this week on the lectures and history podcast a lecture about christian nightlife in the

1970s this lesson focuses on evangelical nightlife and christian nightclubs in california it's taught

by california state university fullerton professor eric gonzaba he also shares his own

personal anecdotes and experiences throughout the lesson.

Thank you all. Hello, everyone. Hello to my class. Hello to the American Studies Department here at Cal State Fullerton. Hello to mom and dad. If they're watching at home, I love you very much. I am honored to get to speak here today to my American Nightlife students.

And also, this event is doubling as the fall 2020 grad faculty colloquium in the American Studies Department here at Cal State Fullerton.

It's a tradition here in the American Studies Department for faculty to talk about some of their present research

and to talk about some of the research strategies that we have, perhaps some of our research foibles as well. And as you can see from

my opening slide, I've already given away what my talk is actually going to be about today,

which is Christian nightclubs in California. And I know there are a couple of you out there

probably think those two words do not belong together, Christians and nightclubs. But since I prepared about an hour's worth of remarks today,

I am confident to say those words belong together at least one time in American history.

And so I want to talk about that a little bit today.

Before I begin, this is a week 12 for my American Nightlife students.

And American Nightlife is a course that I developed in the last couple years here at Cal State

Fullerton.

And this class challenges my students to change our timelines and to place evening at the

center of our analysis as scholars.

What our class asks, we can we learn about understandings America's nocturnal attitudes.

And while nightlife often conjures up associations with pleasure and escape from everyday life,

my students really dig into how night and nightlife has long been contested,

filled with work and play and identity formation and plenty of pain and controversy that can tell us more about American history and American culture.

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