California State University, Northridge
NEH Logo

 

The Spanish and Mexican Influences on California, 1769-1884

Visiting Scholars and Staff

We have assembled an extraordinary team of visiting scholars to deliver lectures and conduct curriculum-building activities for NEH Summer Scholars:

Dr. Josh Sides, DirectorDr. Josh Sides, Director, holds the Whitsett endowed professorship in California history at CSUN, the only such endowed position in the state of California. He is also the Director of the Center for Southern California Studies, where he directs research and programming. He is the author of numerous articles and the books: L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004); Erotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009); and editor of Post-Ghetto: Reimagining South Los Angeles (forthcoming)

Dr. Steven Hackel

Dr. Steven Hackel is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of Children of Coyote, Missionaries of Saint Francis, which won the five major book awards. He is currently writing Father Junipero Serra: California' Founding Father (forthcoming, Hill and Wang) and editing the anthology, Alta California: Peoples in Motion, Identities in Formation, 1769-1850 (forthcoming, Huntington Library and University of California Press).

Dr. Phoebe Kropp

Dr. Phoebe Kropp is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is the author of numerous articles on California and the American West, and the book California Vieja: Culture and Memory in a Modern American Place (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006). In addition to winning multiple academic awards and prizes, Dr. Kropp has presented her work to diverse audiences from the Huntington Library to the United States Air Force Academy.

Dr. Daniel Lewis

Dr. Daniel Lewis is the Chair of the Department of History at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a prolific scholar of Latin American history. He has authored numerous articles and the books The History of Argentina (New York: Greenwood Press, 2001) and A South American Frontier: The Tri-Border Region (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2006). He is also a renowned Chautauqua performer and a past contributor to workshops for K-12 teachers in Southern California.

Dr. Merry OvnickDr. Merry Ovnick is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at CSUN. She is the author the book Los Angeles: The End of the Rainbow (Los Angeles: Balcony Press, 1994) which won the Pflueger Award for Distinguished Research and Writing by the Historical Society of Southern California. She is the editor of the Southern California Quarterly, the past president of the Southern California Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, and currently serves on the Peer Review Panel of the California Cultural and Historical Endowment. She is also the author of numerous articles, most recently, "The Mark of Zorro: Silent Film's Impact on 1920s Architecture in Los Angeles," California History 86:1 (2008): 28-59.

Dr. Natale (Nat) Zappia Dr. Natale (Nat) Zappia is an Assistant Professor of History at Whittier College. He is the co-author of The Many Faces of Edward Sherriff Curtis: A Collection of Portraits and Stories from Native North America (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006) and the author of "The Interior World: Trading and Raiding in Native California," his Ph.D. dissertation which he is currently revising for publication. Zappia is also a Master Gardener and the former Executive Director of the Garden School Foundation, a Santa Monica-based non-profit which supports garden-based learning initiatives in low-income schools in Los Angeles.

Mark Ellison

Mark Elinson is a curriculum consultant and workshop leader at the International Institute at UCLA. Mr. Elinson was a social studies teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District from 1969 to 2003, during which time he was the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Social Studies Teacher of the Year Award, given by the California Council for Social Studies, and the O'Flaherty Distinguished Teaching Award, given by the Historical Society of Southern California.

Mary Miller

Mary Miller is the Co-Director of the UCLA History-Geography Project. In her thirty-nine years as a teacher a Middle School teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Ms. Miller won numerous awards, including Teacher of the Year (1989), Distinguished Geography Teaching Award of Merit (1991), and the Johns Hopkins University award for Outstanding Educator (1995). She currently co-directs TAH grants with the Glendale Unified School District and the Los Angeles Unified School District, while maintaining an active academic profile, presenting her work on curricular-development at annual meetings of the American Historical Association, the California Council for Social Studies, and the Huntington Library, among many others.

Kashia Arnold

Kashia Arnold is a graduate student at CSUN studying US economic history in the Pacific Rim. She has won several awards, serves as the editor of the graduate journal "Retrospect", and is the president of the Associated Graduate Students of History (AGSH). She will oversee administrative duties and will assist on-site during the workshops.