College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Abstract As a causative factor in premodern history, it is hard to overrate the significance of cavalry, the organized use, that is, of skilled riders in mounted warfare. Yet the origins of cavalry have garnered scant attention lately, at least among historians of the ancient Near East. The reasons for this neglect are complex, but the essential cause is that military historians, once a plentiful group, now make up only a tiny band within the academy. Cavalry’s origins therefore remain murky. A prevailing theory, the “Early Steppe Riders Thesis,” supposes that good military riding appeared as early as the fourth millennium B.C. on the steppes of Eurasia. The minority theory (the “Iron Age Near East Thesis”) has cavalry evolving from chariotry in the Iron Age Near East. The present essay uses this larger debate as a springboard, but its focus is narrower. Its aim is to establish when, where, and under what circumstances cavalry rose in the ancient Near East. I exploit new finds and reexamine known evidence, both written and representational, from Assyria, Urarṭu, and the Syro-Anatolian Culture Complex (SACC). I argue that the big changes first occurred not in Assyria, or Urarṭu (as a minority of Iron Age Near East Thesis scholars have held), but among the Syro-Anatolian polities. After glimpses of Middle Bronze Age riding in Syria, true cavalries are manifest by the second half of the tenth century in SACC. If accepted, these conclusions could rectify misconceptions about the Syro-Anatolian Kulturraum as militarily passive and sterile and could provide a solider basis for judging the place of the Near East in the larger conversation about the world-historical origins of cavalry.

For decades, the dominant approach to lead poisoning has been to focus on homes affected by lead paint and to treat children who are already suffering from lead poisoning. This individualizing approach developed in the context of the defunding and deregulation of government agencies in the 1980s. In recent years, however, community-academic partnerships have reframed lead as an environmental issue produced by the development of the lead industry in the twentieth century and connected to overlapping histories of exploitation, discrimination, and inaction. These community-based projects have contributed to shifting research agendas (by emphasizing historical analysis and the study of the soil and dust), achieved policy changes (with a focus on community-level solutions), and built networks and solidarity with groups advocating for climate justice, tenant organizing, and food security.

This essay presents an overview of the ad hoc archival practices of

Rock Archivo de LÁ, an online archive of rock Angelino memorabilia,

and explores its applications for the study of public history. I discuss

how the materials in the archive reveal the spatial understanding and

place-making practices of their creators, Latin American immigrants and

US-born Latinxs, through which they assert their belonging in Southern

California and beyond.

Abstract This paper explores the connections between archival research and teaching as an adjunct faculty member and mother. The form of the essay is an example of the “I-Search paper,” a first-person account of the research process. In I-Search papers, authors start with the “search story,” where they explain their initial research questions, then describe their “search results” in detail, including the primary sources they found, and end with a reflection on the research process. This essay is two I-Search papers in one—bringing together the experience of reading about students’ historical research experiences with the author's own version of a research story. The essay is about teaching and research and their intersections, and especially what teaching has taught the author about research. The account of the individual research experience touches on the archival experiences of frustration and boredom, and the tension between wanting to find something in the archives and coming away with something else, and ends with a reflection on how our personal circumstances can impact our research.

This paper investigates the historical sources of soil-lead contamination in Santa Ana, California. Even though dangerous levels of soil-lead have been found in a wide variety of communities across the United States, public health institutions lack clarity on the historical origins of these crises. This study uses geo-spatial data collected through archival research to estimate the impact of two potential sources of lead contamination in the past -- lead-paint and leaded gasoline. It examines, through a combination of statistical and historical methods, the association between lead concentrations in contemporary soil samples and patterns in the evolution of the city's physical features, such as the growth of urbanized areas and the historical flow of traffic. We emphasize the value of historical data collected through archival research for understanding the sources of environmental lead, particularly leaded gasoline, which our study found to be the most likely and most prominent contributor to soil-lead in Santa Ana's environment. This research contributes to environmental-justice advocacy efforts to reframe lead poisoning as a systemic environmental issue and outlines the path forward to community-level remediation strategies.