Chair's Welcome Statement

Welcome to the Department of History at UC Riverside. Since its founding with the University in 1954, the Department has been dedicated to fostering a deep understanding of the past through rigorous scholarship, innovative teaching, and critical inquiry. We explore the complexities of human experience across time and place, cultivating an inclusive and collaborative intellectual community. By engaging with diverse perspectives and methodologies, we aspire to empower students, scholars, and the public to analyze historical narratives, challenge assumptions, and connect the past to contemporary issues. Our commitment to excellence in research and education inspires informed citizenship and lifelong learning.

On behalf of the Department, I welcome all to attend our public talks and for students to explore our classes. The Department features one of the nation’s oldest Public History programs, and its faculty and graduate students study a wide variety of fields from Chicano punk bands in 1980s LA to the sacks of Rome from the 3rd to 7th centuries to Asian American student protests in Seattle. I am an historian of Vietnamese and Southeast Asian history (pictured here holding a 6th century CE tuyère, part of an ancient iron furnace used by people on this Indian Ocean trade port along a mangrove-fringed river in Kedah, Malaysia), and presently I’m completing a book titled A Green History of Southeast Asia.  

The Department is committed to building a creative, positive environment for our students, faculty and staff, and we welcome all students at the University to consider majors, minors and any classes that spark their curiosity in the past! The Department avidly supports its undergraduates through the History Enthusiasts club – open to all students – and its graduate students via our History Graduate Student Association and through many grants and programs. It is an active partner with area museums, libraries and local history organizations, too; and our faculty and students are dedicated to research, teaching, campus and community service, and public outreach.

David Biggs
Chair of the Department of History