The following is an article written for TheConversation.com by UCSB Geography Professor Emerita Catherine Gautier and posted on September 10, 2015 with the title above: As the summer ends, heat is dominating the meteorological landscape, with the warmest month ever recorded and the drought continuing unabated in California. At the same time, it is clear that an El Niño is building that is expected to culminate in the fall and last...
Read MoreIn a recent National Public Radio history article with the title above, Richard Gonzales comments: “While Pope Francis is in Washington this week, he is scheduled to canonize Junipero Serra — an 18th century Spanish missionary and the founder of California’s storied network of missions. The canonization of Serra prompts a robust debate: Was the Franciscan friar, as the pontiff proclaims, a saint? Or was he, as many Native...
Read MoreGeography began as a “program” at UCSB under the direction of the Dean of College of Letters and Science in 1963, and by 1964, the program had two full-time instructors and offered five classes. A Geography major was established in February 1966, and its first BA was granted in June, but Geography didn’t become an autonomous department until 1974. The following is a description of those turbulent days, taken from an...
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