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History NewsletterSpring 2020California State University, BakersfieldPublished BiannuallyVol. 28, No. 2Editor: Miriam Raub Vivian – Asst. Editor: Chris Tang - Production Editor: Jean Stenehjem – For current information, visit ourwebsite at www.csub.edu/history/; for history program forms, schedules, and information, see the rack outside the History Department Office.FROM THE CHAIRby Miriam Raub VivianWe’ve completed yet another year in the History Department—but nothing else about this year resembles any other of the 30 yearsI’ve been at CSUB. Certainly none of us anticipated such adisruption to our academic semester as the COVID-19 pandemic,and even 2½ months since the suspension of face-to-faceinstruction, we are still figuring out how to manage education inthe age of the coronavirus. It has been extremely difficult for manyof our students and at least much more challenging than usual foreveryone. (See the reflection in this newsletter by graduate studentJennifer Paulsen.)Nevertheless, on behalf of all my colleagues, I want tocongratulate all our newest graduates. Their names are listed in thenewsletter, as are those who have completed their MA degrees (bythesis or exams). In addition, highlighted on page 1, are ourdepartment’s annual award winners—both outstanding graduatesand scholarship winners—all of whom deserve the specialrecognition we normally shower on them at our department’sannual Honors and Awards Dinner, which of course we were notable to host this year. That is also where we initiate new membersinto Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society, but theirnames are at least listed in the PAT column in this newsletter,along with the three students who shared this year’s J.R. WonderlyMemorial Award. Congratulations to all of you!See From the Chair on pg. 6OUTSTANDING GRADUATING SENIORTransferring from Bakersfield College in 2017,Americo Prado has been a high-performingstudent and a vibrant member of the HistoryDepartment. Throughout his academic career, hehas pursued a broad range of courses, fromMexican-European Connections to The ColdWar in Asia, achieving a 3.89 GPA in 14 CSUBhistory courses in which he regularly drew high praise fromdepartment faculty. Dr. Chris Tang, who worked with Americo inthree different courses, regards him as “one of the most engagedSee Senior on pg. 6JAMES H. GEORGE SCHOLARSHIP AWARDArriving at CSUB with a long list of AP credits,Ivan León had, as of mid-spring semester, earned animpressive academic record here, with a 3.95 GPAin CSUB history courses (and an overall CSUBGPA of 3.92). Not surprisingly, department facultyhave high praise for Ivan’s work. According to Dr.Steve Allen, “Ivan is an exhaustive researcher withan unending curiosity who is willing to share his findings andenthusiasm with his professors and classmates. These traits, whenSee George on pg. 6MARSHALL AND ETTA MASTERS GRADUATESCHOLARSHIP AWARDJennifer Paulsen’s active involvement in theHistory Department and her stellar graduate GPAhave earned her this year’s Marshall and EttaMasters Graduate Scholarship Award, determined bydepartment faculty and funded by alumnus MathewZaninovich. Besides tutoring for our program,leadership in our chapter of Phi Alpha Theta (PAT, the nationalhistory honor society: Pres. and VP), and work in the GraduateStudent Center, Jennifer completed her History Practicum byproviding research assistance to Dr. Marie Stango, and she wrotean award-winning paper on the Women’s Club of Bakersfield, fullof primary source research based on campus archives—it won theUndergraduate Student Paper Award, part of the WonderlyAwards, in 2019—which she then presented at the Regional PATconference.CLIO AWARDJudith Carrillo has earned enormous respectfrom the CSUB History Department facultyfor her academic record and her contributionsto our program. In the 12 CSUB historycourses she has completed, she has earned animpressive 3.83 GPA—and done so with abusy work schedule to pay for her education.It’s interesting to note that in her last two semesters, Judith hasearned nothing less than an A- in all of her courses—taken from atotal of four different departments. Given her academicperformance in our program, the department faculty requested thatJudith be hired as a history tutor in Arts and Humanities. Dr. DoddSee Clio on pg. 6HISTORY & ARTS& HUMANITIESOUTSTANDINGGRADUATESTUDENTJaymee Hasty, originally fromFresno, moved to the Kern RiverValley in 2009 to work as anarcheologist, while pursuing herstudies at CSUB, where she enjoyedtaking courses ranging from theOttomans in the Mediterranean tothe history of the PortugueseEmpire Overseas. She loved beingpart of the history program, whereshe earned a 3.96 GPA: “I tookgreat pleasure in seminars. I alwayslooked forward to reading theSee MA on pg. 7In This IssueFrom the Chair1Outstanding Senior1Master Scholarship1George Scholarship1Clio1Outstanding MA Student12020 Graduates2Welcome Kiran Garcha2Navigating Academics2Coffee and Conversation2Department Leadership3History Forum3History Research Group3New Course in Spring3History Social Group3Contribute to Our Majors 3Phi Alpha Theta News4Alumni News4What is Fully Online4Faculty News5Public History Institute52020-2021 Schedules.7/8

CONGRATUALATIONS TO THE GRADUATES OF 2020!*denotes Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society memberMoises Aguas Janet Angel Jasmine ArmstrongSelestino BautistaAmanda Brummer(MA)* Dominic CaccameseMarcussen CamarenaLizeth Carbajal Judith Carrillo* John Celis Nataly Cortez* DanielCrisanto Donato Cruz(MA)* Christian Cuevas Eileen Diaz* Gary DiazJosh Dunbach Tyler Evans Scott Ezell* Robert Greenwood Ana GuevaraJaymee Hasty(MA) Claris Herrera Elliott Hopkins* Emily JohnstonMason Ladd Catalina Lemus Drew Medeiros Calloway Morphis TrevorMurg Valeria Padilla Carolina Perez-Arroyo Charlie Perreault AmericoPrado* Angel Ramirez* Jose Ramirez Jeffrey Ramos Myrna Reyna*Paula Reynal* Theodiseus Rodriquez Brittany Stank* Lorenzo VargasTristan Weiser*GRADUATE PROGRAM DEGREES: CONGRATULATIONS!Amanda Brummer passed her comprehensive examinations.Donato Cruz completed his thesis, “'America’s Newest City': 1950s Bakersfieldand the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape.”Jaymee Hasty completed her thesis, “In the Heart of the City: Prostitution andMoral Reform of Bakersfield's Red-Light District in the Progressive Era."WELCOME TO KIRAN GARCHA!The CSUB History Department will welcome its newest member this fallsemester with the arrival of Kiran Garcha, a specialist in AfricanAmerican History. She will be completing her doctoral dissertation(PhD) early this summer before joining our faculty in August. Originallyfrom California, as an adolescent Ms. Garcha moved with her family toWashington state, where she eventually attended the University of Washington inSeattle, completing a BA in American Ethnic Studies there. She then moved backto California to pursue an MA degree at UCLA in Afro-American Studies, beforefinally landing at UC Santa Cruz for, first, a second MA, this one in History, andthen a PhD. Her dissertation is now nearing completion: “Bringing the VanguardHome: The Role of Children, Home, and Family in the Black Panther Party.”While working on her doctorate, Ms. Garcha was also able to publish some of herscholarship, including an article in the Journal of African American Studies in2019 (September, pp. 1-15): “Children and Childhood in Black Panther Thoughtand Discourse, 1966-1974.”Last fall, Ms. Garcha was hired to teach African American Life and History atCSU Monterey Bay, and served as a Teaching Assistant at UCSC for sixteendifferent courses, giving her several years of pedagogical experience in a broadrange of courses, in addition to African American history, including the U.S.history survey, immigration history, U.S. labor history, the Civil RightsMovement in the U.S., and historical skills and methods, among others.In addition, Ms. Gracha participated in a summer residency program in the ChapelHill area (the Research Triangle) of North Carolina, last summer: “Objects andPlaces in an Inquiry-Based Classroom: Teaching, Learning, and Research in theHumanities.” She also has experience in digital humanities, having helped builda digital public humanities map as a California Humanities Mellon Public Fellowin 2018, as well as in museum/library exhibition work, as she co-curated “Picturesin Progress: The Black Panther, 1966-2016,” a McHenry Library Exhibition atUCSC. To round out her research and pedagogical skills, Ms. Garcha alsoparticipated in the Advanced Oral History Summer Institute at the Oral HistoryCenter at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.We are sorry that we will not all be together on campus this fall to welcome KiranGarcha in person. Students will at least be able to take a course with her, one ofwhich will be in her field of specialization: HIST 4230, African AmericanHistory. And we HOPE that everyone will have a chance to meet her on campuswhen the spring semester opens in January.Welcome to the History Department, soon-to-be Dr. Garcha!NAVIGATING ACADEMICS DURINGTHE PANDEMIC(Thoughts by Jennifer Paulsen, expressed in agraduate reading seminar reflection paper)One way this course challenged me had nothing todo with the course itself. It was the ongoingpandemic that held me and my colleagues mentallyhostage. The state’s stay-at-home orders were ashock to our system, and it was frightening to seethe world change so quickly. I was working in theGraduate Student Center when we received theorder that we would be leaving the campus and notcoming back until further notice, and the worry inthe air could be felt. That is the worry that we havebeen carrying through this semester. We haveworried about our families and we have worriedabout providing for them. I am thankful to havebeen able to work from home for tutoring and theGSC, but I am still filled with worry. With theclosure of the public schools as well, I was nowsuddenly my son’s teacher, and he had a lot ofquestions about what was happening to the world.It has been a difficult balance managing the newstresses and anxieties presented during theCOVID-19 Pandemic, and it resulted in a shift inmy ability to learn.For the latter portion of the semester, I tried to findquiet times to study. It was impossible. Even if myson was busy with a game or watching tv, my brainwas still processing what was going on. I spokewith several of my classmates, and they shared thesame feelings. They were also stressed, and theysaid it was impossible to study. This experiencehas, however, reminded me of the importance ofthe classroom setting. As a student, I value beingable to spend time with my colleagues, and I missthe conversations with my professors. We wouldgive anything to be worried about finding parking.This is a semester to remember, but it has affordedme a new perspective on how learningenvironments can be easily disrupted. Our learningenvironments are much more than showing up toclass. We rely on each other to get through thesemester and to make our discussions meaningful.I feel as though we took the classroom communityfor granted, but now we will have a newappreciation for it, as students and as future/currenteducators.COFFEE AND CONVERSATIONCoffee and Conversation will, unfortunately, notbe meeting face-to-face in Fall 2020 due to theCOVID-19 Pandemic. Dr. Wempe is looking intoalternative options and will contact history majorsvia email if a virtual substitute, perhaps via Zoom,can be offered. No dates are yet reserved, but if wedo go online with them, all of the events willobviously be “BYOT&C: Bring Your Own Tea &Coffee.”2