Session Abstract

Traditionally, when we look back upon an historian’s career, it is a mentor’s graduate students, rather than undergraduate students, who are most often seen as a scholar’s teaching legacy.  But what about undergraduate students who have been part of mentor-mentee dialogues, enriched by collaborative critical thinking, encouraged in their research, and motivated to pursue graduate studies in history? Are they not also part of an historian’s teaching legacy comparable with the mentorship of graduate students?

This session proposes to underscore the importance of the undergraduate mentor-mentee relationship in the study of history. Panel participants are former Cornell undergraduate students of Mary Beth Norton’s who have pursued graduate studies in history.  Panel participants will discuss the significance of their undergraduate experiences as history majors under the tutelage of Professor Norton. In addition, each panelist will present a short synopsis of their current work in progress, demonstrating the influence of one particular historian’s impact across numerous fields of history.