History Student Resources & Department Initatives

The Department of History at CSUF is a regional leader in digital, oral, and public history. Our students have access to a digital history lab, the Center for Oral and Public History, and a wide range of digitized primary sources. These resources and initatives are collected works from students and faculty that have proven to be a tremendous asset to history students both past and present. 

  • Center for Oral and Public History
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  • COPH Center
  • The Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History (COPH)—a component of the Department of History  and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Fullerton—embraces a three-fold mission. First, COPH collects and preserves the stories of distinctive individuals and diverse communities whose historical experiences have shaped the collective memory of Southern California, defined national and transnational identities, and reflected life in an era of globalization.
  • Second, COPH undertakes and provides support services for public history projects, particularly those designed to share oral histories with public audiences in Southern California and beyond. Third, COPH trains CSUF students in the research methods of collecting oral histories, interpreting these histories, and presenting important regional, national, and global stories to the public.
  • Ultimately, COPH seeks to combine the strengths of oral history and public history in order to build better connections between Cal State Fullerton and the communities—local, national, and global—to which it is tied.
  • Visit the COPH Website
  • CSUF Digital History
  • CSUF Digital History
  • The digital humanities initiative at CSUF officially launched in 2015 with the appointment of two new faculty in the Department of History to specifically advance curriculum in digital humanities and new media in history.
  • Since then, the initiative has floursished under the leadership of Dr. Jamila Moore Pewu to include: a long running Digital History Colloquium series and Keynote address; several grant funded digital public humanities projects, multiple cohorts of graduate students pursuing fully digital MA projects; two new courses in digital humanities theory and practice, and successful collaborations with CSUF's digital literacy librarian Colleen Robledo Greene, and other faculty and library staff.
  • Visit the CSUF Digital History Website
  • The Spanish Civil War Project
  • Spanish Civil War
  • HIST 435C The Spanish Civil War is a public history course created by Dr. Aitana Guia that takes the extensive primary sources of the Cameron Stewart Collection at Pollak Library out of the classroom. Cameron Stewart was a professor who researched the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the American contingent of the International Brigades.
  • Begininng in 2018, students from this course have created and posted several projects centered on their knoweldge and experience gained from this class. 
  • Visit the Spanish Civil War Public History Project Website
  • Contexualizing Racial Inequality
  • Contextualizing Racial Inequality Icon
  • REFLECTIONS ON THE PRESENT FROM THOSE WHO STUDY THE PAST
  • As U.S. focused historians committed to research and teaching that complicates and enriches current conversations about slavery, racism and racial identity, civil rights activism, policing, and public commemoration, we recommend these books, articles, films, documentaries, exhibits, projects, and primary materials. This list of sources is neither exhaustive nor conclusive, but a sample of meaningful works in the field. As a department, we plan to continue to use the strengths of our discipline to engage with difficult questions of inequality and racism in our classrooms and beyond.
  • View the "Contextualizing Discussions of Contemporary Racism and Inequality" Source ListPDF File
  • Resources at the Pollak Library
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  • Pollak Library Historic Photo
  • The Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton serves over 37,000 students and 2,100 full- and part-time faculty members.  Established in 1959, the Library was officially renamed the The Paulina June and George Pollak Library in 1998 in recognition of a $1 million donation received from the Pollaks.
  • The Library has also provided a dedicated page to find all resources related to History including Databases, Newspapers, Blog Posts, and much more. 
  • View the History Resources at the Pollak Library

Center for Public and Oral HistoryOpens in new window

Contextualizing Discussions of Contemporary Racism and Inequality

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