Recent News
2025 Bancroft Prize
Apr 11, 2025
Congratulations to Professor James Tejani for winning the 2025 Bancroft Prize for his extraordinary new book A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles—and America, published by W.W. Norton.
The Bancroft Prize, one of the most distinguished honors for scholars of American history, is awarded annually by the trustees of Columbia University to works that demonstrate outstanding “scope, significance, depth of research and richness of interpretation.” Dr. Tejani will receive the $10,000 prize at a ceremony in New York in April.
A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth tells the story of the creation of the port of Los Angeles and the transformation of the San Pedro Bay “from estuary into the nation’s global gateway… the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere.” Dr. Tejani’s deeply researched narrative spans centuries and draws on political, economic, indigenous, environmental, and global history. As the Bancroft jurors wrote: “By returning the attention of historians to infrastructure, material objects, and logistics, Tejani opens our eyes to a new way of thinking about the trans-Mississippi West.”
Dr. Tejani was previously the recipient of the Ray Allen Billington Prize of the Western History Association and the Doyce B. Nunis, Jr. Award of the Historical Society of Southern California. His research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Huntington Foundation. He teaches courses on U.S. history, California history, and the history of the west.
Oscar Velasco-Vargas - AmeriCorps Member of the Year
Jun 9, 2021
AmeriCorps Member of the Year
Oscar Velasco-Vargas is the recipient of the 2021 AmeriCorps Member of the Year award. A graduate of Cal Poly’s history department, Oscar is completing his second year as an AmeriCorps VIP member in SLO County. He previously served at the Boys and Girls Club in South SLO County, and is currently serving at the Cal Poly Food Pantry with Campus Health & Wellbeing. Oscar has worked tirelessly to address food insecurity on Cal Poly’s campus by fostering relationships with local food producers, hosting monthly pop-ups at Front Porch, and revitalizing the pantry even during the pandemic. Oscar is often described as a role model by those who know him, and has gone above and beyond to demonstrate his commitment to food equity through his service.
Rebel Imaginaries: Labor, Culture, and Politics in Depression-Era California
Jan 5, 2021
During the Great Depression, California became a wellspring for some of the era's most inventive and imaginative political movements. In response to the global catastrophe, the multiracial laboring populations who formed the basis of California's economy gave rise to an oppositional culture that challenged the modes of racialism, nationalism, and rationalism that had guided modernization during preceding decades. In Rebel Imaginaries Elizabeth E. Sine tells the story of that oppositional culture's emergence, revealing how aggrieved Californians asserted political visions that embraced difference, fostered a sense of shared vulnerability, and underscored the interconnectedness and interdependence of global struggles for human dignity. From the Imperial Valley's agricultural fields to Hollywood, seemingly disparate communities of African American, Native American, Mexican, Filipinx, Asian, and White working-class people were linked by their myriad struggles against Depression-era capitalism and patterns of inequality and marginalization. In tracing the diverse coalition of those involved in labor strikes, citizenship and immigration reform, and articulating and imagining freedom through artistic practice, Sine demonstrates that the era's social movements were far more heterogeneous, multivalent, and contested than previously understood.
Black Market Business, Selling Sex in Northern Vietnam, 1920-1945
Nov 10, 2020
Black Market Business is a grassroots social history of the clandestine market for sex in colonial Tonkin.
History Associate Professor Recognized for Outstanding Career Achievements in Teaching
Sep 21, 2020
History Associate Professor recognized for Outstanding Career Achievements in Teaching.
History Professor meets with Cal Poly News: Ask an Expert: What is Juneteenth?
Jul 14, 2020
History Professor meets with Cal Poly News: Ask an Expert: What is Juneteenth?
History Lecturer writes blog piece on "We Charge Genocide", Tropics of Meta
Jul 14, 2020
“We Charge Genocide”: A Historic Indictment of Anti-Black Violence in the U.S. Is as Relevant as Ever Today
History Professor Publishes new book
Jul 14, 2020
History Professor Lewis Call publishes new book; Sexualities in the Works of Joss Whedon (Worlds of Whedon)
History Professor Earns International Book Prize
Feb 19, 2020
History Professor Molly Loberg was recently awarded the Hans Rosenberg Book Prize for her book titled “The Struggle for the Streets of Berlin: Politics, Consumption, and Urban Space, 1914-1945.”
Cal Poly Authors: Dr. Molly Loberg, The Struggle for the Streets of Berlin Politics, Consumption, and Urban Space, 1914–1945
Oct 1, 2019
Our next Conversations with Cal Poly Authors event is October 25, featuring Molly Loberg from History and Christian Anderson from World Languages and Culture, discussing her book, The Struggle for the Streets of Berlin: Politics, Consumption, and Urban Space, 1914-1945. Light refreshments, as always, will be served.
Date: Friday Oct. 25
Time: 10:00-11:30 am
Location: Kennedy room 111H
For more information oh the event: https://lib.calpoly.edu/events/the-struggle-for-the-streets-of-berlin/