McBane, Margo
Lecturer AY-C, History
Preferred: margo.mcbane@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-5530
Office Hours
Wed. 9:30-11am or by appointment
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy, Honors in History, Univ Of Cal-Los Angeles, 2001
- Master of Arts, History, Univ Of Cal-Davis, California, United States, 1983
- Master of Arts, Education, Stanford Univ, California, United States, 1976
- Bachelor of Arts, Community Studies, Univ Of Cal-Santa Cruz, California, United States, 1974
Bio
As an historian, I am interested in working within the academy as well as the surrounding community. I am interdisciplinary in my approach to history. My interest in history formed through the lens of community studies, my undergraduate major at UCSC. After conducting field work with the United Farmworkers of America, I wrote my B.A. thesis, “Labor Pains: The History of Women in California Agriculture.” I then received a grant from the Youth Project to convert this thesis into a union organizing book for the United Farmworkers of America. I pursued a high school teaching credential and M.A. in Education from Stanford University. I taught high school social studies at Palo Alto High School and Carmel High School. Unfortunately Proposition 13 passed soon after I received my credential, resulting in the dismissal of all recent hires, so I ventured into the world of public history. I have worked in museums, public radio documentary production, non-profit history development, and municipal history projects (known as Cultural Resource Management). In one such project, I received grants from several foundations including the California Council in the Humanities and the Kellogg Foundation to produce an award-winning two part, two hour radio documentary for public radio, “Talkin’ Farmwork Blues: An Oral History of California Farm Labor.” I also served as the LA Program Officer for the California Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. My public history specialty is oral history. I completed my M.A. in History from UC Davis, with my thesis, “The Role of Women in Determining the California Farm Labor Structure: A Case Study of the Woman’s Land Army During World War I.” Subsequently I obtained an History Ph.D. from UCLA. I received honors in my field with my dissertation, “The House that Lemons Built: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Citizenship, and the Creation of a Citrus Empire, 1893-1919.”