Dr. Sarah Seekatz

B.A., University of California, Irvine
M.A., University of California, Riverside
Ph.D., University of California, Riverside

Sarah Seekatz received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside with a focus on Public History and California History. Her research on Southern California’s date industry and its orientalist fantasies has been supported by fellowships from the Autry National Center, The Huntington Library, and the UC California Studies Consortium. Seekatz has been featured on CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera America, Atlas Obscura, KCET.org, The Gastropod Podcast, National Geographic’s blog The Salt, and in Eden, the Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society. Previously, she directed the Mexican American Pioneer Project at the Coachella Valley History Museum and worked as an intern in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History’s Latino Collection. In addition to teaching she serves as a historical adviser for the public radio project: California Foodways. Her book, Images of America: Indio’s Date Festival, hit shelves in February 2016.

At San Joaquin Delta College Sarah Seekatz is the chairperson of the Cultural Awareness Program and Latinx Heritage Month Committee. She also serves on the Women’s History Month Committee and is a Co-chair of the history department. Seekatz is a proud member of the La Raza Employees Association and the Undocumented Student Allies, as well as the Chair of the Student Empowerment and Cultural Events Committee of the Chicanx/ Latinx Faculty Task Force.

Courses Taught:

•     History 31, Mexican American History
•     History 17A, History of the United States Pre-Colonial through the Civil War and Reconstruction
•     History 17B, History of the United States Reconstruction to Present
•     History 37, California History
•     History 02A, World History to 1600