Friday, October 28
8:45 am – 2:00 pm
Teacher Professional Development Workshop, Hanford Mills Museum (limited to 24 participants)
In collaboration with ONC BOCES and New York State Archives Partnership Trust, Hanford Mills Museum will host a workshop on the NYSED Social Studies Practices. The focus of the session will be place-based education and utilizing primary sources of various types in classroom instruction. Open to all K-12 educators and related professionals. (Additional registration fee applies)
Noon – 5:00 pm
Registration open, Hunt Union, SUNY Oneonta
Exhibits Area open, Hunt Union, SUNY Oneonta
3:00-4:45
Oneonta Walking Tour led by Cynthia Falk (Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY Oneonta)
5:00 – 7:00 pm
Opening reception, Yager Museum, Hartwick College
The Yager Museum will feature the work of visiting artist, Jason Medicine Eagle Martinez. Mr. Martinez is an enrolled member of the Taos Pueblo Nation, and is a visual artist and teacher based out of Rensselaer, New York who has exhibited in venues and galleries across the United States. His work builds on the Yager Museum’s growing commitment to showcasing contemporary Indigenous artists, thinkers, and leaders alongside collections of historical and archaeological Indigenous objects.
Saturday, October 29
9:00 am
Registration open, Hunt Union, SUNY Oneonta
Exhibits Area open, Hunt Union
9:00 – 9:30 am
Breakfast, Hunt Union
9:30 – 10:45 am
- Hands-On Heritage: Working to Bring History to Life Through Museum-Community Partnerships
- Come ready to get “hands-on” with history in this interactive workshop and brainstorming session. The Hull Family Home & Farmstead of Western New York has found many ways to encourage collaboration in its diverse community. Volunteers at this small house museum use a combination of 21st-century technology, first-person interpreters, and living history experiences to engage visitors of all ages in the rich and complex history of America. Discover ways to develop effective programming between schools, museums, history professionals, and local communities to make the past relevant to modern life and meaningful to all.
- Presenters: Sarah Foels, Clarice Fromholt, and Gary N. Costello (Hull Family Home & Farmstead)
- Come ready to get “hands-on” with history in this interactive workshop and brainstorming session. The Hull Family Home & Farmstead of Western New York has found many ways to encourage collaboration in its diverse community. Volunteers at this small house museum use a combination of 21st-century technology, first-person interpreters, and living history experiences to engage visitors of all ages in the rich and complex history of America. Discover ways to develop effective programming between schools, museums, history professionals, and local communities to make the past relevant to modern life and meaningful to all.
- Uncovering the History of Racial Covenants in Oneida County, New York
- Racial covenants, racially exclusionary clauses in property deeds used for half a century before the Fair Housing Act of 1968 all across the US to deny homeownership to non-Whites, were inserted by the hundreds into deeds in Oneida County, NY, to create Whites Only subdivisions that left behind a legacy of residential segregation and its consequent inequalities. This presentation will demonstrate how the data is gathered, and how it can be organized, preserved, and digitally presented as a teaching tool to explain structural racism in our communities.
- Presenters: Jeff Miller (Utica University)
- Racial covenants, racially exclusionary clauses in property deeds used for half a century before the Fair Housing Act of 1968 all across the US to deny homeownership to non-Whites, were inserted by the hundreds into deeds in Oneida County, NY, to create Whites Only subdivisions that left behind a legacy of residential segregation and its consequent inequalities. This presentation will demonstrate how the data is gathered, and how it can be organized, preserved, and digitally presented as a teaching tool to explain structural racism in our communities.
- NYCDOE Hidden Voices Project
- Learn about the NYCDOE Hidden Voices Project, a companion to the NYCDOE’s Passport to Social Studies curriculum. The project was initiated to help NYC’s students learn and honor the innumerable people, often “hidden” from the traditional historical record, who have shaped and continue to shape our history and identity. It allows students to find their own voice, as they become analysts of the past and to make connections between to the present. Resources will be shared with attendees as we unpack the development process.
- Brian Carlin (New York City Department of Education)
- Learn about the NYCDOE Hidden Voices Project, a companion to the NYCDOE’s Passport to Social Studies curriculum. The project was initiated to help NYC’s students learn and honor the innumerable people, often “hidden” from the traditional historical record, who have shaped and continue to shape our history and identity. It allows students to find their own voice, as they become analysts of the past and to make connections between to the present. Resources will be shared with attendees as we unpack the development process.
- Rethinking Re-Interpretation at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
- How do scholars, stakeholders, and museum professionals use research and best practices to rethink and rejuvenate interpretation and programs at a small historic Dutch farmhouse in upper Manhattan? Hear and see a walk-through of the process and outcomes that offer visitors, students, and neighborhood members refreshed and challenging experiences of people, place, and stories. Consider ways that you and your students might collaborate with a historic house or site to bring challenging topics and themes of history to life.
- Katie Boardman (The Cherry Valley Group and Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY Oneonta)
- How do scholars, stakeholders, and museum professionals use research and best practices to rethink and rejuvenate interpretation and programs at a small historic Dutch farmhouse in upper Manhattan? Hear and see a walk-through of the process and outcomes that offer visitors, students, and neighborhood members refreshed and challenging experiences of people, place, and stories. Consider ways that you and your students might collaborate with a historic house or site to bring challenging topics and themes of history to life.
10:45-11:15 am
Break in Exhibits Area
11:15 am – 12:30 pm
- WAMS–Women in American History Curriculum
- Did you know that only 13% of the historical figures in textbooks are women? It is time to change that; it is time to ensure that our students see, hear, and learn about those whose voices and stories have been all too often dropped from the narrative. Women and the American Story curriculum strives to do just that, an ever expanding and diverse collection that is second to none. WAMS offers educators material that is easily integrated into existing curriculum to allow for another voice to be heard from history. In this session participants will see the WAMS material in use, leave with a plug and play lesson that aligns with NYS New Visions materials and NYSED social studies standards, as well as see the versatility of use for each resource as it can be modified to various age ranges and class types.
- Presenter: September Schecter
- Did you know that only 13% of the historical figures in textbooks are women? It is time to change that; it is time to ensure that our students see, hear, and learn about those whose voices and stories have been all too often dropped from the narrative. Women and the American Story curriculum strives to do just that, an ever expanding and diverse collection that is second to none. WAMS offers educators material that is easily integrated into existing curriculum to allow for another voice to be heard from history. In this session participants will see the WAMS material in use, leave with a plug and play lesson that aligns with NYS New Visions materials and NYSED social studies standards, as well as see the versatility of use for each resource as it can be modified to various age ranges and class types.
- United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Nelson and the Seneca Indians
- Scholars examining the career of Justice Samuel Nelson, who served on the United States Supreme Court from 1845 to 1872, have considered the jurist’s record on the bench to be mediocre. Despite legal scholars’ dismissal of Nelson, his role as a jurist in Seneca history was a major one, affecting two Seneca nations’ lands, treaties, and sovereignty right down to the present time. In just one decade during a tumultuous era in America, Nelson’s opinions helped shape Seneca existence.
- Presenter: Laurence M. Hauptman
- Scholars examining the career of Justice Samuel Nelson, who served on the United States Supreme Court from 1845 to 1872, have considered the jurist’s record on the bench to be mediocre. Despite legal scholars’ dismissal of Nelson, his role as a jurist in Seneca history was a major one, affecting two Seneca nations’ lands, treaties, and sovereignty right down to the present time. In just one decade during a tumultuous era in America, Nelson’s opinions helped shape Seneca existence.
- Thinking Big: Nelson Rockefeller and the Creation of the MTA
- Two significant MTA-Long Island Rail Road mega-projects – East Side Access and Main Line Third Track – will debut in 2022. Both trace back to 1968, when New York State unveiled the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a new agency which consolidated key transportation providers in the twelve-county downstate metropolitan region. Governor Nelson Rockefeller and his principal policy adviser, Dr. William Ronan, were the key people behind the MTA’s creation, arguably the most important 20th- century transportation event in New York history. The MTA was the mid-point in a 75-year process that saw New York City mass transit morph from 100% private sector to 100% public sector between 1932 and 2006. This presentation, and its associated paper, will focus on (1) how NYC mass transit slowly morphed from private to public sector before the MTA; (2) events between 1965 and 1967 that led to the MTA’s creation; and (3) a brief look at the challenges and successes the MTA has experienced in its 54-year history, focusing on the two mega-projects listed above.
- Presenter: Andrew J. Sparberg (Adjunct Lecturer, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies)
- Two significant MTA-Long Island Rail Road mega-projects – East Side Access and Main Line Third Track – will debut in 2022. Both trace back to 1968, when New York State unveiled the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a new agency which consolidated key transportation providers in the twelve-county downstate metropolitan region. Governor Nelson Rockefeller and his principal policy adviser, Dr. William Ronan, were the key people behind the MTA’s creation, arguably the most important 20th- century transportation event in New York history. The MTA was the mid-point in a 75-year process that saw New York City mass transit morph from 100% private sector to 100% public sector between 1932 and 2006. This presentation, and its associated paper, will focus on (1) how NYC mass transit slowly morphed from private to public sector before the MTA; (2) events between 1965 and 1967 that led to the MTA’s creation; and (3) a brief look at the challenges and successes the MTA has experienced in its 54-year history, focusing on the two mega-projects listed above.
- Alligators in the Sewers: NYC’s Greatest True-ish Urban Legend
- For generations native New Yorkers, transplants, and tourists have heard the rumor that the New York City sewer system is home to live alligators. Is this true, or merely an urban legend? This entertaining illustrated talk will provide a deep dive into the historical record to reveal how, when, and where this rumor began. Newly discovered evidence will show that this colorful piece of Gotham folklore is not merely a fable to spook the kids and the rubes; it has a basis in fact.
- Presenter: Michael Miscione (former Manhattan Borough Historian)
- For generations native New Yorkers, transplants, and tourists have heard the rumor that the New York City sewer system is home to live alligators. Is this true, or merely an urban legend? This entertaining illustrated talk will provide a deep dive into the historical record to reveal how, when, and where this rumor began. Newly discovered evidence will show that this colorful piece of Gotham folklore is not merely a fable to spook the kids and the rubes; it has a basis in fact.
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Lunch (boxed lunch will be provided), Waterfront Room, Hunt Union
1:30 – 2:45 pm
- The Oneonta “Black List,” Racial Justice, and K-12 Curriculum
- This session will take place at SUNY Oneonta’s Center for Racial Justice and Inclusive Excellence (Lee Hall)
- The 1989 Central Park 5 incident revealed the continuation of criminalizing and public persecution of Black male bodies without just cause or due process. Another incident, known as the Black List, took place three-hours north of New York City in September 1992 when an elderly woman in Oneonta, New York reported an attack and attempted rape by a person she described as having dark complexion and who may have cut his hand during the altercation. As part of their investigation, the police requested, and a SUNY Oneonta administrator provided, the names and residences of the college’s 125 black male students. Police used this list to track down Black men at SUNY Oneonta, questioning them and demanding to see their hands. In addition, Black men, and at least one Black woman, in the City of Oneonta were questioned. These actions sparked protests against racial profiling and a significant court case. The event brought national media attention to Oneonta and the issue of racism in policing. The Black List is noted as the longest litigated civil rights case in United States history. However, what is the Black List’s position in New York State history and within the K-12 history curriculums? This presentation will underscore the importance of implementing the Black List into the high school history curriculum as part of a larger discussion of racialized policing practices in New York.
- Presenters: Howard Ashford (SUNY Oneonta), Nicole Waid (SUNY Oneonta), Susan Goodier (SUNY Oneonta), and Will Walker (Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY Oneonta)
- Project-Based Learning and Collaboration in the Classroom with New York State History Day
- Are you wondering how you can make project-based learning a reality in your history classrooms? Do you work for a historic site or library and feel passionate about equitable education programs for our schools? Join us for a discussion on how New York State History Day brings students, teachers, local resources and historians together under a common goal to teach history in collaborative, creative, and complex ways that students actually enjoy. New York State History Day is a year-long project-based learning program focused on historical research, interpretation and creative expression for 6th- to 12th-grade students.
- Presenters: Lindsey Marshall (NYS History Day), Gretchen Sorin (Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY Oneonta), and Kara Jones (Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY Oneonta)
- Are you wondering how you can make project-based learning a reality in your history classrooms? Do you work for a historic site or library and feel passionate about equitable education programs for our schools? Join us for a discussion on how New York State History Day brings students, teachers, local resources and historians together under a common goal to teach history in collaborative, creative, and complex ways that students actually enjoy. New York State History Day is a year-long project-based learning program focused on historical research, interpretation and creative expression for 6th- to 12th-grade students.
- The Humanity of Heroes: Life Lessons from History—A Multidisciplinary Approach
- On September 11, 2001, mariners evacuated nearly half a million people off Manhattan Island in an entirely unplanned boat lift. Inside the burning World Trade Center towers, first responders and civilians took valorous steps to rescue others. Ordinary people taking selfless action amid extraordinary circumstances reveal the humanness of heroism. Teaching this landmark local and world history allows future generations to recognize the altruism that arises amid disasters. Jessica DuLong, independent historian and author of SAVED AT THE SEAWALL: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift, and Patricia Curry Radigan, a Brooklyn-based public and private school educator, team up to explore a multidisciplinary, K-12 curriculum covering rescue efforts at the WTC. Through lessons incorporating social/emotional learning, language arts, social studies, and STEAM along with history, students will be encouraged to recognize how each of us has choices to use the tools, skills, and ingenuity at our disposal to help others.
- Presenters: Jessica DuLong and Patricia Curry Radigan
- On September 11, 2001, mariners evacuated nearly half a million people off Manhattan Island in an entirely unplanned boat lift. Inside the burning World Trade Center towers, first responders and civilians took valorous steps to rescue others. Ordinary people taking selfless action amid extraordinary circumstances reveal the humanness of heroism. Teaching this landmark local and world history allows future generations to recognize the altruism that arises amid disasters. Jessica DuLong, independent historian and author of SAVED AT THE SEAWALL: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift, and Patricia Curry Radigan, a Brooklyn-based public and private school educator, team up to explore a multidisciplinary, K-12 curriculum covering rescue efforts at the WTC. Through lessons incorporating social/emotional learning, language arts, social studies, and STEAM along with history, students will be encouraged to recognize how each of us has choices to use the tools, skills, and ingenuity at our disposal to help others.
2:45 – 3:15 pm
Break in Exhibits Area
3:15 – 4:30 pm
- Museums, Historians and Social Studies Education: A Roundtable Discussion
- While the work of academic historians has informed museum interpretation and elementary and secondary social studies curriculum for decades, the relationship between the three has sometimes been disconnected. In this roundtable session, we will discuss the ways these three areas of the history profession can become more interdependent in the 2nd quarter of the 21st century.
- Presenters: Douglas Kendall (Yager Museum, Hartwick College), Sara Evenson (University at Albany and Hartwick College), Chad Anderson (Hartwick College), and Hunter Reed
- While the work of academic historians has informed museum interpretation and elementary and secondary social studies curriculum for decades, the relationship between the three has sometimes been disconnected. In this roundtable session, we will discuss the ways these three areas of the history profession can become more interdependent in the 2nd quarter of the 21st century.
- Clarissa Uprooted: Intergenerational Telling of Joy, Resilience, Resistance, & Racist Policies to Repair Harm
- “We were a village. They took the village away.” –Joan Coles Howard. Clarissa Uprooted is a living history initiative led by Black youth (ages 14-18) and elders (ages 70-98) to unearth stories of Rochester’s village that was stolen, but that refuses to be erased. Through an award-winning documentary, a museum-quality exhibit, a digital archive, curriculum and much more, these Intergenerational History Ambassadors aim to catalyze action today. When history books exclude or distort, oral histories can fill in, correct, bring life, texture, dignity and voice to the public record. Clarissa Uprooted began with the tradition of elders passing communal stories down to young people who asked questions. Tributes to joy, celebration and Jazz. Then the pain–of betrayed hope, of what was taken and bulldozed. Oral histories hold all of this at once–the joy and resilience, the racist policies and resistance, and lessons toward how we repair the harm.
- Presenters: Joan Coles Howard (Clarissa Street elder, former publisher, entrepreneur and much more), Sarah Adams (Teen Empowerment Youth History Ambassador), and Jennifer Banister, Ph.D., (Teen Empowerment Development & Collaborations Manager)
- “We were a village. They took the village away.” –Joan Coles Howard. Clarissa Uprooted is a living history initiative led by Black youth (ages 14-18) and elders (ages 70-98) to unearth stories of Rochester’s village that was stolen, but that refuses to be erased. Through an award-winning documentary, a museum-quality exhibit, a digital archive, curriculum and much more, these Intergenerational History Ambassadors aim to catalyze action today. When history books exclude or distort, oral histories can fill in, correct, bring life, texture, dignity and voice to the public record. Clarissa Uprooted began with the tradition of elders passing communal stories down to young people who asked questions. Tributes to joy, celebration and Jazz. Then the pain–of betrayed hope, of what was taken and bulldozed. Oral histories hold all of this at once–the joy and resilience, the racist policies and resistance, and lessons toward how we repair the harm.
- Taking Informed Action with Today in History
- Is today in history worthwhile? Discover the Library of Congress tool called Today in History to explore primary sources with the purpose of taking informed action. Participants will interact with primary sources that connect with Flag Day and Juneteenth, learn about Today in History as an effective and efficient tool to teach with primary sources, and reflect upon ways to prioritize taking informed action into one’s instructional repertoire.
- Presenter: Dana Faye Serure (SUNY Buffalo State College)
- Is today in history worthwhile? Discover the Library of Congress tool called Today in History to explore primary sources with the purpose of taking informed action. Participants will interact with primary sources that connect with Flag Day and Juneteenth, learn about Today in History as an effective and efficient tool to teach with primary sources, and reflect upon ways to prioritize taking informed action into one’s instructional repertoire.
5:00 – 6:15 pm
Reception, Waterfront Room
With special guest Don Wildman, host of Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum and the new podcast, American History Hit
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Keynote (Hodgdon IRC #3, SUNY Oneonta)
Join us for a screening of the short film, “Without a Whisper–Konnon:Kwe,” followed by a panel discussion on “Indigenous Women and the Fight for Women’s Rights in the United States,” featuring filmmaker Katsitsionni Fox (Mohawk), as well as her collaborators Wakerakatste Louise McDonald Herne (Mohawk), Michelle Shenandoah (Oneida), and Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner. Michael Galban (Mono Lake Paiute/Washoe), site manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site and the Seneca Art and Culture Center, will moderate the program. This program is funded in part by Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is supported by the College Senate Committee on Public Events and sponsored by the SUNY Oneonta Alumni Association with financial support from the Fund for Oneonta. It is free and open to the general public.
Sunday, October 30
9:00 – 9:30 am
Breakfast, Morris Conference Center, SUNY Oneonta
9:30 – 10:45 am
- Rewriting History: Against the Frame
- Historians love a catchy opening vignette, especially one that uses a character-driven scene to capture the central themes and arguments of a piece of writing. As a storytelling device, the framing anecdote is meant to engage a reader, grounding the historical narrative in a particular place and time. But, we’ve found, this convention limits the kinds of arguments historians can make. Drawing on our work together as an academic historian (Heather Lee) and a writer and writing coach (Helen Betya Rubinstein), our session will address these limitations, especially as they affect attempts to shift dominant historical discourse. We’ll argue that questions about how to write history are questions about history itself. We’ll reflect on the consequences of the conventional framing “anecdote,” which tends to position a single individual as a representative actor in historical transformation. A cousin to the “hero’s journey,” this convention of historical scholarship poses particular problems for historians seeking to challenge dominant historical narratives and expose the workings of power. We’ll also draw on the tools of literary nonfiction to present alternative forms and methods for historical scholarship.
- Presenters: Helen Betya Rubinstein (The New School/Independent) and Heather Ruth Lee (New York University and NYU Shanghai)
- Historians love a catchy opening vignette, especially one that uses a character-driven scene to capture the central themes and arguments of a piece of writing. As a storytelling device, the framing anecdote is meant to engage a reader, grounding the historical narrative in a particular place and time. But, we’ve found, this convention limits the kinds of arguments historians can make. Drawing on our work together as an academic historian (Heather Lee) and a writer and writing coach (Helen Betya Rubinstein), our session will address these limitations, especially as they affect attempts to shift dominant historical discourse. We’ll argue that questions about how to write history are questions about history itself. We’ll reflect on the consequences of the conventional framing “anecdote,” which tends to position a single individual as a representative actor in historical transformation. A cousin to the “hero’s journey,” this convention of historical scholarship poses particular problems for historians seeking to challenge dominant historical narratives and expose the workings of power. We’ll also draw on the tools of literary nonfiction to present alternative forms and methods for historical scholarship.
10:45 – 11:15 am
Break
11:15 am – 12:30 pm
- SUNY HistoryLab Planning Session
- This planning session invites attendees to participate in the conceptualization of a SUNY Virtual Laboratory: the SUNY HistoryLab. The goal of the SUNY HistoryLab is to connect historical research by SUNY faculty to broader historical learning and civic engagement in the state through two activities. First, we will convene a monthly online seminar that links our decentralized campuses better around the study of history. Second, we will develop a set of courses and internships that allow SUNY students to work with the Lab, SUNY faculty, and community partners. Together, we will develop digital modules that curate faculty historical scholarship effectively and satisfyingly for New Yorkers. Our guiding principle: rather than think of advanced historical research by SUNY faculty as utterly separate from community history and civic engagement in the state, we imagine it as highly relevant to—indeed urgently necessary for—the everyday lives of New Yorkers.
- Presenter: Michael J. Kramer (SUNY Brockport)
- This planning session invites attendees to participate in the conceptualization of a SUNY Virtual Laboratory: the SUNY HistoryLab. The goal of the SUNY HistoryLab is to connect historical research by SUNY faculty to broader historical learning and civic engagement in the state through two activities. First, we will convene a monthly online seminar that links our decentralized campuses better around the study of history. Second, we will develop a set of courses and internships that allow SUNY students to work with the Lab, SUNY faculty, and community partners. Together, we will develop digital modules that curate faculty historical scholarship effectively and satisfyingly for New Yorkers. Our guiding principle: rather than think of advanced historical research by SUNY faculty as utterly separate from community history and civic engagement in the state, we imagine it as highly relevant to—indeed urgently necessary for—the everyday lives of New Yorkers.
- Reflecting on Indigenous Women’s History: Keynote Follow-up Session
- This session will provide an opportunity to continue the conversation on “Indigenous Women and the Fight for Women’s Rights.” Historian Susan Goodier will facilitate a discussion of the past and present of women’s rights activism and the critical roles played by Native women in advocating for self-determination.
- Presenter: Susan Goodier (SUNY Oneonta)
- This session will provide an opportunity to continue the conversation on “Indigenous Women and the Fight for Women’s Rights.” Historian Susan Goodier will facilitate a discussion of the past and present of women’s rights activism and the critical roles played by Native women in advocating for self-determination.
The New York State History and Education Conference 