Paul Barba

Educational Background

• Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
• M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara
• B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara

Teaching Specialties

• The African Diaspora in North America
• Native American history
• Slavery
• Borderlands
• Colonialism
• Social history

Research Interests

Professor Barba's research focuses on cross-cultural violence in colonial North America. His first book, Country of the Cursed and the Driven (University of Nebraska Press, 2021), is a sweeping analysis of the slaving regimes of Hispanic, Comanche, and Anglo-American communities in the 18th- and 19th-century Texas borderlands. In general, he is interested in the broad spectrum of experiences of Native and African-descended people in North America, particularly in the context of expanding Euro-American colonial projects. As a social historian, Professor Barba appreciates how people and their communities make history (i.e., are agents of change) - and thus tries to avoid overly theoretical and teleological frameworks for understanding the past. On the side, he is a regular contributor to the Journal of the Civil War Era Muster Blog.