News and Events
This page highlights some recent activities and accomplishments of faculty, staff and students in the Cal Poly Pomona History Department. The most recent news (updated Fall 2024) is at the top; scroll down and click on the expandable buttons for the highlights from previous academic years!
2024
In May 2024, The Teagle Foundation awarded $325,000 to Dr. Aishwary Kumar, Associate Professor of History. Over 36 months Dr. Kumar and a team of CLASS faculty (predominantly from the History Department) will redesign three history courses that fulfill the California State University system’s American Institutions and Ideals requirement: HIST 2201, and HIST 2202, and HIST 3340. These courses will be transformed from conventional lecture-based history and government surveys into seminar-style courses that will give students the opportunity to read common sets of core texts that have shaped the American political experiment. Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) will also launch a new minor in Global Justice, which will serve as its foundation for the grant-supported sections of HIST 2201/2202/3340 and provide a pathway through upper-level general education courses at CPP. Congratulations to Dr. Kumar!
Dr. Rachel Van (Associate Professor of History) and Dr. Alex Madva (Associate Professor of Philosophy) are leading a new initiative, the Digital Humanities Consoritum (DHC@CPP) that recently received the Provost’s/LaBounty Award for Emerging Technologies. The DHC@CPP is dedicated to creating a central hub for aligning efforts and resources in Digital Humanities (DH). Digital Humanities is an interdisciplinary field that explores technology as both a tool and a subject of humanistic study. DH practices encompass a range of activities from GIS and digitization to computational methods and the study of technology's impact on humanity, including artificial intelligence, algorithmic biases, media analysis, and misinformation. Emphasizing public engagement, DH leverages innovative platforms such as websites, podcasts, social networks, and video-sharing to communicate scholarly work. In addition to coordinating these efforts, the DHC will offer unique programming, including expert-led events, student showcases, and development opportunities for both students and faculty. Congratulations to Dr. Van and all participating faculty!
2022-2023
CPP History Lecturer Dr. Warren Wood was awarded the Richard J. Orsi prize for the best article published in the journal California History in 2022. Dr. Wood's article, “S. An-Sky’s The Dybbuk and the Process of Jewish American Identity in 1920s San Francisco,” appeared in California History Vol. 99, No. 2, May (Summer) 2022, and was praised by the selection committee as a "well-researched and fascinating case study of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century San Francisco’s small but vibrant Jewish community." Congraulations, Dr. Wood!
2021-2022 (and Summer 2022)
History Department faculty and students were integrally involved in the 2022 Annual Town & Gown Ride on March 25, 2022. Dr. John Lloyd, as the Chair of the Transportation Advisory Committee, coordinated the planning for the event, which was held after a three-year hiatus induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 70 students, faculty and staff joined in the ride, which took participants from Cal Poly Pomona to the historic Casa Primera in Pomona and back (a 10-mile roundtrip), in an effort to highlight alternative transportation improvements at CPP and in the surrounding communities. For the Poly Post’s account of the ride, which features interviews with Dr. Lloyd and History student Robert Reed ’22, click the following link:
https://thepolypost.com/news/2022/04/12/town-and-gown-ride-cycles-back-to-campus/
Dr. Eileen Wallis spent a month during summer 2022 in New York City as the Paul Klemperer Fellow in the History of Medicine at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. During her fellowship, she conducted research in support of her forthcoming book, California and the Politics of Disability, 1850-1970 (under contract with Palgrave MacMillan). The book explores the rise and fall of institutions for the disabled in California, with a focus on the infighting between state government and Los Angeles County over providing care for Californians with developmental and mental disabilities. Congratulations, Dr. Wallis!
Dr. Anthony Antonucci participated in a two-week professional development program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in Concord, Massachussetts. Dr. Antonucci was one of only 25 faculty participants (selected from across the country) to take part in the prestigious summer institute, which was entitled “Transcendentalism and Social Reform: Activism and Community Engagement in the Age of Thoreau.” Congratulations, Dr. Antonucci!
The History Department is delighted to welcome a new professor! Dr. Aishwary Kumar arrives at CPP as the Shri Shantinath Endowed Chair in Ahimsa Studies and the new Director of the Ahimsa Center, replacing Dr. Tara Sethia (now an Emeritus Professor) in that latter position. Dr. Kumar received his Ph.D. at Trinity College, University of Cambridge; he then taught at Stanford University for 11 years, and has been an invited fellow at academic institutions in New York, Austria, and Germany. Dr. Kumar is an intellectual historian and political theorist whose work spans South Asian, European, and American political thought and the global life of democratic rights. Primarily concerned in his work with the relationship between political violence and inequality, his writings – such as his 2015 book, Radical Equality: Ambedkar, Gandhi and the Risk of Democracy (Stanford University Press) – and his courses examine visions of human freedom and political faith that have come to most decisively shape the planetary present and alter the modern social contract. During the 2022-23 academic year at CPP, Dr. Kumar will offer courses on “What is Freedom?” and “Political Nonviolence and Democratic Life.” Welcome to Cal Poly Pomona, Dr. Kumar!
Dr. Amanda Podany’s new book, Weavers, Scribes and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East (Oxford University Press), will be published in mid-September 2022. The book has been described as “a unique history of the ancient Near East that compellingly presents the life stories of kings, priestesses, merchants, bricklayers, and others.” Bravo, Dr. Podany!
News Archive
Here are some History highlights and newsmakers from 2020-21:
The History Department mourned the passing of Emeritus Professor David Levering (far right in photo) July 11, 2021. Dr. Levering came to Cal Poly Pomona in the early 1960s, and was one of the founding members of the Cal Poly Pomona History Department (as a separate department from the general Social Sciences). He helped engineer one of the earliest collegiate transitions (at CPP) from teaching "Western" history to "World" history. He was an active scholar and beloved teacher, known affectionately as the "Rev Lev." For a more extensive remembrance of Dr. Levering, see the obituary that appeared in Polycentric on July 16, 2021. (Photo courtesy of Dr. John Lloyd).
The Department welcomed Dr. Rachael Hill, a specialist in African history as its newest tenure-track faculty member in Fall 2020. Dr. Hill, whose research focuses on medical pluralism in 20th-century Ethiopia, comes to CPP after having taught for a year as a visiting assistant professor at San Francisco State; she completed her Ph.D. in African History at Stanford University in 2019.
- Dr. Tara Sethia was named the inaugural Shri Santinath Endowed Chair in Ahimsa Studies in February 2021. Dr. Sethia established the Ahimsa Center in 2003; ahimsa means reverence for all life, and nonviolence rooted in compassion and kindness. Read more about the ceremony here!
- Three more CPP History Faculty were awarded Emeritus status. Dr. Amanda Podany, Dr. Mahmood Ibrahim, and Dr. Tara Sethia all began the process of transitioning into retirement; all three will still be teaching courses during the 2021-22 academic year.
- Dr. Daniel Lewis became chair of the History Department in June 2021, after Dr. Anne Wohlcke concluded her service as chair.
CPP History alum François Tchoyi (class of 2016), who originally hails from Cameroon but is now teaching and coaching in Ojai, was featured in CPP's Bronco Digital Magazine in March. Read all about François's journey here!
- The CPP History Department and Dr. Eileen Wallis hosted two public history talks via Zoom during the Fall 2020 semester. On Oct. 22, the Department hosted Ira Pemstein, CPP history alum and Supervisory Archivist at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, for a Zoom discussion entitled “How to Become an Archivist” and “A History of Presidential Libraries.” And on December 3, the Department welcomed (via Zoom) Erin Bartram, the Social Program Coordinator at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Conn, for a discussion entitled “Public History in the Time of Covid-19." The recordings of the Zoom talks are embedded below:
(Pemstein - October 22, 2020)
(Bartram - December 3, 2020)
Dr. Zuoyue Wang was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the most influential general scientific organization in the United States. The title is one of the highest professional honors for a scientist or historian of science and is an honor bestowed on members by their peers. Read more about Dr. Wang's success here!
Two recent CPP history graduates received prestigious internships through the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). Guadalupe Rojas (CPP 2018) and Cecilia Contreras (CPP 2019) will both be interning at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. for Fall 2019 (September-December). Read more about their stories here.
Two CPP history graduates from the class of 2018 have received prestigious internships through the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). Amanda Martinez and Alejandro Martinez will both be interning at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. for Fall 2018 (August-December). At CPP, both Amanda and Alejandro participated in the Model Organization of American States program, led by Dr. Pablo Arreola. Please join us in congratulating Amanda and Alejandro!!
Photo 1: Amanda Martinez (at left); Guadalupe Rojas (HACU winner for Fall 2019) at right!
Photo 2: Alejandro Martinez (second from left)
During the 2017 summer, Dr. Mahmood Ibrahim successfully led a Fulbright Group Project Abroad (funded by a competitive grant awarded by the U. S. Department of Education) to Morocco. The group included educators from Cal Poly Pomona and neighboring secondary institutions, and gave participants the chance to study Arabic and North African history in Morocco.
Photo: The group at the Madrasa Bouananiya, Fes, Morocco, where the famous Historian Ibn Khaldun stayed and taught.
We are saddened to share the news that Professor Emeritus Bill Evans (pictured at far right) who taught Civil War and Reconstruction at Cal Poly Pomona for many years, passed away on October 1, 2017, at the age of 94. Dr. Evans, who began his career at Cal Poly Pomona in 1968, was a wonderful teacher, a nationally renowned scholar of Reconstruction, and a passionate advocate for racial justice. Those who knew him will miss him dearly.
Emeritus faculty (from left) David Smith, Stephen Englehart, Anthony Brundage, David Levering, and Bill Evans
Dr. Mahmood Ibrahim was awarded the 2016 George P. Hart Award for Outstanding Faculty Leadership at Fall Conference 2016, the annual year-opening set of events on the Cal Poly campus. This prestigious award has been given annually since 1996 to one faculty member at Cal Poly Pomona who has demonstrated exceptional leadership. Dr. Ibrahim is the second History Department faculty member to receive the award, after Emeritus Professor John Moore received it in 2007.