Life

David McIntosh is a recent PhD in History who got his degree from UC Santa Barbara. This fall, he will continue his involvement in academia as an Assistant Professor in New Mexico. Read on for a transcript of a recent interview with David.

By Graduate Division Staff
Tuesday, June 28th, 2022 - 12:46pm


David McIntosh is a recent PhD in History who got his degree from UC Santa Barbara. He began his graduate career at CUNY-Hunter College in Anthropology and then studied History at New Mexico State University before coming to UCSB. This fall, he will continue his involvement in academia as an Assistant Professor in New Mexico. Below is a transcript of a recent interview with Marketing and Communications Office Intern, Matthew Choi.

MC: Why did you choose UCSB for your graduate studies?

DM: Thank you, Matthew, it's lovely to chat with you today. I had a couple of choices for graduate school, and what ultimately helped make my decision was the people here at UCSB; the scholars that I was going to have the opportunity to work with, both in the department and elsewhere at the University. It really came down to a match between their research interests, where I saw my career going, and the type of questions that I wanted to ask as a graduate student. Overall, it's an absolutely beautiful, lovely place so from the first weekend I visited, it was a very difficult offer to say no to.

MC: When did you first realize your affinity for your chosen discipline? And why did you choose this particular field?

DM: I didn't stumble into the discipline of History until I was in a master's program in a completely different discipline: Anthropology. And during my time as a graduate student in New York, I became much more interested in the history of the discipline and anthropologists themselves, more so than doing anthropological research myself. So my master's thesis in Anthropology was more about looking at the history of the discipline, and instead of jumping directly into a PhD program in History from a master's program in Anthropology, I decided to pursue a second master's, one in History. And that is where I've more thoroughly gained an appreciation for the discipline, and was able to better refine the sorts of questions that I'd like to end up eventually asking.

MC: What inspired your research at UCSB?

DM: I've always been interested in race and ethnicity, and during my master's work in Anthropology I gained an understanding of how those had been studied scientifically. I also became aware during my time here at UCSB how those sometimes racialized studies became part of, or even foundational to the sorts of narratives that are presented to public audiences. As a public historian, I'm interested in the types of historical narratives that the general public consumes, and a combination of those led to my dissertation, which looks at Anthropology and representation of native and indigenous peoples on federal lands.

MC: Who are your mentors, and what impact have they had on your academic journey?

DM: Distinguished Professor of History Paul Spickard is more than simply a mentor. He's a guide, he's a friend, and I'm fortunate with my primary dissertation advisor. I have shared with him a relationship that is pretty extraordinary for PhD students. He, along the way, has been my biggest cheerleader, and a huge source of motivation and inspiration. And second, even though he's not part of the academic faculty, Don Lubach, who was my advisor when I was president of the Graduate Association, has, for the past six years, been a role model, a mentor-I like to call him my spirit animal. Throughout my journey, both Paul and Don have helped guide my academic research in different ways, as well as helped coach me through deciding what my professional path moving forward was going to look like after my time at UCSB.

MC: What do you hope to achieve after grad school?

DM: I am exceedingly fortunate to have been offered a tenure track assistant professor position in New Mexico. I'm hopeful that I will be able to take many of the lessons that I've learned here at UCSB, and share them with my students there. And not all of those lessons came from the classroom either with me as the student or the educator, but with time spent with friends and colleagues both in the department and in other parts of campus. I hope that in New Mexico, and wherever my career may take me in the future, I'm able to continue inspiring and supporting students in the same way that my mentors here at UCSB have encouraged and motivated me.