Department of History Content

Among the Academies: The World’s Historical Lessons

Jose Antonio Vadi — April 21, 2026 - 8:03am

Historian Andrés Reséndez’s career is, appropriately, an exercise in moving backwards through time.

How Did a Law from 150 Years Ago Change Voting Rights Today?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — March 30, 2026 - 1:53pm

Tati King and Toni Johnson both lost their right to vote after drug-related felony convictions. Even though both have served their prison sentences, the Virginia state constitution imposes a lifetime voting ban on anyone convicted of any felony unless restored by the state’s governor.

First Opera by Black American — Brought to Light by 51�ԹϺ�� Davis Historian — Gets Its Due

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — January 30, 2025 - 2:59am

Digitized version of original opera by Edmond Dédé uncovered in historian Sally McKee's research.

How Does Kumbh Mela Connect India's Present to its Past?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — January 16, 2025 - 10:23am

People from all walks of life in India are now gathering for the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Ganges River where it meets and mixes with the water of the Yamuna and Sarasvati. The Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, which takes place every 12 years, and is the largest, pulls together multiple strands of India’s deep cultural past and its status today as the second-most populous nation in the world with international influence and ambition to reach for the stars.

51�ԹϺ�� Davis Historian Wins Award for ‘Suicide by Proxy’ Book Made into Film

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — November 07, 2024 - 12:41pm

51�ԹϺ�� Davis Professor Kathy Stuart, author of Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany: Crime, Sin and Salvation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) has won the 2024 Natalie Zemon Davis Prize in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

“What to do about women (and sometimes, men) who gruesomely murdered children because of their own ‘weariness with life?’ This was a dilemma faced by elites in German-speaking lands during the 17th and 18th centuries,’ reads the description of Stuart’s book by award givers.

How Do You Take History from the Front Porch to the Streets?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — August 19, 2024 - 2:25pm

Dave Peters’ porch in West Oakland is a place everyone in the area knows, partly because of the décor, but mostly because of the effervescent, exuberant man who spends many days there, calling out to neighbors and passersby, letting people know that he is there and letting people know that he recognizes that they are there too.

How Do You Safeguard Endangered Human Rights History in Peru?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — July 09, 2024 - 12:40pm

Research team led by Charles Walker, professor of history at 51�ԹϺ�� Davis, (not pictured) and Ruth Borja Santa Cruz (center), professor of history at the University of San Marcos in Peru, digitizes documents in Peru. (Courtesy/ Charles Walker)

The Conversation: Does History Matter in Deciding Supreme Court Cases?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — June 21, 2024 - 8:26am

Historians are coming out of the archives and sharing their expertise. (Getty Images)

51�ԹϺ�� Davis Historian’s Research of Child Murder in Early Modern Europe Featured in Period Film

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — February 16, 2024 - 8:30am

Kathy Stuart, associate professor of history, delights in crime and deviance — her research specialty. The University of California, Davis, academic’s enthusiasm for blood, heinous crimes and the various ways people kill each other hovers somewhere between an obsessed prosecutor and a delighted child who takes in horror movies on Saturday afternoons.

The Conversation: Is Ukraine Adapting the Ancient Practice of Trophy Displays?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — September 09, 2022 - 9:38am

As Ukraine prepared to celebrate its independence day even while its military forces battled a monthslong Russian invasion, government officials assembled a grandiose, yet gruesome, display on Khreshchatyk, the main street of Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv.