desires motivated them.
Additionally, I work on the history of specialty café culture in Latin American cities between 1998-2020. This project traces the rise of the specialty café industry in coffee-producing countries to understand how it emerged, who were the main entrepreneurs in the industry and why did these people opt for a specialty coffee business project. I have conducted oral history research for this project in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Advisor: Matthew Vitz
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B.A. in History, National Taiwan University, 2019
M.A. in History, National Taiwan University, 2022
I am interested in global history, focusing on feminist thoughts and movements from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. My research revolves around how patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, and modernization shaped global exchanges and social movements, particularly concerning interconnections between East Asian and Western feminist thoughts and activism. I combine women's and gender history with global and transnational approaches to explore how feminist ideas and practices circulated and reinvented across diverse boundaries. -
Advisors: Karl Gerth and Micah Muscolino
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Advisor: Thomas Gallant
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Advisors: Hasan Kayali and Michael Provence
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Amanda DeMarco
Advisors: Karl Gerth & Micah Muscolino
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Advisor: Claire Edington
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M.A. New School for Social Research
B.A. University of Pennsylvania
Research Themes: Modern China, global 20th and 21st centuries, industrial disasters, cultural history, labor history, political economy, social movements, intellectual history, collective memory, transnationalism.Tentative Dissertation Title: When the Smoke Clears: Industrial Disasters and Chinese Society Since 1949
My dissertation examines how industrial disasters in modern Chinese history reveal tensions within industrialization, social fabrics, and state policymaking. Through case studies of major fatal catastrophes—including the 1960 Laobaidong coal mine explosion and the 1993 Zhili Toy factory fire—I investigate how these events reshaped community cultures, inspired grassroots contestation, and transformed relationships between workers, communities, and the state. Far from mere tragic accidents, these events exposed systemic failures and injustices of their time.
My research documents the cultural memory and social aftermath of these disasters, connecting historical industrial pressures to contemporary human rights concerns. By examining the human costs of China’s industrial ambitions, I explore how communities preserved the memory of these disasters despite official censorship and control. This work contributes to memory studies by exploring collective responses to shared traumas and the enduring impact of these disasters on communal identity and resilience.
Through UCSD’s mentorship program, I work with undergraduates interested in pursuing advanced degrees in the humanities. I particularly welcome discussions with students interested in modern Chinese history, comparative revolutions, and social and cultural history.
Advisor: Karl Gerth
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Advisor: Pamela Radcliff
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B.A. in English and History, Spring Hill College
I’m studying Latin American history, concentrating primarily on Chile during the 1960s and 1970s. My main thematic interests are liberation theology and popular education initiatives, and how they shape democratic social projects during pivotal and often violent-political transitions. I plan on focusing my research on the link between Catholic social justice teaching, literacy campaigns, and the leftist politics in Chile leading up to the coup and dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Advisor: Ben Cowan
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Advisor: Luis Alvarez and Rosie Bermudez
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B.S. in Political Science, Florida State University
M.A. in History, San Diego State UniversityI am interested in political activism and social justice in the 20th-century United States, particularly LGBTQ+ activism and issues of gender in Southern California.
Advisor: Rebecca Plant
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Advisors: Hasan Kayali and Michael Provence
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B.A. in History, Renmin University of China, 2018M.A. in Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2019
I am a doctoral student in history and science studies. I am broadly interested in the history of rural life in modern China, especially rural everyday life, and the history of knowledge production and transmission. My major research project focuses on the history of farming technology in the PRC period. My work involves grassroots technological inventions and the interaction among technology, economic knowledge, and politics. Along with that, I am also working on a project on generational hierarchy and legal knowledge-making under Republican Legal Reform.
Advisors: Karl Gerth and Micah Muscolino
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B.A. in History, University of Würzburg, Germany
State Examination (Erstes Staatsexamen) in History, German, and Ethics/Philosophy, University of Würzburg, GermanyScholarly Interests: U.S. History, European History (especially German History), History of Emotions, History of Science, Public Diplomacy and Propaganda
Before I came to UC San Diego, I earned a teaching degree (Erstes Staatsexamen) for teaching History, German, and Ethics/Philosophy from the University of Würzburg in Germany. Further, I earned a bachelor’s degree in History and German Linguistics/Literature.
In my dissertation, I focus on aspects related to early Cold War emotional management through information control. I examine the actions of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS) – a group of nuclear scientists around Albert Einstein, Linus Pauling, and Leo Szilard who launched a campaign to educate the public about the dangers of atomic energy and spoke out for the formation of a world government under which all nuclear power should be placed. I thereby seek to illuminate the trust/distrust relationship between government entities, the U.S. public, and nuclear scientists which was impacted by a constant fear of nuclear destruction. Driven by a concern about increasing public distrust in both science and governmental leadership, scientists as well as government agencies sought to use public nuclear fears and influence the public perception of the atomic threat by manipulating the information released about the dangers of atomic energy.
Advisors: Rebecca Plant and Nancy Kwak
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Advisor: Frank Biess
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Advisor: Deborah Hertz
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Advisor: Rebecca Plant
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Advisors: Jeremy Prestholdt and Claire Edington
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Advisor: Weijing Lu
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Stephen Kooshian
I completed a Master's thesis examining a diverse group of Germans who championed the political and cultural preservation of the Armenian nation during the turbulent early years of the Weimar Republic. My research focused on the 1921 criminal trial of Soghomon Tehlirian, who assassinated Talaat Pasha, the principal architect of the Armenian Genocide, on a Berlin street corner. I analyzed a range of German pro-Armenian journals, official and personal correspondence, and press coverage from 1918 to 1923. These pro-Armenian advocates framed their efforts within the broader contexts of humanitarian concern, debates over German and Ottoman war guilt, international peace negotiations, Great Power economic ambitions in the Near East, and shifting religious and political ideologies. Their views evolved not only in response to the unfolding Tehlirian trial but also in relation to significant political developments in Germany, Turkey, and Armenia. My thesis explores how the trial served as a catalyst in shaping German pro-Armenian reactions to the Armenian Genocide and explains why the movement faded away after 1923.In other research, I am investigating the environmental and scientific aspects of beer production in nineteenth century Germany.Advisor: Frank Biess
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Advisor: Pamela Radcliff
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http://acsweb.ucsd.edu/~c0leung/
Advisor: Karl Gerth
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Advisor: Simeon Man
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B.A. in Sociology, University of California, Santa BarbaraM.A. in Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State UniversityC. Phil in History, University of California, San DiegoJose's work focuses on multiracial/multiethnic solidarity. For his dissertation, "Shared Imaginations: Black and Brown Solidarity in Los Angeles, 1965-1994," he writes about the way black and brown working-class communities came together to organize in the neighborhood, school sites, and workplace of post-Fordism Los Angeles. Jose is also involved in a seed project that experimentally maps spaces of abolition and abolitionists' struggles, check out the work he is doing with his colleague, https://mappingabolition.com Research and Teaching Interests:Twentieth century U.S. history and social movements, black and brown relationships, comparative/relational race and ethnicity, Chicanx History, ethnic studies, Critical Human Geography, space and place, California History, Los Angeles History, Oral History, Global History, and history from below.Advisors: Luis Alvarez and Danny Widener
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Advisors: Karl Gerth and Micah Muscolino
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Advisor: Benjamin Cowan
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Marcus Mayers
Advisor: Jessica Graham
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Advisor: Mark Hendrickson
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Alex McGrath
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Advisor: Mark Hanna
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Advisor: Hasan Kayali and Michael Provence
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B.A. in History, California State University, San Marcos, 2015
M.A. in History, California State University, San Marcos, 2018I am interested in United States history with a subfield of African American history and global history.
Advisor: Danny Widener
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M.A. in American Studies, ELTE University, Budapest
M.A. in Comparative History, Central European University, Budapest
PhD in History, Science Studies. In progress, UC San DiegoI am interested in the interconnections of the social and natural sciences in the 20C. Atomic age, Cold War science and society, institutions, universities, refugee scientists as well as issues of technical experts acting as public intellectuals. I also retain an interest in the historiography of science and religion, broadly construed.
Advisor: Cathy Gere
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B.A. in History, University of California, Irvine, 2015
M.A. in History, California State University, Northridge, 2018My research revolves around the early modern European period, with a specific focus on the Spanish empire during the 15th and 16th centuries. I am interested in the construction of an early modern Spanish identity during this period, whether this identity is self-imposed or is being perpetuated onto themselves by their enemies. So far, my projects have attempted to highlight how the territorial enemies of the Spanish continuously used different mediums to express their interpretation of a Spanish identity while subsequently being in constant interaction with the Spanish’s interpretation of their own identity.
Advisor: Andrew Devereux
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Advisor: Andrew Devereux
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B.A. in History, UC Santa Cruz, 2017
I am primarily looking to pursue a trans-pacific approach to examining American imperialism in Southeast Asia. Particularly, I am interested in the aftermath of the Second Indochina Conflict and the ensuing refugee crisis that reached its peak in the 1980s. The refugee camps that were established in locations such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong serve as an interesting space in which individuals (camp workers and refugees alike) can articulate their perceived position in relation to the dominant American presence in the region. The liminal nature of the refugee camp also serves as an insight into space-making among refugees away from an established "homeland."
I am looking to combine a variety of materials, from traditional archival sources, to oral testimonies, to video and digital materials in my work, taking full advantage of digital humanities as a whole.
Research Interests: Trans-pacific studies, American Empire, Critical Refugee Studies, Immigration, Cold War, American militarism in the Pacific
Advisor: Simeon Man
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Advisor: Denise Demetriou
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B.A. in History, University of Cincinnati
M.A. in Social Sciences, University of ChicagoI am interested in the sociopolitical and legal dimensions of US immigration history and citizenship. My doctoral research focuses primarily on immigration reform in the 1960s. Specifically, I examine how these efforts succeeded in uniting numerous, diverse, and often disparate interest groups and stakeholders in a campaign to abolish the national origins system—efforts that eventually culminated in the passage of the Hart-Celler Act in 1965.
My previous research includes topics ranging from nativism and xenophobia to evolving notions of American citizenship. For instance, my M.A. thesis, “‘America First’: A Conceptual History, 1870-2019,” explores the sematic genealogy of the phrase, “America First,” spanning the tariff debates of the nineteenth century to its more contemporary usage by far-right figures, including Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump. In addition to my M.A. thesis, I’ve also studied the Americanization movement in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, whose advocates, such as the National Americanization Committee, campaigned to assimilate and “Americanize” German American immigrants through the promotion of English language adoption, as well as, by other more-coercive means following the advent of the First World War.
Research Interests: 20th century US history, immigration law and public policy, patterns of nativism, social movements, legal and political history, nationalism, race and ethnicity.
Advisor: Mark Hendrickson
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Advisor: Ben Cowan
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Advisor: Thomas Gallant
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Advisor: Cathy Gere
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B.A. in History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), 2009
M.A. in Social History, Federal University of Rio de Janiero (PPGHIS-IH-UFRJ), 2013
Ph.D. in History, University of California, San Diego, In ProgressAbner Fco Sótenos is a Ph.D. Student in Latin American History at the Department of History of University of California – San Diego.
He holds a master’s in social history from PPGHIS-Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ (2013) Brazil, and a bachelor’s in history at UFRJ (2009). He was a visiting researcher at Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at Brown University (2016-2018).
Awarded Honorable Mention in the Best Master's Dissertation Award, Ana Lugão Rios do PPGHIS-UFRJ (2013).
He is co-author of the book Written History, Lived History: Social Movements, Memory, and Political Repression During the Military Dictatorship in Brazil, (Rio de Janeiro: Lamparina editora, 2019), in Portuguese.
He is working on a manuscript book entitled Down with the Dictatorship: Democratic Opposition and the Surveillance apparatus in the Baixada Fluminense During the Dictatorial Year, in Portuguese. Moreover, He is the author of many articles and book chapters and participates as a political commentator in the Brazilian and US press. He is a popular educator and political activist.
He is interested in Racial Formation in Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean, Human Right, Transnational Activism in the Diasporic World, Cold War in Latin America, Critical Race Theory, Decolonial Studies, History of Republican Brazil; Military Dictatorship in Brazil, Changes in Political Regimes in Latin America, and grassroot movements in Brazil and the United States.
Advisors: Jessica Graham and Ben Cowan
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Advisor: Nancy Caciola
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B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology, Neuroscience, University of California Berkeley, 2018
B.A. in English Literature, University of California, Berkeley, 2018
Fields: history of medicine, science studies, Early Modern Spain, Colonial Latin America, history of the body, visual and material culture
Advisor: Andrew Devereux
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Advisors: Karl Gerth and Micah Muscolino
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B.A. in History and Japanese Studies, Furman University, 2019
M.A. in Regional Studies-East Asia (RSEA), Harvard University, 2021Advisor: Sarah Schneewind
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Advisors: Simeon Man and Wendy Matsumura
