Elizabeth Sine

Lecturer

History Lecturer, Elizabeth Sine

Fields

  • Twentieth and Twenty First Century United States
  • California
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Labor and immigration
  • Cultural Politics
  • Social movements
  • Surfing

Contact Information

Education

  • Ph.D. in History, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
  • M.A. in History, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
  • B.A., highest honors, with distinction in History, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA

Research Interests

Dr. Sine’s work examines the social and cultural histories of racial formation, imperialism, and global capitalism in California and the broader United States during the twentieth century.  Her recent book, Rebel Imaginaries: Labor, Culture, and Politics in Depression-Era California examines multiracial and transnational currents of grassroots politics in 1930s California.  Her current research examines the cultural politics of surfing and the making of the global surf industry during the twentieth century.  This work sits at the intersection of studies of U.S. and California history, relational race and ethnic studies, labor and working-class studies, and transnational American studies.

Selected Publications

Rebel Imaginaries: Labor, Culture, and Politics in Depression-Era California. Duke University Press,2021.

Selected Articles, Book Chapters, and Other Publications

“‘This is Like a Renaissance’: The Making of Surfing’s Oppositional Culture in the Age of Black Lives Matter.” In Waves of Hope, Waves of Belonging: Indigeneity, Gender, and Race in the Surfing Lineup, ed. Lydia Heberling, David Kamper, and Jess Ponting.  University of Washington Press, 2025.

“An Aquatic Love Affair, Forgotten and Remembered: Carlotta Stewart, Waterwoman in Turn-of-the-Twentieth Century Hawai’i,” Emocean 7 (July 2024): 138-147.

“‘Yeah, I Lived That’: Selema Masekela Breakdances on Water,” Emocean 3 (July 2022): 88-105.

“The Radical Vision of Si-Lan Chen: The Politics of Dance in an Age of Global Crisis,” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism 20, no. 2 (July 2016): 28-43.

“Grassroots Multiracialism: Imperial Valley Farm Labor and the Making of Popular Front California from Below,” Pacific Historical Review, 85, no. 2 (May 2016): 227-254.

“Another University is Possible,” in Teaching Diversity Conference Proceedings.  Edited by James Lin and Carrie Wastal.  San Diego: University Readers, 2011.  Co-authored with Another University Is Possible Editorial Collective.

Another University Is Possible.  San Diego: University Readers, 2010. Co-edited with Another University Is Possible Editorial Collective.

Selected Grants, Fellowships, and Honors

  • 2022 Humanities for All Project Grant, California Humanities
  • 2020  Humanities for All Quick Grant, California Humanities
  • 2018  Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA) Travel Grant
  • 2013-2014  University of California President’s Dissertation-Year Fellowship, University of California Office of the President
  • 2012-2013 Center for New Racial Studies Graduate Research Grant, University of California Center for  New Racial Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 2012-2013  Roosevelt Institute Research Grant, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
  • 2012-2013 California Studies Consortium Travel Grant, University of California Humanities Research Institute
  • 2012-2013  Humanities Research Fellowship, University of California, San Diego
  • 2012  North American Labor History Conference Travel Grant, Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA)
  • 2012 Selected Participant, Western History Dissertation Workshop, Autry National Center
  • 2012 History Department Graduate Student Research Grant, University of California, San Diego
  • 2012 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Center for Teaching Development, University of California,  San Diego
  • 2011-2012 Jack Henning Graduate Fellowship in Labor Culture and History, Fund for Labor Culture and History
  • 2011 Center for Global California Studies Graduate Fellowship, Center for Global California Studies
  • 2011 Bancroft Library Study Award, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
  • 2011 History Department Graduate Student Research Grant, University of California, San Diego
  • 2010-2011 Center for New Racial Studies Grant, in collaboration with Another University is Possible Editorial Collective, University of California Center for New Racial Studies,  University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 2010  History Department Graduate Student Research Grant, University of California, San Diego
  • 2010 Latino Studies Research Institute Summer Fellowship, University of California, San Diego
  • 2008-2009 Graduate Student Fellowship, University of California, San Diego
  • 2006 Graduate Student Research Grant, Pepperdine University
  • 2005-2006  M.A. Graduate Scholarship, Pepperdine University     
  • 2005 Phi Beta Kappa, Lambda Chapter of California, University of California, Santa Barbara

Teaching

  • HIST 201 United States History, to 1865
  • HIST 202 United States History, 1865-Present​​
  • HIST 208 History of California
  • HIST 322 Modern America
  • HIST 445 Topics and Issues in Comparative History: History of Surfing

Professional Affiliations

  • Labor and Working-Class History Association
  • Western History Association
  • American Studies Association
  • North American Society for Sport History

 

 

 

 

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