The Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Project

Sort Interviews by Affiliation or Theme

Theme: American Studies

Katy Barber Oral History Interview - November 12, 2015

Katy Barber Oral History Interview

Life history interview conducted by Janice Dilg.
November 12, 2015
Katy Barber (b. 1969) graduated from OSU in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in American Studies. After obtaining graduate degrees from Washington State University, Barber joined the History faculty at Portland State University, where she teaches and conducts research on public history and the history of the Pacific Northwest. Barber is also the director of the Center for Columbia River History and has authored a book on the social and cultural impact made by the flooding of Celilo Falls in 1957. The primary focus of her interview is her undergraduate experience at Oregon State and her memories of campus culture during the early 1990s.

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Nancy Kerns Oral History Interview - November 21, 2014

Nancy Kerns Oral History Interview

Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
November 21, 2014
Nancy Kerns (b. 1956) graduated from OSU in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in American Studies. After completing law school in 1981, Kerns began a career in the legal profession that has included stints as deputy district attorney for Umatilla County and, since 2011, city attorney for the city of Pendleton. Kerns is the first and only woman in Pendleton's history to have held the office of city attorney. Her interview includes reflections on the American Studies program at OSU during the mid-1970s; memories of law school and studying for the bar exam; and a look back on an accomplished legal career spent primarily in rural eastern Oregon.

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David Robinson Oral History Interview - September 30, 2015

David Robinson Oral History Interview

Life history interview conducted by Janice Dilg.
September 30, 2015
David Robinson (b. 1947) was a member of the OSU English faculty from 1976 to his retirement in 2016, and held the Oregon Professorship in English - the OSU College of Liberal Arts' first endowed chair - from its inception in 1991. Recognized internationally as an authority on American Transcendentalist authors, Robinson has written numerous books on Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, among other nineteenth century American writers and philosophers. For fifteen years Robinson also directed the OSU Center for the Humanities, an institute dedicated to improving the vitality and quality of humanities teaching and research at Oregon State. His interview focuses on his personal scholarly evolution; his memories of significant change within the OSU English department; and his perspective on the broader advancement of the humanities over a forty year career at OSU.

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