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Faculty by Research Specialization

The Department of History at UC Santa Cruz is known for its innovative research and exemplary scholarship. Our faculty work at the cutting edge of their respective fields, covering a wide variety of geographic, temporal, and thematic fields of study. The areas of specialization listed here are by no means an exhaustive list of our scholastic interests. Rather, they highlight the diverse and often overlapping ideas and approaches we explore within our teaching and research.

Matthew Lasar
  • Title
    • Retired Lecturer on Teaching Recall
  • Division Humanities Division
  • Department
    • History Department
  • Phone
    831-459-5593
  • Email
  • Office Location
    • Stevenson College Academic Building, 280 Stevenson
    • 280 Stevenson College
  • Office Hours Spring 2024: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 am to noon on Zoom. Students welcome! 😎
  • Mail Stop Stevenson Academic Services
  • Mailing Address
    • 1156 High Street
    • Santa Cruz CA 95064
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise History, Politics, World History, United States Politics and Government
  • Courses History 15: The United States of America

Summary of Expertise

The United States of America; the Cold War; conspiracies and conspiracy theories.

Research Interests

United States history; world history; history of the Cold War; radio and telecommunications history.

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D, Claremont Graduate School

Honors, Awards and Grants

UCSC Excellence in Teaching Award, 2016

Selected Publications

  • Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium, ABC-CLIO Praeger, 2016
  • Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War, London: Black Apollo Press, 2005.
  • Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999; Robert Dawidoff, series editor; updated edition in paperback, 2000
  • "The Triumph of the Visual: Stages and Cycles in the Pornography Controversy from the McCarthy Era to the Present," The Journal of Policy History, Volume 7, No. 2, 1995.
  • "Pacifica Radio's Crisis of Containment," in McCauley, Artz, Halleck, and Peterson, eds., Public Broadcasting and the Public Interest, New York: M.E. Sharpe, December, 2002.
  • "Right out in public": Pacifica Radio, the Cold War, and the Political Origins of Alternative Media", Pacific Historical Review, Volume 67, Number 4, November 1998.
  • "Hybrid Highbrow: KPFA's Reconstruction of Elite Culture, 1942-1960," The Journal of Radio Studies, Volume 5, Number 1, Winter, 1998.

Teaching Interests

The United States of America; the Cold War; conspiracies and conspiracy theories.