Margo McBane
Margo McBane, Lead Historian, Public Historian and Oral Historian
Margo McBane is an History Lecturer at San Jose State University and former Assistant Professor of Public History & Director of the Oral History Institute at the University of Texas at El Paso. She previously served as the Regional Program Officer for the California Council for the Humanities. She has directed public history projects throughout California for the past 35 years. In addition she served as regional director of the Central Coast Counties Oral History Network. She produced two public radio documentaries, "Looking Back: An Oral History of the 20th Century" (KCSB, Santa Barbara) and "Talking Farmwork Blues: An Oral History of California Farm Labor" (Nominated for a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award and aired and archived on the Pacifica Network, KPFK, Los Angeles); advised on the video documentaries "The Fight in the Fields: A History of Cesar Chavez," and "Talking Okie Blues: An Oral History Film," and served on the Advisory Board for The Getty Research Institute's "LA as Subject: The Transformation of Southern California." Margo McBane has a B.A. in Community Studies from the U.C. Santa Cruz, a M.A. in Education from Stanford University, and an M.A. in History from U.C. Davis. She received her Ph.D., with Honors, from the History Department at UCLA. Dr. McBane's work focuses on the History of California and the West, Comparative U.S. Ethnic/Race History, U.S. Gender History, U.S. Social, Labor and Agricultural History, as well as the Transformations of U.S. Rural Communities and Historical Landscapes.