Undergraduate History Showcase

The Undergraduate History Showcase is an annual event held each spring that recognizes the exceptional research conducted by UC Santa Cruz history undergraduates.

15th Annual Undergraduate History Showcase
Thursday, May 11th, 2023
3:30pm-5:00pm
Merrill Cultural Center

This event is free and open to the public. Click here to view the event program


Past Showcase Events

2023 Undergraduate History Showcase

2021 Undergraduate History Showcase

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the 2021 Undergraduate History Showcase was held virtually, via a series of interviews between student researchers and their faculty mentors.


Past Alumni Keynote Speakers

Past Undergraduate History Showcases featured history alumni who delivered keynote addresses.

2019 - Juliet Carpenter, Prospect Researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Class of 2009.
Following the Money: Research Opportunities in Non-Profit Fundraising

2018 - Joe Gabent, Elementary School Teacher.
Class of 2008.
Teacher or Student: Lifelong Learning

2017 - Erin Wright, Director of Community Relations for the Raiders.
Class of 2009.
Fourth-and-Goal: An Unexpected Career Journey

2016 - Brian Mathias, Attorney & Constitutional Law Fellow.
Class of 2008.
History! What is it good for?

2015 - Eryn Brennan, Urban Planner/Architectural Historian at AKRF, Inc.
Class of 2000.
The Eulerian Circles of Our Built Environment: Architectural History, Urban Planning, and Historic Preservation

2014 - Ian Sherr, Reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
Class of 2005.
Writing History As it Happens: Daily Journalism From A History Major's Perspective

2013 - Anna E. von Gehr, Director of University Arts Development, University of Virginia.
Class of 1999.
Great. Now What?

2012 - Anthony Barbieri-Low, Associate Professor of History, UC Santa Barbara.
Class of 1994.
"Start Reading from the Left Side of the Library Shelf….": The Pleasures and Perils of Undergraduate Research

2011 - Matthew Bokovoy, Senior Acquisitions Editor, University of Nebraska Press. Class of 1991.
Utopianism: Humanities Education and Everyday Life.

2010 - Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Professor of History, UC Irvine. Class of 1982.
Undergraduate Research as a Ticket to Adventures in Asia and Asian Studies.

2009 - Paul Freedman, Chester D. Tripp Professor of History, Yale. Class of 1971.
The History of Cuisine and Why it Matters.

2008 - Carla Hesse, Professor of History, UC Berkeley. Class of 1978.
Is Baudelaire in that Data Set? My Undergraduate Life as a Double-Agent in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Symposium Highlights

Carla Hesse, Is Baudelaire in that Data Set? My Undergraduate Life as a Double-Agent in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Keynote address at the 2008 Undergraduate Research Symposium with introduction by Professor Mark Traugott.

"The research work I did for all of my professors, both as a student and also as a research assistant, really what it gave me was not a subject, which I had already in some deep sense found in my own historical moment, but it gave me enduring ways to think about that subject. In that sense, it was getting the fishing rod rather than the fish."

- Carla Hesse, Undergraduate Research Symposium 2008