Oral Histories

Historical Cartoon

The History of the History Department (and a few others!)

In Fall 2010, the History Club and the History Department embarked on the Oral Histories Project to tell the history of SUNY Cortland's History Department. Through oral history, our former colleagues can tell us about their lives, their careers in teaching and scholarship, and the changes to our department and campus over time. Students in our History Club host the interview and invite members of our campus to attend. Students also develop a list of questions for the interview. We hope that these interviews will become a living archive of SUNY Cortland's ever changing History Department. Occasionally, we will include videos of other faculty members outside the History department. These videos will also help us tell the history of our campus and faculty at SUNY Cortland. Thank you to the History Club and to all of you who have attended these events!

Our first interviews were conducted with Frank Burdick and Roger Sipher. Since then, the History Club has interviewed Don Wright and Sandy Gutman. We have also included a video of Henry Steck from the Political Science department. He gave an interesting talk about his experiences in postwar Berlin from 1946 to 1951 and answered some questions from members of the History Club.

We, of course, look forward to more interviews with our other distinguished emeritus faculty and staff!

Links to the interviews are found below:

Professor Emeritus Frank Burdick (Recorded November 15, 2010)

In Memoriam: Roger Sipher - Interview Highlights (Recorded Spring 2011)

Professor Emeritus Roger Sipher - Complete Interview Recorded Spring 2011)

Professor Emeritus Donald Wright (Recorded Fall 2011)

Professor Emeritus Sandy Gutman (Recorded Spring 2013)

Professor Henry Steck (Recorded Fall 2014)