Kevin Terraciano ’85, M.A. ’89, Ph.D. ’94

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Kevin Terraciano teaches some of the largest undergraduate lecture classes in the UCLA department of history. Regarded as an innovator in the subject of indigenous peoples, he creates a seamless life of intellectual engagement that inspires undergraduates, graduates and colleagues alike.

Terraciano received his bachelor's degree in history in 1985, his master's in history in 1989 and his Ph.D. in history in 1994. The following year he was granted a position as an associate professor. His specialty fields are the history of early Latin America (16th through 18th centuries), native cultures and languages of Mexico, Mesoamerican writing systems and ethnicity and gender in Latin America and early modern Spain (circa 1500-1800).

His graduate seminars may be the most interdisciplinary that the history department has ever offered, drawing students from the fields of history, Chicano/a studies, art history, anthropology, ethnomusicology, literature and sociology. In addition to the courses he offers for credit, each quarter Terraciano offers two or three free seminars in the indigenous language instruction and textual analysis in Nahuatl (Aztec), and he cooperates in teaching Zapotec (Oaxaca). Additionally, he has also developed a grammar and vocabulary for Mixtec (Oaxaca) for those students who develop an interest in that language.

Terraciano believes that teaching does not begin and end in the classroom. He actively urges students to visit his office, where many times meetings become informal seminars. He additionally organizes study and review sessions for final exams. He gives considerable energy to both his graduate students and teaching assistants. “He is a supportive mentor to his teaching assistants,” writes one teaching assistant. “While fully explaining his pedagogic approaches to the course, Terraciano also encourages his teaching assistants to develop their own approaches to teaching and to utilize their own particular personalities.”

Terraciano demands a lot from his students, encouraging them to work their hardest. His teaching style is relaxed and personable. Students use terms such as “Socratic” to describe the experience of dialogue and exchange that takes place – even in large, full lecture halls. A former student describes his teaching style as an “intellectual conversation.”