State University of New York College at Oneonta

-Katherine Scranton, Class of 2006, graduate student in public policy   

Junadrea Bates, PhD Candidate at The University of Texas at Austin

"During my time as a history major at SUNY Oneonta between 2002 and 2006, I took several history classes including History of New York City, The History of Slavery, Economic History of the United States, the City in America Culture and Colonial and Modern Latin American History and Borderlands History. These classes showed me that history was much more than names and dates. They taught me to think critically and analytically, instructing me in the craft of argumentative writing. From my first year at Oneonta, professors encouraged me to question the obvious and created classroom environments that fostered thoughtful discussions. Professors at SUNY-Oneonta also helped me delve into history outside the classroom. The summer after my sophomore year, Dr. Beal helped me obtain a summer internship with the Colonial Albany Project where I worked with primary sources. The next fall Dr. Rosenthal made me a teaching assistant for his Colonial Latin American class, where I got experience working with students. The next summer, I won a fellowship at the Gilder Lehrman Institute for Historical Studies and got to spend eight weeks in New York City conducting research in some of the city’s premier libraries and archives. During my senior year, I became profoundly grateful for the one on one attention that history majors receive at Oneonta. Dr. Beal and Dr. Rosenthal spent long hours teaching me to write grant proposals, going over sources and reading dozens of drafts of my senior thesis. Under their direction, I researched over 1200 police indictments and wrote a thesis exploring the intersections of economic fluctuations, violent crimes and concepts of masculinity in New York City between 1800 and 1860.

The skills I learned at Oneonta served me well when I entered the University of Texas’ number one ranked Ph.D. program in Latin American history. Since the fall of 2006, I have researched a variety of topics such as bestiality in Colonial Mexico, masculinity among Puerto Rican immigrants to NYC and the professionalization of the Buenos Aires police force. Giving talks at SUNY Oneonta prepared me to present my graduate research at several professional conferences. The hours Dr. Beal and Dr. Rosenthal spent teaching me to write grants aided me in winning multiple grants to fund research trips to Mexico and Argentina. Most recently, the interests I developed at Oneonta surrounding crime and Latin America has led to write a Master’s Thesis entitled Distinguishing Men of Honor: Police, Crime and Urban Space in Buenos Aires 1880-1910.

I am currently planning a year-long research trip to Argentina to complete my dissertation research. After conducting this research I will return to Austin write my dissertation and get obtain PhD. After graduation, I will become a professor and try to instill in my students the same love for history that SUNY Oneonta gave me. "

Meagan Butler, PhD Candidate at The University of Glasgow

"I am currently a Postgraduate student studying at the University of Glasgow working towards an MSc in Social History, under the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences. Though I am studying in another country, I felt well prepared for my courses from my fours years at Oneonta. I declared a major in History by the end of my freshman year and spent the remaining three years taking as many history classes as I could. The variety of courses allowed me to figure out my favorite subjects, which I ultimately realized was British history. Once I realized my interest I began to benefit the most from the department, because I knew what professors to take classes with, and how to always relate an assignment back to what really interested me.
            The two most beneficial courses I took at Oneonta were the Junior and Senior Seminars, whose topics were Historiography, and Imperialism and Popular Culture in Victorian Britain, respectively. The shift from topics classes to methods classes is a crucial part of a historian’s development, because it stops introducing topics, but rather teaches one to analyze them.
            Junior Seminar was a skills course to teach students the importance of historiography and source analysis. The main assignments that stand out were a primary source analysis, creating an annotated bibliography for our senior thesis research, and attending conferences, which we wrote reflections for afterwards. For my senior seminar we had to write a critical review essay, give a lecture presentation on one of the seminar readings, re-work our annotated bibliography and produce an outline, give an oral presentation on our thesis project and write our senior thesis. My final product, which was on Education in Imperial Britain, was the culmination of the Junior and Senior Seminar. In the end this paper became my writing sample for my graduate school applications.
            Since being in graduate school I have applied what I learned from my seminar classes in my recent courses. Learning how to read historical texts critically, whether primary or secondary, is an important skill I have had to use. Knowing how to analyze historiography, to properly site previous debates on the subject, is also required for every graduate level paper. I just recently gave an oral presentation on my Masters dissertation in front of lecturers and fellow students, and was able to recall doing the same in my Senior Seminar. Most importantly the seminar classes from Oneonta introduced me to an alternative form of education: sitting around a table and having open discussions on the readings. At this stage history classes are much more about applying one’s knowledge towards a room discussion, rather than listening to a lecture. I enjoyed history so much at Oneonta that it encouraged me to continue studying in graduate school. And everything I have learned since supports my decision."