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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.

David Henry Anthony III
  • Title
    • Professor Emeritus
  • Division Humanities Division
  • Department
    • History Department
  • Affiliations Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
  • Phone
    831-459-4028 (office)
  • Email
  • Fax
    831-459-1925
  • Website
  • Office Location
    • Humanities Building 1, 532 Humanities 1
    • online
  • Office Hours Spring 2022: 9-11 Wednesday morning and by appointment (on Zoom); email in advance to schedule an appointment
  • Mail Stop Humanities Academic Services
  • Mailing Address
    • 1156 High Street
    • Santa Cruz CA 95064
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise Africa and African Studies, African American / Black Studies, African Diaspora, Africana Studies, Colonialism, Film, Subsaharan Africa, Jazz
  • Courses HIS 30, The Making of Modern Africa; HIS 121A, African American History to 1877; HIS 121B, African American History: 1877 to the Present; HIS 137A, Africa to 1800; HIS 137B, Africa, 1800-Present; HIS 137C, African Cinema; HIS 190N, Topics in African History; HIS 190O, African American Historiography

Summary of Expertise

African Social and Cultural History With Special Reference to Eastern and Southern Africa
African American Social and Cultural History
African Cinema
African Religion
Islam in Africa
African American and Diasporic Spirituality
African and Diasporic Literature
African Music
African American Music
African American Improvisational Music and "Jazz" tradition
Christianity in Africa

Research Interests

African and African-American history, art, music, literature and cinema; eastern and southern Africa; African Languages; Indian Ocean wold; African and African American linkages; Islamic civilization; African diaspora studies; world history

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Honors, Awards and Grants

Fellow, Residential Research Grant (RRG) Civil Wars, UCHRI (University of California Humanities Research Institute, UCI, Fall 2019

2016 UCSC Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity http://diversity.ucsc.edu/diversity/caafd/index.html

2014 Excellence in Teaching Award, UC Santa Cruz Senate Committee on Teaching http://news.ucsc.edu/2014/06/excellence-in-teaching.html

2006 Nominee and Honorable Mention: UC Santa Cruz Committee on Teaching.

1994    Fellow, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University

1990 - 1991 President's Humanities Research Fellowship: UC Office of the President [?].

Jun 1990 Josie King Community Service Award: Presented by Class of 1990, University of California, Santa Cruz, African Awards and Recognition Ceremony.

Jun 1987-Jul 1988  Fulbright Award: Fulbright Lecturer, History Department, National University of Lesotho, Kingdom of Lesotho, Southern Africa.

Jun 1976-Jul 1977  Research Fellow: Fulbright-Hays Research Foundation, Department of State, Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Tanzania, East Africa.

 

Selected Publications

  • “Introduction,” 2020 Hindsight:  Looking Back on a Tumultuous Year in Santa Cruz County. Shmuel Thaler, ed. Wallace Baine and   co-eds.   (Santa Cruz: Community Printers, 2021)
  • Anthology: Viz. INTER-ARTS Interventions: A trans-genre anthology, Roxanne Powers, Ed. In Conversation with M. NourbeSe Philip At the University of California, Santa Cruz Graduate/Faculty Seminar, Sponsored by the UC Presential Chair in Feminist Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, Moderators: David Anthony & Vilashini Cooppan, Forum year: November 2012, Publication year: 2016
  • "Freedom: Life After Slavery," prepared for Teacher Created Materials [With Stephanie Kuligowski] Huntington Beach, CA: 2012
  • "Langston Hughes: Harlem Renaissance Writer," prepared for Teacher Created Materials [With Stephanie Kuligowski] Huntington Beach, CA: 2012
  • "Oswin Boys Bull and the Emergence of Southern African 'Nonwhite' YMCA Work," Journal of Anglican Studies, 2011
  • Max Yergan: Race Man, Internationalist, Cold Warrior New York, New York University Press, 2006
  • "Unwritten History: African Work in the YMCA of South Africa," History in Africa: A Journal of Method 32 (2005), 435-444
  • "African Film Festivals in Focus," Documentary Box 24: Quarterly Journal of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Tokyo (March 10, 2005)
  • "Max Yergan Encounters South Africa: Theological Perspectives on Race," Journal of Religion in Africa 34:3 (2004): 235-65
  • "Crossing The Water: African-American Historical Linkages with South Africa." Co-editor with Robert R. Edgar and Robert T. Vinson (Ohio Press, forthcoming)
  • "'The Men of Me': Max Yergan and the 'Bantu Section'of the South African YMCA Association," in Black Modernity: Discourses Between the United States and South Africa, Ntongela Masilela, ed. (in press: Africa World Press, Trenton, 2004).
  • "Islam in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania." Studies in Contemporary Islam. Volume 4, Number 2 (Fall 2002)
  • African Lliberation Poster Art. Curator. June-Sept 2002:
  • UCSC Library, California Learning Resource Network, UCSC Currents
  • "Max Yergan in South Africa: A Transatlantic Interaction." Imagining Home: Class, Culture and Nationalism in African Diaspora, R. Kelley and S. Lemelle, eds. London and New York: Verso, 1994.
  • "South African People's History." History from South Africa: Alternative Visions and Practices, J. Brown et al., eds., 277-86. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.


Selected Presentations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0netbzKzvSw 2021 MLK Virtual March for the Dream -- Justice, Reconciliation & Reparations

Streamed live on Jan 18, 2021  NAACP Santa Cruz County Branch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2vCOMGYD8U Question Bridge Blueprint Roundtable Highlights- UC Santa Cruz April 3, 2019

QuestionBridge Black Males April 3, 2019 Question Bridge: Black Males Blueprint Roundtable Discussion 6:30 p.m. reception7:00-8:30 p.m. discussion Oakes Learning Center at Oakes College at UCSC https://art.ucsc.edu/sesnon/question-bridge-0

https://art.ucsc.edu/galleries/sesnon/events-blueprint-round-table-discussion

https://arts.ucsc.edu/news_events/question-bridge-black-males-blueprint-panel-discussion

https://news.ucsc.edu/2019/03/blueprint-roundtable-race.html

Selected Exhibitions

https://www.moadsf.org/event/curators-talk-after-the-thrill-is-gone-fashion-politics-and-culture-in-contemporary-south-african-art/ March 28, 2018

https://chimurengalibrary.tumblr.com/post/88880252134/our-history-did-not-begin-in-chains-amilcar  June 15, 2014

"A Luta Continua: African Liberation Posters from the collection of David H. Anthony," McHenry Library, UCSC, Summer 2002.

Selected Recordings

  • Enduring Questions about Diamonds, December 11th, 2006. Interview with "To The Point" on KCRW.
  • Talk of the Bay radio interview on KUSP 88.9, March 27th, 2006. Discussion behind the mystery of Max Yergan, black activist turned apartheid supporter.
  • Africa Today interview, KPFA 94.1 FM, Berkeley, January 3, 2011.
  • "Remembering John Hope Franklin," 7th Avenue Project, KUSP-FM, Sunday March 29, 2010
  • "Remembering The Life and Work of Dennis Brutus," Poetry Show, KUSP-FM

Selected Performances

Guest artist (tenor saxophone), Karlton Hester