The State University College at Oneonta offers a particularly attractive setting in which to study history. Within 20 miles of the college is Cooperstown, home of many museums, including an early nineteenth century museum village, headquarters of the New York State Historical Association, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A few miles east is Hanford Mills, a working example of a water-powered industry once critical to New York State's lead in economic development. In addition, many historic sites of the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys are within an hour's drive of the college, not to mention the rich history of New York's Capital District once known as Fort Orange, the center of fur-trading activities in the North America. Oneonta is centrally located, within 3-4 hours of major cultural and historical centers like New York City, Boston, Montreal, PQ and Toronto, ON.

Oneonta's history program is distinguished by a flexible curriculum and a rich variety of course offerings. The department members have a strong commitment to the discipline through scholarship and teaching. Fields of study include comparative and transnational history, African American history, Women's history, Athletic history, Eastern European history, Latin American history, Atlantic history, Ethnic history, Family history and Medieval history. Department members also offer occasional on-site, study-abroad courses that have students traveling to Lithuania, Ghana, the New York canals, Civil War battlefields, Colonial Williamsburg, New York City, Boston and a host of other locations.

Faculty scholarship is impressive. Numerous publications, conference presentations, and invited talks are produced each year by our growing stable of 13 full-time scholars. For example, recent faculty research has been published by Routledge Press and The Historical Journal, while papers have been presented at nationally and internationally recognized conferences such as The New York State History Conference, the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture (held annually at the National Baseball Hall of Fame), and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture's annual conference (just to name a few). What our faculty learns in the dusty archives or conducting field research in far-flung locations like Israel, Peru, England, Kazakhstan, Russia or throughout North America accompanies them in the classroom where students are exposed to the most current scholarship available. Each year, several History Majors have the opportunity to work with faculty members as Research Asstsitants, gaining valuable on-the-job training that they'll remember for years to come.

WHY STUDY HISTORY?

History is an exciting field that teaches students to think critically about the forces that shape people's lives in the present, the near past and the distant past. It enables one to understand current upheavals in the Middle East, central Africa, the Koreas or the Balkans by learning about their national or regional histories before the 21st century and what factors contributed to particular problems today. History assists students to comprehend the roles played by changing social ideas of ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality here in the U.S.A. or elsewhere by exploring the specific conceptual and institutional histories of these ideas. Similarly, students can acquire a new appreciation of technological change, for example, the internet or cinema, by examining historical developments in printing, telephone, telegraph, and television.

History students learn to evaluate conflicting accounts of events, conduct research, gather material from different sources, and develop one's own ideas and draw one's own conclusions. Training in history gives students "transferable" skills, making the history degree a good preparation for many professions and careers. Teachers, lawyers, journalists, writers & editors, librarians, business managers, and civil service workers all need to acquire and process huge quantities of information, evaluate meanings and/or significance, and communicate conclusions in clear and concise language. These are the kinds of skills which have enabled graduates of our history program to go on to quite varied and distinguished careers.

The history curriculum is extensive and versatile, enabling students to employ the discipline for many different purposes. The curriculum enables students to focus on the history of Japan, France, Great Britain, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, USA and many others. There is a major, a minor, and concentrations for closely related programs such as Secondary Social Studies.

For further information contact: Click Here to Email the Chair

Dr. William Ashbaugh
Chair, History Department
State University College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820-4015
Phone: (607) 436-3326