Collection Guide
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History of Consciousness Board records
UA.078
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: History of Consciousness Board records
Creator:
University of California, Santa Cruz. History of
Consciousness Department
Identifier/Call Number: UA.078
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
2 half cartons
Date (inclusive): 1966-1994
Abstract: This small collection contains early
correspondence, essays, articles, and class material related to the History of Consciousness
program at UCSC.
Language of Material:
English .
Collection open for research.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by Regents of the University of
California. Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that
allowed by fair use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility
of the user to determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions.
UCSC Special Collections and Archives can grant permission to publish materials to which it
holds the copyright. For more information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy
on Reproduction and Use.
History of Consciousness Board records. UA 78. University Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Various campus sources.
The History of Consciousness program is an interdisciplinary graduate program in the
humanities with links to the sciences, social sciences, and arts at the University of
California at Santa Cruz.
The program was started in 1966 (the first year of the Santa Cruz campus) by small group
of faculty members, including the American historian Page Smith, philosopher Maurice
Natanson, culture theorist Harry Berger, Jr., and psychology professor Bert Kaplan, who
approached the University of California system-wide Graduate Council with a proposal for a
new type of graduate program for the new campus. According to the founding Chancellor of the
campus, Dean McHenry, they did not consult with him and the program was approved without his
input.
For over a decade, there were no direct faculty appointments to the program and all
faculty teaching in the program was done by members of established Boards of Studies (at the
time, the UC Santa Cruz equivalent of departments). This led to problems in budgeting and
program continuity, and coupled with the innovative interdisciplinary nature of the program,
it also presented challenges in placing History of Consciousness graduates in teaching jobs.
The appointment of Norman O. Brown as Professor of Humanities in 1968 was in part intended
to address some of these concerns.
Historians Hayden White and James Clifford were among the first faculty members directly
appointed to the department. White joined the faculty as Professor of History of
Consciousness and Chair of the Board in July, 1978, having been recruited by then-Chancellor
Angus Taylor to bring stability to the program. Under White's leadership, the program grew
in the early 1980's to become one of the intellectual centers of theoretical innovation in
the humanities and social sciences in the United States.
The History of Consciousness Department currently offers a Ph.D. program that operates at
the intersection of established and emergent disciplines and fields, acquainting students
with leading intellectual trends in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Intellectual
projects are problem based and draw upon diverse theoretical approaches.
[Administrative History excerpted from the History of Consciousness Department website and
Wikipedia entry.]
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains significant material from the early 1970's pertaining to the
running of the program, as well as reviews that were conducted in 1986 and 1994. There are
also brochures and information on class offerings.
Arranged chronologically.
Processed by Mathew E. Simpson, April 2013. EAD encoded finding aid by Mathew E.
Simpson.
MS 35 Norman O. Brown Papers.