UCSB Undergraduate Journal of History

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UCSB Undergraduate Journal of History

We publish innovative historical research and other scholarly contributions by undergraduate student

05/06/2026

Unprecedented events and circumstances allowed for Protestant missionaries to gain significant Hawaiian Government access within just a few years of their arrival in Hawaii. Within just a few decades, Hawaii was transformed by the missionaries in almost every way possible; government structures changed, Protestant Christianity flourished, literacy rates soared, and international interactions increased. This paper will show how the missionaries and the monarchy were both active players, trying to promote their own interests but also working together in genuine friendship and mutual respect at times. The monarchy was not passive, they deliberated the costs and benefits of allowing for missionary influence in Hawaii.

04/06/2026

Interested in local history? Read Cole Simon’s: The Rise and Fall of Boomtowns: Re*****on-UMC in Bridgeport during WWI. It journeys the story of Re*****on Arms Corporation and how it build Bridgeport into a ‘boomtown’ during WWI. From a surge of immigration, to the emergence of women in the workforce, and all the socialist ideas spurring clashes between corporations and workers’ unions, Bridgeport was a hotbed for all things involving the US war effort throughout the 1910s. Just as much as companies like Re*****on-UMC built this boomtown, ripple effects from this era are felt to this day by the departure of the company in the 70s/80s, following the national trend of ‘white flight’ to the suburbs and manufacturing jobs moving abroad. By understanding this story, the hope is that Bridgeport will see a revival built upon the legacies of its predecessors.

30/05/2026

The Guatemalan genocide of the early 1980s is illustrated through the lived experiences of Maya communities targeted by Efraín Ríos Montt and previous leaders. Drawing on survivor testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation and human rights reports, this paper illustrates how state violence served as both a counterinsurgency tactic and a racialized project. By emphasizing Mayan voices, many of whom witnessed the destruction of villages, the disappearance of relatives, and the systematic use of terror, this paper highlights the human dimensions of a conflict too often reduced to Cold War narratives. Through a microhistorical approach grounded in personal testimony, this paper argues that the genocide cannot be understood solely as a response to insurgency. Instead, it reflects the convergence of racial ideology, military doctrine, and long-standing structures of exclusion that shaped Guatemala’s national identity. In tracing these forces, this paper illustrates the enduring legacies of the genocide and the ongoing struggles for justice and historical memory.

23/05/2026

Previous literature has diminished the role of motherhood in female political activism. However, South Africa’s high fertility rate, averaging six children per woman in 1950, suggests that most women were mothers during apartheid. This paper demonstrates that motherhood was a powerful force that not only acted as a political tool for women to criticize apartheid but also as fuel driving women’s resistance, reshaping the meaning of motherhood as a source of strength for female activists rather than as an impediment.

21/05/2026

What is the true core nature of the Hereford Mappa Mundi beneath previous scholars’ binary depictions?

We’re excited to feature Daniel Bethke’s analysis of this question as he explores the map as an zwischenform (in-between form), a hybrid form situated between schematic diagram and narrative image (bild) using the narrative lens of Aristotle’s theory of visual duality and Andrea Worm’s conceptual framework of bild and diagram.

🔗Read the full issue at the link in our bio!

20/05/2026

Advertisements targeted at intended parents and potential donors use women’s bodies to market a commodity—a female egg. Human eggs became commodified shortly after the first baby was conceived via egg donation, and must be understood as a broader shift in reproductive medicine. This shift, combined with the increased cost of education, pushes women to potentially commit to invasive hormone injections, surgeries, and the risk of cancer in exchange for financial compensation. As assisted reproductive practices gained traction in the 1980s, demand for donor eggs surged, and private agencies—not clinics— stepped in as middlemen. To meet the demand, unregulated private egg agencies thrived under limited oversight, and targeted college-aged women with ads that did not properly inform women of the risks. Companies, namely YourEggs, adjusted to the societal shift to social media through campaigns targeted at college-aged women by transitioning to a reel format accompanied by trendy audio. Through a study of media representation, legal records, donor databases, and company advertising, this paper will show that the egg donation industry perpetuates existing racial and economic inequities to create a commercial market that reflects broader patterns of reproductive stratification. To learn more, check out Tatiana’s research in the Undergraduate Journal of History!

13/05/2026

A lil peek at our Spring 2026 Issue. Coming soon. 📖

24/02/2026

Now published in the UCSB Undergraduate Journal of History (Fall 2025): “Hot Off the Ladies’ Press! The Optimization of the British Mass Media by the Late Victorian Women’s Movement, 1870–1899.”

This paper traces how newspapers, magazines, and books became tools for organizing, persuasion, and identity-building within the women’s movement—well beyond suffrage alone.

Available via the UGH website!

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