Faculty News
Frank Biess recently co-edited a book (together with Mark Roseman and Hanna Schissler) Conflict, Catastrophe, and Continuity. Essays in Modern German History (New York: Berghahn Books, 2007). He also co-authored the introduction (together with Mark Roseman) and contributed an article on "The Search for Missing Soldiers: MIAs, POWs, and Ordinary Germans, 1943-45.” Biess also received an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship for 2007/08 and part of 2008/09.
Robert Edelman was a 2006-07 recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
Joseph W. Esherick recently co-edited volumes on Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World (Roman and Littlefield, 2006), with Hasan Kayali and Eric Van Young. This project brought together UCSD history faculty from three field groups. Esherick also co-edited volumes on The Cultural Revolution in Historical Perspective (Stanford University Press, 2006) with Paul Pickowicz and Andrew Walder. This volume includes chapters by UCSD Chinese History graduate students Xiaowei Zheng, Dahpon David Ho, Jeremy Brown, Sigrid Schmalzer and Elya J. Zhang. In addition, Esherick co-edited volumes on Empire, Nation, and Beyond: Chinese History in Late Imperial and Modern Times - A Festschrift in Honor of Frederic Wakeman (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 2006), with Wen-Hsin Yeh and Madeleine Zelin.
David Noel Freedman's new book, What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls and Why Do They Matter?, which he co-authored with Dr. Pam Fox Kuhlken, was published in March 2007. He has also edited several books which have just appeared or will soon appear in print including: Exodus 19-40 by William H. C. Propp (2006), No Ordinary Angel by Susan Garrett (forthcoming), and Mark 9-16 by Joel Marcus (forthcoming).
David Goodblatt’s recent book Elements of Ancient Jewish Nationalism (Cambridge University Press) will be the subject of a panel at the Society of Biblical Literature International Conference this summer in Vienna. Also published was Volume IV of the Cambridge History of Judaism containing three contributions by Goodblatt.
Deborah Hertz’s new book How Jews Became Germans: The History of Conversion and Assimilation in Berlin is due out with Yale University Press in November. Hertz gave two Scholar-in- residence weekends, at Temple Beth Am in Seattle and at Temple of Aaron in St. Paul, Minnesota. She also gave local talks at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival, the Jewish Book Fair, for the Agency for Jewish Education at the Coronado Library, and in the series on Religion and Violence for the UCSD Center for Humanities.
Naomi Oreskes has been active in a number of projects related to the scientific basis for our understanding of anthropogenic climate change. Her work on the scientific consensus on global warming has been featured in the documentary film, 'An Inconvenient Truth', and it continues to be quoted by former Vice President Al Gore as he presents slide shows on global warming across the country. Oreskes has published Op-Ed pieces in major national newspapers (Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle) and has been extensively interviewed by reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Seattle Times, San Diego Union Tribune, Parade, and many others. In December 2006, Oreskes testified at the “Climate Change and the Media” hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Michael Parrish spent the past academic year in Finland as the Fulbright Bicentennial Professor of American Studies at Helsinki University and its Renvall Institute. In addition to teaching courses at the University and its law school on legal and constitutional history, he lectured at the University of Turku in Finland, the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and the University of Tartu in Estonia. He also lectured before the Supreme Court of Finland on the history of Supreme Court nominations and confirmations in the United States.
Paul G. Pickowicz was promoted to Distinguished Professor and named the inaugural holder of the UCSD Endowed Chair in Modern Chinese History. His most recent publications include Revolution, Resistance and Reform in Village China (coauthor, Yale, 2005), The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History (coeditor, Stanford, 2006), and From Underground to Independent: Alternative Film Culture in Contemporary China (coeditor, Roman and Littlefield, 2006). Recent articles include "Social and Political Dynamics of Underground Filmmaking in China," (in From Underground to Independent, 2006), "Zheng Junli, Complicity, and the Cultural History of Socialist China, 1949-1976" (The China Quarterly,
London, Dec. 2006), "Chunjiang yihen de shishi feifei yu lunxian shiqi de Zhongguo dianying" [Never-ending Controversies: The Case of Remorse in Shanghai and Occupation Era Chinese Filmmaking] (Wenyi yanjiu [Literature and Art Research], Beijing, Jan. 2007), and "From Yao Wenyuan to Cui Zi'en: Film, History, and Memory," (Journal of Chinese Cinemas, (vol. 1, United Kingdom, 2007). In Fall Quarter 2006 he was Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford.
Rebecca Plant has been named a recipient of the 2007-08 Hellman Faculty Fellows Award. Funded by Chris and Warren Hellman, the Hellman Faculty Fellows Awards are given to support the research and creative activities of promising assistant professors that show capacity for great distinction in their work.
William H.C. Propp was recently appointed to the newly created Harriet and Louis Bookheim Endowed Chair in Biblical Hebrew and Related Languages at UCSD. In addition, Propp recently published Exodus 19-40 (Doubleday), concluding his two-volume commentary begun in 1987.
Sarah Schneewind’s second book, A Tale of Two Melons: Emperor and Subject in Ming China, was published in September 2006 by Hackett Publishers. In addition, Schneewind has been awarded a UC Presidents Fellowship for research on a new project on public opinion in the Ming for next year.
Eric Van Young has been named Interim Dean of Arts and Humanities at UCSD. In addition, Van Young continues his archival research for a biography of Lucas Alaman; Van Young has also published the following books: La otra rebelion: La lucha por la independencia de Mexico, 1810-1821 (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2006); co-edited, with Susan Deans-Smith Mexican Soundings: Essays in Honour of David A. Brading (London: Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, 2007); co-edited, with Joseph Esherick and Hasan Kayali, Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World (Lanham, Md.: Rowmand and Littlefield, 2006).