History
Stephen Bohigian, PhD
Lecturer
Office: North Gym 141F
Email: stephenbohigian@csufresno.edu
Office Phone: 559-278-2153
Education:
Ph.D. - University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2019)
MA - California State University, Fresno, (2014)
BA - California State University, Fresno (2010)
Biography:
Dr. Stephen Bohigian is an historian of policing and crime in twentieth-century America and has been teaching in the Fresno State History Department since fall 2019. He teaches classes on several American history topics as well as research and writing. Dr. Bohigian has created two upper-division topics courses, one on policing and crime in American history, and the other on race and American urban history. Both are becoming permanent classes in fall 2027. In 2023, he won the Outstanding Lecturer award for the College of Social Sciences.
Since 2023, Dr. Bohigian has taught in-person in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) at Valley State Prison and Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla through Fresno State’s Division of Continuing and Global Education’s bachelor’s degree program.
When Dr. Bohigian is not teaching, he loves to read every day, hike and cycle, watch horror movies, and collect physical media. He also has a rescue dog named Bagel, who is cool and fussy in equal measure.
Fall 2026
| Course | Days/Times |
|---|---|
| HIST 100W - Intro to Historical Research & Writing | M/W/F 10:00am - 10:50am |
| HIST 101 - Women in History | T/Th 8:00am - 9:15am |
| HIST 101 - Women in History | T/Th 9:30am - 10:45am |
| HIST 101 - Women in History | T/Th 11:00am - 12:15pm |
| HIST 179T - Race and Resistance in Modern Urban America | M/W/F 9:00am - 9:50am |
Spring 2027
| Course | Days/Times |
|---|---|
| HIST 100W - Intro to Historical Research & Writing | T/Th 9:30am - 10:45am |
| HIST 100W - Intro to Historical Research & Writing | M/W/F 11:00am - 11:50am |
| HIST 101 - Women in History | T/Th 8:00am - 9:15am |
| HIST 101 - Women in History | M/W/F 9:00am - 9:50am |
| HIST 101 - Women in History | M/W/F 12:00pm - 12:50pm |
- Policing and Crime
- Mass Incarceration
- Urban History
- Race and Ethnicity
Articles and Book Chapters:
“Breaking the Waves: Press Crime Wave Narratives, Police Power, and the End of the
Great War in Los Angeles County,” Modern American History (published online June 2026)
“‘Not so Much Orwellian as Kafkaesque’: The War on Crime, Information Sharing Systems,
and the Limits of Criminal Justice Modernization and Surveillance in Los Angeles County,”
Journal of Urban History 48, no. 2 (2022): 381-398.
Book Reviews:
Review of Man with the Killer Smile: The Life and Crimes of a Serial Mass Murderer, by Mitchel P. Roth, New Mexico Historical Review 100, no. 3 (Summer 2026): 335-336.
Review of DARE to Say No: Policing and the War on Drugs in Schools, by Max Felker-Kantor, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (forthcoming 2025)
Review of Police Visibility: Privacy, Surveillance, and the False Promise of Body-Worn Cameras, by Bryce Clayton Newell, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books (September 2022)
Review of America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s, by Elizabeth Hinton, in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books (2021)
Review of The Punitive Turn in American Life: How the United States Learned to Fight Crime Like a War, by Michael S. Sherry, in Punishment & Society (2021)
Undergraduate:
- Race, Policing, and Incarceration in America
- Race and Resistance in Modern Urban America
- Crafting History
- Historical Research and Writing
- California History
- Women in History
- American History from 1877
Graduate:
- Introduction to Graduate Research and Historiography I & II