The LA History & Metro Studies Group fosters the study and understanding of southern California history and the history of metropolitan areas more broadly. Through seminars on scholarly works-in-progress, book lectures, and panel discussions on contemporary issues facing southern California and American cities, our goal is to promote urban history scholarship as a means of enriching the field and informing policy-making toward a more just, equitable future for our urban regions.
Events
Fri. September 8, 2023 from 2:00-4:00pm – special event, transnational panel – Seaver 1 & 2
Suburbia and Culture: A Transnational Discussion
“Vivre la magie Disney: Disneyland Paris and the Suburban Ideal.”
Florian Freitag, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Comments: Eric Avila, UCLA
“Reading American Suburbs Through the Fiction of Richard Yates”
Jiri Flajsar, Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic
“Ethnicity, Sub/urbanisation, and Identity in the Fiction of British Novelists Andrea Levy and Bernardine Evaristo”
Pavlína Flajšarová, Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic
Comments: Catherine Jurca, Caltech
This panel welcomes scholar members of the EU Erasmus+ group, focused on “Urbanism and Suburbanization in the EU Countries and Abroad: Reflection in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts,” in conversation with LA scholars and the audience. Please note the special time, 2:00-4:00pm. All are invited to an informal gathering following the panel in the Seaver classrooms.
If you would like to attend, please RSVP here. Attendance will be capped at 40 people.
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Fri. October 20, 2023 – pre-circulated paper – Seaver 3
“Migrant Labor and the Global Logistics Industry: Comparative Case Study of Shanghai and Inland Empire Migrant Warehouse Workers in the 21st Century”
Alejandro Prado, Assistant Professor, Chicana/o Studies Department, CSUN
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Tues. January 23, 2024 – roundtable – in-person at The Autry Museum
** Tuesday 7:00 p.m., joint session with The Autry Museum of the American West
“Human Events: The View From Los Angeles, 1776-2026”
Virginia Scharff, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History, UNM
Josh Garrett-Davis, Curator of Western History, The Autry
Amanda Wixon, Associate Curator of Native History and Culture, The Autry
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Fri. February 23, 2024 – Seaver 1 & 2
“New Directions in Suburban History: A Roundtable”
Moderator: Lily Geismer, Professor of History, Claremont McKenna College
Matthew Lassiter, Professor of History, University of Michigan, author of The Suburban Crisis: White America and the War on Drugs (Princeton, 2023)
Becky Nicolaides, Research Affiliate, Huntington USC Institute on CA & West, author of The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in LA After 1945 (Oxford, 2024)
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Fri. March 8, 2024 – Dissertation Workshop – short, pre-circulated papers – Seaver 3
“Criminalizing the Cholo: Banishing Racialized Latinx Masculinities through Gang Injunctions in Echo Park, Los Angeles”
Kimberly M. Soriano, PhD candidate, Feminist Studies, UC Santa Barbara
“You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: The National Union of the Homeless and the Struggle for Urban Land, 1987-1993 and Beyond.”
Annie Powers, PhD candidate, History, UCLA
“Making the Pueblo in Los Angeles: How Latinx Indigenous Communities Navigate
Hybridized Racial Landscapes”
Michelle Vasquez Ruiz, PhD candidate, Dept of American Studies & Ethnicity, USC
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Fri. May 10, 2024 – Clark Davis Lecture – Seaver 3
“Sand Rush: The Beach in Twentieth Century Los Angeles”
Elsa Devienne, Assistant Professor of Humanities, Northumbria University, UK
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Image credit: Building being demolished, U.S. Post Office, Los Angeles, Calif., 1937, Dick Whittington Studio, USC Libraries Special Collections.
Recorded Sessions
Selected sessions from “#TIMESUP” to “Election 2018: The Political Landscape in LA and California” have been recorded and are available for viewing.
RSVP to a meeting
If you would like to receive announcements for these sessions, please fill out the form at the RSVP link above.
For Zoom sessions: We will include Zoom sign-in information in the e-announcement. Please sign in on time. Please keep your video on and your audio muted until introductions and/or discussion begins. For those new to Zoom, please watch this video on etiquette (aimed at a student audience, but mostly apropos): https://spark.adobe.com/video/IzGAneJs8BNJr.
For in-person sessions: All sessions will begin at 10:30am in Seaver Classroom 3, in the Munger Building, Huntington Library, unless otherwise noted. Please check e-announcements for exact location of sessions. Parking is free.
For more information, email the co-coordinators — Kathy Feeley, Oscar Gutierrez, Becky Nicolaides, Caitlin Parker, and Andrea Thabet — at LA.History.Group@gmail.com.
Archived Schedules
Schedules by year as well as a cumulative list of all presenters and papers are available for review.