Stories

Prof. Mateo J. Carrillo presented papers at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting in Chicago on January 11, 2026 and the Latin American Studies Association International Congress in Paris on May 26, 2026. In March he signed a contract to publish his book manuscript with the University of North Carolina Press.

In September, Prof. Jeannette Estruth was awarded an Honorable Mention for the Urban History Association's Arnold Hirsch Prize for Best Article in a Scholarly Journal for her recent article, “The Roots of Inequality: California Agriculture and the Seeding of Silicon Valley’s Technology Economy, 1935–1965.”

Prof. Estruth served as a Visiting Scholar at the Rachel Carson Center for Environmental Humanities this past summer. Earlier this year, Estruth presented papers at a conference convened by the journal Labor at Tulane University in May, at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in June, and at the European Labor History Network Conference at Universitat de Barcelona later that month.

In February, Prof. Estruth took her Cultures and Ideas class to explore the SCU archives with Drs. Monica Keane and Bess Pittman.

Prof. Meg Gudgeirsson spoke on the Woman’s History Month panel hosted by the Female Empowerment Club at Valley Christian High School in San José.

In January, Profs. Hanania and Estruth visited the Santa Clara University Vault hosted by librarian Dr. Monica Keane.

Prof. and Department Chair Matthew Newsom Kerr presented a paper (remotely) for the Bi-Annual meeting of the Society for the Social History of Medicine held in Leeds, England, June 13. The title of his paper was “Where Were You Vaccinated?: Good Arms and Bad Arms, Pain and Exhibition in Victorian Culture.”

Prof. Barbara Molony chaired two sessions on “Gender and Agency in Wartime China” and “Communities of Care” at the American Historical Association conference in Chicago in January. In April, Prof. Molony chaired a session at the conference of the Western Association of Women Historians meeting in Sacramento, on “British Women’s History through Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century.” In July, she served as chair and discussant for three panels at the conference of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, meeting in Las Vegas, on “Health, Illness, Disability and Contested Histories;” “Asian Visions, Victimization, and Voyages;” and “Contesting the 'Unnatural Invisibility' of Asian Women in American History.”

Lecturer Matthew Specter had a chapter on “Realism” accepted by Cambridge University Press, for forthcoming edited volume, Geopolitics and the Intellectual Right, edited by Ian Klinke and Jean-François Drolet. Book review of Gerard Toal, Oceans Rise, Empires Fall: Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe (Oxford UP) published in a Review Forum on the book, in the journal Political Geography. Prof. Specter attended two conferences: International Studies Association in Ohio in March and International Network for the Theory of History in Tallinn, Lithuania in May.

Specter’s work has been cited and he has been asked to comment extensively recently by news outlets interested in background for the meanings of realism in foreign affairs. He was quoted and consulted for background by New York Times Sunday Magazine’s Linda Kinstler in January: “The Theory that Gives Trump a Blank Check for Aggression.” Also check out his mentions on the Ones & Tooze Podcast, which is Foreign Policy’s weekly economics podcast hosted by Adam Tooze and Cameron Abadi. Specter’s book was cited by Tooze as a major reference text for the podcast episode. The podcast has a wide reach, with over 227,000 followers.

Specter was also quoted in the New York Times's obituary for Jürgen Habermas, who died at age 96 on March 14th, 2026. Specter was fortunate to have met him several times, beginning in 2005. Specter’s 2010 biography of Habermas is still prominently cited in the latest round of Habermas studies, by the historian Philip Felsch and political theorist Peter Verovsek, both out this year. More coverage of Prof. Specter’s work can be found in this article.

Prof. Thomas Turley chaired a panel at the 119th annual meeting of the American Historical Association’s Pacific Coast Branch at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, July 29. The panel, entitled “Churches, Religion, Revivals,” explored the uncertain boundaries of orthodoxy and identity in medieval and early modern European Christianity. He has also just finished a chapter, “Papalists, Tradition, and Marsilius of Padua,” for a volume marking the 700th anniversary of Marsilius’s Defender of the Peace (Defensor Pacis), the master work of a radical and influential medieval political thinker.

On April 17, Prof. Nancy C. Unger (Emerita) was honored at the annual luncheon of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era at the meeting of the Organization of American Historians, held this year in Philadelphia. There, Professor Unger received the Roger D. Bridges Distinguished Service Award, honoring her contributions to the Society, including a term as president, eight years as book review editor for the Society's flagship journal, and for pioneering online community building during the COVID years.

Prof. Unger was also featured in The Gilded Gentleman podcast “Bad Romance: Divorce in the Gilded Age.”

Prof. Unger was also quoted by Ruth Marcus in The New Yorker concerning Clarence Thomas’s attack on progressives and progressivism.