Hello Everyone--For twenty years, I taught a course on New York State
history at SUNY Oswego, using a variety of paperbacks but not text. This
meant that lectures had to carry much of the structure and chronology of the
course. This has both good points and bad ones. I also teach a course called
"Doing History Locally," which is a seminar based on finding and using a
variety of primary sources relating to local and community history. Students
always work on one community or another in New York State, using
manuscripts, printed materials (newspapers, local histories), oral
histories, architecture as evidence, quantitative material, and so forth.
This has been very successful and is also a lot of fun for me, since every
student's paper is different and since most contribute something new to our
overall knowledge. Copies of student papers since 1972 are in Special
Collections, Penfield Library, SUNY, Oswego. This fall, I am teaching this
course on the web, through the SUNY Learning Network, for the first time. It
is HIS 452/552: Doing History Locally, cross-listed for seniors and graduate
students.

Judy Wellman
Professor Emerita
SUNY Oswego
Historian, Historical New York

> From: Bob Arnold <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: "A LISTSERV list for discussions pertaining to New York State
> history." <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 12:17:53 -0500
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: courses on NYS history?
>
> Bill:
>
> A response from the College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York:
>
> we offer a New York State History undergraduate survey course, usually three
> of us teaching it in a semester, and the course is scheduled on alternate
> Spring semesters. Two of us who teach this course are adjuncts. There are
> usually 3 or 4 sections and there will be 25-30 students enrolled in each.
> There is no main text used, as nothing has been in print for a long time. I am
> reading Milton Klein's new book in anticipation of using it. Otherwise, each
> instructor has chosen various books and woven them together via lectures.
>
> We also offer a number of specialized one-credit weekend course in NYS/ NYS
> regional history, various books and lecturers who are adjunct faculty.  We
> offer two of these courses each semester, up from three per year. Enrollment
> is usually 15-25 students per course. Courses of this sort include (or have
> included):
>
> American Revolution
> Industrial revolution
> Pre-industrial New York
> the Palatine Germans
> architecture of New York
> Frontier Albany
> Victorian Albany
> New York in the Civil War
> the Anti-Rent Wars
> the Woodland Indians
> Planes, Trains and Automobiles, a history of transportation
>
>>>> [log in to unmask] 11/16/01 10:42AM >>>
> Colleagues,
> I am interested in knowing about any and all college-level courses in New York
> State history.
> I would like to have the following information:
> Name of Institution
> Course
> Person or persons that usually teach the course (if possible)?
> How often offered?
> How many students enrolled per semester or per year?
> Main text used?
> You may reach me off-list at [log in to unmask]  Thanks very much for
> taking the time to help.
>
> Bill Graebner
> Professor and Chair
> Department of History
> SUNY Fredonia