Asia and the Pacific
The Asia and Pacific concentration—which encompasses East, South, and Central Asia along with the Pacific and the Indian Ocean—offers students the opportunity to explore gender, class, race, and ethnicity through the examination of premodern and modern empires and nations, their borders and peripheries, and their flows of people, materials, and ideas. Major topics of focus include the early modern and modern eras, Western and Japanese imperialisms, labor and other major social movements, socialist transformations, and cultural, intellectual, and science history.
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: Asia and the Pacific (6 courses)
I. One lower-division introductory survey course:
- HIS 40A, Early Modern East Asia
- HIS 40B, The Making of Modern East Asia
- HIS 44, Modern South Asia, 1500 to Present
HIS 40A and 40B satisfy the Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC) general education requirement. HIS 44 satisfies the Ethnicity and Race (ER) general education requirement.
II. Four additional Asia and the Pacific courses, three of which must be upper-division
III. One Asia and the Pacific 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.
- Pronouns he, him, his, his, himself
- Title
- Professor
- Department
- History Department
- Affiliations History of Consciousness Department
- Phone 831-459-5270 (office)
- Fax 831-459-1925
- Office Location
- Humanities Building 1, 536 Humanities 1
- Office Hours Spring 2024: Thursday 12-1 PM
- Mail Stop Humanities Academic Services
- Mailing Address
- 1156 High Street
- Santa Cruz CA 95064
Research Interests
Early Modern China (1600-1900), the history of science and technology, the humanities in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, and the rise of China in World Politics.
Biography, Education and Training
Ph.D., History, UCLA
MS, Science and Technology Studies, Virginia Tech
BS, Civil Engineering, Tamkang University, Taiwan
Selected Publications
Hu, Minghui. Waiting for the Barbarians: A History of Geopolitics in Early Modern China, Cambria Press, 2025.
Hu, Minghui, and Elverskog, Johan (eds). Cosmopolitanism in China, 1600-1950. Cambria Sinophone World Series. Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, 2016.
Hu, Minghui. China's Transition to Modernity: The New Classical Vision of Dai Zhen. Seattle, Wash.: Univ. of Washington Press, 2015.