Carla Pestana, professor of history in the UCLA College, has been elected to the American Historical Association nominating committee. She will serve as a member of the committee for the next three years.
Pestana, who holds the Joyce Appleby Endowed Chair of America and the World, is an expert on 17th and 18th century Atlantic worlds and U.S. religious history. Her teaching interests include the history of American religion and piracy and the early modern world. In 1987, she was recognized as the Graduate Woman of the Year by the UCLA Association of Academic Women. Pestana has also written several books, including “The English Conquest of Jamaica: Oliver Cromwell’s Bid for Empire,” and “Protestant Empire: Religion and the Making of the British Atlantic World.”
Founded in 1884, the American Historical Association is a nonprofit organization which exists to promote the field of historical studies. Incorporated by Congress in 1889, it is the largest organization of professional historians in the world. The association’s services include protecting academic freedom, developing professional standards, aiding in the pursuit and publication of scholarship and supplying services that sustain and enhance the work of its members.