Chair's Note

The winter quarter has been a busy one! Among other things, the History Department just co-sponsored an event with Religious Studies and the CAS Dean’s Office -- a talk by the award-winning author and journalist, Mark Arax, on “Big Ag & Big Tech: A Tale of Two Valleys Where Innovation, Inequality & Plunder Meet.” In addition to this event, Marx Arax spoke with students earlier in the day on the topic of pursuing a career in media, writing, and history. Thanks goes to History faculty member, Dr. Mateo Carrillo, and Religious Studies faculty member, Dr. Bryson White, for organizing this fabulous opportunity, and for the newest member of our History team, Heidi Elmore, for coordinating all the details.

I want to extend a huge welcome to Heidi Elmore, the new Department Manager for History and Classics. In addition to already improving many aspects of our history department processes and mastering SCU’s overwhelming array of databases, she is connecting well with students and faculty alike – and she has made the History office a more warm and welcoming place.

Heidi joins SCU after nearly seven years at Stanford University. As one of our faculty members likes to point out – “this is that school up the road that perhaps you have heard about.” Indeed it was there that she was co-chair of the Disability Staff Forum, which fostered greater awareness of disability issues among staff and faculty with and without disabilities. Heidi is passionate and knowledgeable about issues of equity and inclusion, particularly for disabled and neurodiverse individuals, and we are lucky that she brings this passion and knowledge to our History and broader SCU community.

Amy E. Randall, Professor and Department Chair, History Department, and Associate Director, Center for the Arts and Humanities

Rob Wohl at the meeting of the American Historical Association.

The department was extremely well represented at the January 2024 meeting of the American Historical Society, held this year in San Francisco. Naomi Andrews, Mateo J. Carrillo, Barbara Molony, Harry Odamtten, Rob Wohl '23, and Samuel Cao '25 all contributed meaningfully at this prestigious event!!

Naomi Andrews was on the panel “Sustaining Writing and Publications Beyond the First Book,” and also contributed to a round-table concerning student-produced history journals. Naomi serves as faculty advisor to Santa Clara’s own Historical Perspectives, a multi-prize winning student journal. You can peruse past issues here. This quarter she is presenting her work “The Mobile Metaphor of Slavery and the Development of French Antislavery Sentiment in France, 1748-1848,” at both the Stanford European History Workshop and our own Humanities Brown Bag series.

Mateo Carrillo organized a panel that included his presentation “Revolutionizing Rural Mobility: Technology, Engineers, and Modernity in Mexico, 1925–1940.” Barbara Molony co-presided at the Coordinating Council for Women in History and Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Reception, and Harry Odamtten contributed to the panel “The Joys and Challenges of Teaching Biography.” The department is particularly proud that two of our students also presented work on their research! Samuel Cao (’25) presented “Striking a Balance: Disability Rights Activism, ADA Compliance Laws, and California’s Business Landscape, 1990–2010,” and Rob Wohl ’23 presented “Masking Evil: St. Domingan Émigrés in the Philadelphian Press, 1789–93,” at the undergraduate poster session.

Mateo Carrillo

Mateo Carrillo traveled to the University of Ghana to participate in the Latin American Studies Association’s first-ever Continental Congress in Africa.

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Sonia Gomez

Sonia Gomez published "Interracial Friendship across Barbed Wire: Mollie Wilson and Lillian Igasaki," which explores the subversive nature of interracial female friendship during the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.

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Marwan Hanania

Marwan Hanania gave a guest lecture on Israeli-Palestinian History as part of Santiago Canyon College’s "Perspectives Series," and spoke on "The Palestinian Refugees: Their Roots, Identities and Current Circumstances," for the “Hot Topic” lecture series of SCU OLLI program.

Harry Odamtten

Harry Odamtten has been elected to the executive board of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora. He also served on the 2023 African Studies Association Local Organizing Committee for the Conference held in San Francisco 2023. As the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow at the University of Ghana's Institute of African Studies, Harry delivered the lecture “Theory and History: How to use Theory as a Historian.”

Amy Randall

Department Chair Amy Randall is quoted in "Oskar Schindler’s Heroic (and Complicated) Holocaust Legacy," an article on the A&E Channel's History website.

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Nancy C. Unger

Nancy C. Unger continues to enjoy the interest the HBO series The Gilded Age is bringing to her favorite period of American History.

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Gregory Wigmore

Gregory Wigmore presented on "Slavery & Self-Emancipation in Colonial Canada" at the Canadian Studies colloquium series at the University of California, Berkeley.

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In the fall, the History Club amped up its activities—check out this Instagram Reel from the FriendsGiving Potluck! The Club offered a wide-ranging series of events in addition to the traditional movie night and Jeopardy-style quiz competition.

An open house/pizza party in advance of registration for winter quarter was a big hit. Students appreciated the pizza and the opportunity to learn about the classes offered in the coming term. A second “pre-registration” event was held in February in advance of spring quarter—the History Club is really working to let their fellow students know about the department’s course offerings! It also was well represented at the most recent “Pizza with the Profs.” This increase in History Club activities is building community as well as raising the profile of our department among students.

History major Brigid Kelleher '11 is cited in this article in Yahoo about a new Netflix series. Brigid's publication referenced in the article is: “Acceptance through Restriction: Male Homosexuality in Ancient Athens.” Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II, vol. 16, no. 1, 2011.