Mark Brilliant - Department of History, UC Berkeley - University of ...

Mark Brilliant
University of California,
Berkeley Department of History Program in
American Studies 3229 Dwinelle Hall
#2550 Berkeley, CA 94720-2550
(510) 642-2118 (office) (510) 846-1084 (cell)
(510) 643-5323 (fax) mbrill@berkeley.edu
http://history.berkeley.edu/faculty/Brilliant/index.html
EMPLOYMENT
2004 - present Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Department of History Program in American Studies
2003 - 2004 Lecturer, Yale University
Department of History
2002 - 2003 Post-Doctoral Fellow, Yale University
Howard Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders
1990 - 1994 History Teacher, Lafayette High School, Brooklyn, NY
EDUCATION
1994 - 2002 Stanford University
Ph.D., History (received August 2002;transferred from School of Education to
Department of History in 1997)
Major Field: 20 th Century United States
Secondary Field: History of Education in the United States Dissertation Committee:
Professors David Kennedy (adviser/chair), David Tyack, and Richard White.
1985 - 1989 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
B.A., Political Science, May, 1989
PUBLICATIONS
Reimagining Racial Liberalism: A View from mid-Twentieth Century California," in Making the
American Century: Studies in 20th Century Culture, Politics, and Economy, ed. Bruce Schulman
(New York: Oxford University Press, under contract).

The Color of America Has Changed: How Racial Diversity Shaped Civil Rights Reform in
California, 1941-1978 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Honorable Mention, Frederick Jackson Turner Award (best first book published on some
significant phase of American history area), Organization of American Historians
"'Intellectual Affirmative Action': How Multiculturalism Became Mandatory and Mainstream in
College Curricula," in Living in the Eighties, ed. Vincent Cannato and Gil Troy (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2009), 98-124.
"Cross Road Blues: Civil Rights Paths Taken and Forsaken," review of The Lost Promise of Civil
Rights by Risa Goluboff, Reviews in American History 36 (December 2008), 639-648.
"'Without Anyone Noticing At All': The (Silent) Minority Rights Revolution," review of The
Minority Rights Revolution by John David Skrentny, Reviews in American History 33 (June
2005), 278-286.
INVITED TALKS / CONFERENCE PAPERS
"Commentator's Remarks," panel "Western Grassroots Activism and Politics," Western History
Association Annual Meeting, Oakland, October, 2011.
Presenter, "South Meets North: The Shaping of a New Narrative of the Civil Rights Movement,"
Northwestern University, May 5-6, 2011.
"Commentator's Remarks," panel "Comparative Black/Chicano Relations during the Struggle for
Civil Rights in the West," Western History Association Annual Meeting, Incline Village, NV,
October 14, 2010.
"'Widening' America's Civil Rights History," William R. Coe Summer Workshop in American
History, Stanford University,
July 22, 2010.
"UC and the Budget Crisis in Historical Perspective," panel, History Homecoming, University of
California, Berkeley, February 10, 2010.
"'The Color of America Has Changed': How California's Civil Rights History Compels a Rethinking
of America's Civil Rights History, from World War II to Bakke," Symposium on "Hubert Howe
Bancroft and Current Studies on California,
Mexico, and the American West," Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, March 5,
2010.
"César Chávez and the Tension Between Ethnic Bonds and National Boundaries in the Struggle for

Farm Worker Unionization," Teaching American History Grant for K-12 Teachers in the Mt. Diablo
School District, University of
California History-Social Science Project, August 2009.
"Barack Obama and the 'P' Word," panel, "Barack Obama and the Making of American History,"
Cal Day, University of California, Berkeley, April 18, 2009.
"'Intellectual Affirmative Action': How Multiculturalism Became Mandatory and Mainstream in
Higher Education (with Berkeley's American Cultures Requirement as a Case Study)," panel,
"American Cultures: From Concept to Classroom, 2009 and Beyond," University of California,
Berkeley, April 16, 2009.
"Barack Obama and the 'P' Word," panel, "Barack Obama and the Making of American History,"
History Homecoming, University of California, Berkeley, February 11, 2009.
"From Racial Liberalism to New Deal Liberalism," Conference in Honor of David M. Kennedy,
Stanford University, March
8, 2008.
Moderator, panel on Bill Boyarsky's, Big Daddy: Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics,
Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley, January 29, 2008.
"Fish In: Treaty Rights and the Fight for Native American Tribal Sovereignty," Teaching American
History Grant for K-12
Teachers in the Mt. Diablo School District, University of California, Berkeley History-Social Science
Project, August 2007.
"Rethinking Civil Rights History," David M. Kennedy Undergraduate Lecture, Stanford University,
May 17, 2007.
"Commentator's Remarks," panel, "Coalition Politics in 20th Century California" (Mark Wild,
chair), Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Stanford,
August 4, 2006.
"Carey McWilliams and the California Challenge to Racial Liberalism in the 1940s," Reform and
Revolution in American Culture and History conference, University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris,
June 2006.
"'What is Good for One Racial Classification is Not Necessarily Good for Another': Desegregation,
Bilingual Education, and the Tension Between Them," Teaching American History Grant for K-12
Teachers in the Oakland Unified School District, University of California, Berkeley History-Social
Science Project, June 2006.

"Carey McWilliams and the California Challenge to Racial Liberalism in the 1940s," panel,
"California and the Reconfiguration of National Civil Rights History" (Michael Katz, chair, and
David Gutiérrez, commentator), American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia,
January 2006.
"Examining 'Asiatic Racialization' through Asian Naturalization Cases and the Legal Campaign
Against the Alien Land Laws," Teaching American History Grant for K-12 Teachers in the Oakland
Unified School District, University of California, Berkeley History-Social Science Project, December
2005.
"California's Axes of Discrimination and Avenues of Redress," Institute for the Study of Social
Change, Center for the Study of Law and Society, California Studies Group, University of California,
Berkeley, November 2005.
"Dealing With Charged Topics in the Classroom," panel, Committee on Teaching, Office of
Educational Development, and American Cultures Center, University of California, Berkeley,
November 3, 2005.
"Commentator's Remarks," panel, "African American Communities in the Modern American West"
(Quintard Taylor, chair), Western History Association Annual Meeting, Phoenix, October 14, 2005.
"César Chávez and the Tension Between Ethnic Bonds and National Boundaries in the Struggle for
Farm Worker Unionization," Teaching American History Grant for K-12 Teachers in the Oakland
Unified School District, University of California History-Social Science Project, June 2005.
"Non-Traditional Treatments of Civil Rights Historiography," Stanford University, Department of
History, April 2005.
"'What is Good for One Racial Classification is Not Necessarily Good for Another': Desegregation,
Bilingual Education, and the Emergence of California’s Conflicting Avenues of Civil Rights Redress,
1970-1974," panel, "America's 'Racial Frontier': Struggles for Social Justice Beyond Black and
White in Post-WWII California (Neil Foley, chair, and William Chafe, commentator), Organization
of American Historians Annual Meeting, Memphis, April 6, 2003.
"'Your Rights End Where My Property Begins': Proposition 14 and the Eclipse of Racial Liberalism
in California, 1963-1967," panel, "Varieties of Mid-Century Liberalism" (Lizabeth Cohen, chair, and
Daniel Rodgers, commentator), American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Boston, January
7, 2001.
COURSES TAUGHT
Lecture Courses
The American West from the Annexation of Texas and the U.S.-Mexican War to the Rise of Ronald

Reagan and the Tax Revolt (History 126BAC)
American Education and the American Dream (American Studies 10)
Civil Rights and Social Movements in U.S. History: Struggles for Racial Equality in Comparative
Perspective, 1940 – present (History 139C / American Studies 139AC)
Undergraduate Seminars
California Dreaming: The Making, Unmaking, and Remaking of the Golden State from World War
II to the Tax Revolt (American Studies 101)
The Circle of "We" and Policy History in the United States Since the Civil War (History 101)
Race and Racism in the United States in Comparative Perspective (History 103)
The Meanings of America and the Development of American Studies, 1930s to the Present
(American Studies 110H)
Schooling America: Education in the United States in Historical Perspective (American Studies 110)
America's Post-World War II Civil Rights Movements: Struggles for Racial Equality in Comparative
Perspective, 1940 – present (American Studies 101)
Graduate Seminars
Historiography of the United States from Reconstruction to Reagan (History 275D)
Readings in Racism, Racial Formation, and Racial Liberalism (History 280D)
ACADEMIC AWARDS
Frederick Jackson Turner Award (best first book published on some signific
2011 phase of American history area), Honorable Mention Organization of American
Historians
Fall 2007 Humanities Research Fellow University of California, Berkeley
2005 - 2006
Mellon Library Faculty Fellow for Undergraduate Research University of
California, Berkeley
2002 - 2003
Postdoctoral Associate Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and
Borders Yale University
2001 - 2002
Teaching Fellow Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity Stanford
University
2000 - 2001 Dissertation Fellow Mabelle McLeod Lewis Memorial Fund

2000 - 2001
Dissertation Fellow Research Institute of Comparative Studies in Race and
Ethnicity Stanford University
1999 - 2000 Golieb Fellow in Legal History New York University School of Law
Summer
2000
Columbia University Oral History Institute Participant
1999
Visiting Scholar Institute of Governmental Studies University of California,
Berkeley
1998 - 1999 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellow Stanford University
1994 - 1998
Stanford University Department Fellow Stanford Department of History, 1997-
1999 Stanford School of Education, 1994-1997
1993 - 1994 Teacher of the Year Lafayette High School, Brooklyn, New York
UNIVERSITY AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
2011-2015 Organization of American Historians, Committee on Teaching
2009 – 2010 Graduate Advisory Committee Department of History
2005 – 2010 Board Member Program in American Studies
2006 – 2009 Graduate Admissions – Field Screener Department of History
2005 – 2008
American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch, W. Turrentine
Jackson Dissertation Award Committee
2008-2009 American Cultures Subcommittee University of California, Berkeley
2008 Bancroft Library Strategic Review Committee
2005 – 2008 Graduate Student Placement Committee Department of History
2007 – 2008 Early College Faculty Committee
2007
Ad Hoc Committee on "History as a Resource in Decision-Making"
Department of History
2004 – 2007 Faculty Athletic Fellow Men's Varsity Swimming
2005 – 2006 Bancroft Library Prize Committee
2004 – 2005 University Library Prize for Undergraduate Research Committee
2004 – 2005 Honors Committee Department of History