America’s 250th Student Fellowships Funded In Western NY

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation has awarded SUNY distinguished professor of history Michael Leroy Oberg, the SUNY Geneseo Center for Local and Municipal History, and a consortium of six other colleges and universities, a three-year grant of more than $300K for American War of Independence Semiquincentennial student fellowships.

Several of the institutions in the fellowship program have committed $150K of matching funds for the project, bringing the total to over $450K.

Fifty undergraduate students at these seven New York State colleges and universities will be partnered to work with municipal and academic historians on projects related to the American Revolution and its legacy as the 250th anniversary of American independence approaches.

Questions students are expected to consider include:

· How have New Yorkers defined “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” through the years since American Independence?

· What have New Yorkers meant when they say they believe that “all men are created equal,” and how has that changed over time?

· How have New Yorkers remembered the American Revolution and its conflicting legacies since 1776?

The program is planning to commence in the fall of 2022. The grant will help support student fellows for a summer applied research opportunity, stipends for academic historian mentors, and compensation for local historian hosts. Other covered expenses include funding to support an undergraduate web admin to upload student projects onto Geneseo’s center’s website, the publication of a free downloadable book that compiles the projects, and other associated expenses.

The other institutions in the program are Cornell University, Canisius College, SUNY Potsdam, SUNY New Paltz, Stony Brook, and CUNY Brooklyn College.

For information on history internships in Western New York visit the Center for Local and Municipal History’s Internship Opportunities page. The listings there provide information about internships facilitated through partnerships between Geneseo’s Center for Local and Municipal History and local historians, historical societies, archives, and libraries.

Photo of History student intern Dwight Dinkins at work provided by SUNY Geneseo.