Featured Faculty

Red-baiting and the Birth of Modern Conservatism

By Loren Michael Mortimer - Did Herbert Hoover's hostile response to the unionization efforts of farmers in New Deal-era California sow the seeds of today's ultra-conservative politics? That's the question Kathryn Olmsted, Chair of the Department of History at UC Davis, seeks to answer in her new book.

Ruling the Russian Frontier: Ian Campbell's Knowledge and the Ends of Empire

By Rebecca Egli - In his first book, Assistant Professor of History Ian Campbell examines how imperial Russian bureaucrats and local Kazak intermediaries worked together to produce knowledge about the strategically important but isolated Kazak steppe in the nineteenth century. Campbell’s work highlights the fundamental weakness of the Russian Empire on its borderlands, and the limits of what it could know and do.

Gender and Colonialism: Corrie Decker

By Griselda Jarquin – In colonial East Africa, young women faced intense scrutiny in their personal and professional lives. Today, in a series of connected projects, Associate Professor of History Corrie Decker investigates how those lives played out in Zanzibar, Kenya, and beyond.

Recognizing Reconstruction: Gregory Downs

By Michael Haggerty – On January 12, 2017, President Barack Obama officially designated the first national monument recognizing the Reconstruction Era. Gregory Downs, associate professor of history at UC Davis, played an integral part in the development of that monument. Here, he explains how he came to be involved, and why he believes the project is so important.