John McCafferty
I received my master’s degree in English Literature at UCSB in 1968. I joined the faculty of SBCC in 1967 after two years of teaching in Porterville, California, and seven years at San Marcos High School in Goleta.
At SBCC, I was on the faculty of the English Department, and taught the range of subjects — composition, creative writing, English and American literature and poetry. I developed and taught the first course in film studies, and was an early advocate for a Film Studies Department. I left my tenured position at SBCC in 1978.
After selling real estate for a year, I joined the staff of the Los Angeles Times as a copy editor. I was there from 1979 to 1989, editing in the Metro, Suburban and Business sections, and contributing articles to the Opinion, Travel and Suburban sections.
I retired from the Times in 1989 to be a foreign expert at the China Daily in Beijing, China. I wrote a book, “Aliso School: For the Mexican Children,” published in 1994, about the years of segregation in Carpinteria elementary schools between 1920s and 1947 when the schools were integrated. From 1996 to 1998, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving on the faculty of the Birobidjan Pedagogical Institute in the Russian Far East.
In 1994, I returned to SBCC to join Professor Peter Haslund as an adjunct teacher for a Study Abroad semester in China.
John McCafferty, English Dept.