Americas and Africa

The Americas and Africa caucus invites students to explore the complex history of intercultural encounter, exchange, and conflict that connects South, Central, and North America and the diverse nations of Africa. Courses in this concentration locate these regions within larger global movements of people, goods, and ideas. Major topical themes in the concentration include Indigenous history, African diaspora, immigration, gender, labor, religion, social movements, politics, and critical history of race. Courses in this concentration extend from the colonial era to the modern day and reflect interdisciplinary approaches to historical practice.


Major Requirements

The history major requires a minimum of 12 unique courses. At least eight of the 12 courses must be upper-division (HIS 100-199). A maximum of four courses, including the introductory survey course, may be lower-division (HIS 1-99).

Major Planning Worksheet

Copy a History Major Planning Worksheet and Sample Academic Plans to your UCSC Google Drive.

Region of Concentration: Americas and Africa (6 courses)

I. One lower-division introductory survey course:

All of the above courses satisfy the Ethnicity and Race (ER) general education requirement.

II. Four additional Americas and Africa courses, three of which must be upper-division

III. One Americas and Africa Comprehensive Requirement

Historical Skills and Methods (1 course)

IV. HIS 100, Historical Skills and Methods

HIS 100 introduce history majors to historical methods and provides preparation for advanced historical research. Students develop critical reading, historical analysis, research, and disciplinary writing skills. HIS 100 also satisfies the Textual Analysis and Interpretation (TA) general education requirement.

Students who enter UCSC as frosh are expected to complete HIS 100 by the end of their second year. Transfer students are expected to complete HIS 100 no later than their second term at UCSC.

Catalog of Course Requirements

The History Catalog of Course Requirements indicates what region(s) of concentration and what chronological distribution requirement(s) individual history courses may apply toward.

Breadth Requirements (4 courses)

V. Two courses from each of the remaining two regions of concentration:

Upper-Division Elective (1 course)

One additional upper-division history course of your choice from any of the three regions of concentration

Distribution Requirements

Of the 12 courses required for the major, at least three must meet chronological distribution requirements. One must be set before 600 C.E., and two must be set in periods prior to the year 1800 C.E.

Intensive Major Option

The intensive history major offers students a pathway to enrich their study of history, refine their skills in writing and research, and receive a designation on their transcripts that signals their ambition and accomplishment to potential employers and graduate schools. All history majors are eligible to declare the intensive track, including junior transfers. If a student attempts but does not complete the intensive track they may still graduate with a standard history degree, provided the appropriate major coursework has been completed.

Alice Yang
  • Pronouns she, her, her, hers, herself
  • Title
    • Chair and Professor, History Department
    • Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
    • Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Pacific War Memories
  • Division Humanities Division
  • Department
    • History Department
    • Stevenson College
    • Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
  • Affiliations Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, East Asian Studies, Feminist Studies Department
  • Phone
    831-459-2328
  • Email
  • Office Location
    • Humanities Building 1, 538
  • Office Hours Monday and Wednesday 3:30-4:30 and by appointment by booking https://calendar.app.google/apohujeq8oUeA8ZS6
  • Mail Stop Humanities Academic Services
  • Mailing Address
    • 1156 High Street
    • Santa Cruz CA 95064
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise History, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Asian American Pacific Islander History, Comparative Politics, California History, Colonialism, Feminist Studies, Gender Studies, Labor and Social Movements, Oral History
  • Courses HIS 80Y, World War II Memories in the U.S. and Japan; HIS 106B, Asian and Asian American History, 1941-Present; HIS 194Y, Memories of WWII in the U.S. and Japan; HIS 201, Directed Research Colloquium; HIS 190G Comparative History of Redress and Reparations

Summary of Expertise

Historical Memory, Asian American Pacific Islander History, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Gender, 20th Century US History, Pacific War History, Oral History, Redress, and Reparations


Research Interests

interdisciplinary and transnational research and teaching collaborations, memories of the War on Terror, patriotism, protest, civil and human rights

Biography, Education and Training

B.A., M.A.T. Brown University
M.A., Ph.D. Stanford University

Honors, Awards and Grants

National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation, Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, the University of California Humanities Research Institute, the Pacific Rim Research Program, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, and the Institute for Humanities Research

Selected Publications

  • Historical Memories of the Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress (Stanford University Press, 2007)
  • Major Problems in Asian American History, co-editor (Houghton-Mifflin, 2003)
  • What Did the Internment of Japanese American during World War II Mean? (Bedford/St. Martin's and Macmillan, 2000)
  • “Eternal Flames: The Translingual Imperative in the Study of World War II Memories,” Problems and Methods in Recent American History (University of Georgia Press, 2011)
  • "Edison Uno: The Experience and the Legacy of the Japanese American Internment,” The Human Tradition in California (Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2002)
  • "Ilse Women and the Early Korean Community: Redefining the Origins of Feminist Empowerment." Korean American Women: Living in Two Cultures, Y. Song and A. Moon, eds. (Los Angeles and Taeju, Korea: Academia Koreana Keimyung University Press, 1997). Reprinted in Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, 3rd ed. (Routledge, 2000)
  • "Oral History Research, Theory, and Asian American Studies." Amerasia Journal 26:1 (2000)

Selected Exhibitions

http://cspwm.ucsc.edu

Teaching Interests

World War II Memories, Asian American Pacific Islander History, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Historical Memory, Graduate Thesis Writing