September 2004
Robert A. McCaughey
Current Teaching Position:
Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University
Previous Teaching Positions:
Assistant Professor of Naval Science, University of North Carolina, 1963-1965
Assistant Professor of History, Barnard College, 1969-1975Assistant Professor of History, Harvard University, 1972
Associate Professor of History, Barnard College, 1975-1981
Adjunct Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1992-1995
Recent Administrative Positions:
Acting Chairman of the History Department, Barnard College, 2004-2005
Chairman of History Department, Barnard College, 1983-87, 1995-98, 2000-2003Director of Barnard Electronic Archive and Teaching Laboratory [BEATL], 1997-
Vice President for Academic Affairs & Dean of the Faculty, Barnard College, 1987-1994Director of the Mellon Curricular Consolidation Grant, 1993-1997
Founding Director of the Barnard First-Year Seminar Program, 1983-1987
Academic Degrees:
Harvard University, Ph.D., History, 1970
University of North Carolina, M.A., History and American Studies, 1965
University of Rochester, A.B., History, summa cum laude, 1961
Professional Recognitions:
Barnard Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2001Gilder-Lehrman Institute Fellow, New-York Historical Society, Fall 1998
NEH Summer Fellow, American Maritime History Program, Mystic Seaport, 1996
Chair of Bancroft History Prize Committee, Columbia University, 1994, 1986
Emily Gregory Teaching Excellence Award, Barnard College, 1987
Elected Member of Society of American Historians (1986)
John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 1975-76
American Council of Learned Societies Fellow, 1975-76
Charles A. Warren Fellow, Harvard University, 1972-73
Military Service:
United States Navy, Ensign to Lieutenant, USN, 1961-1965
Two years sea duty in Pacific; two years teaching Naval Science, UNC, Chapel Hill
Current Teaching Interests:
American maritime history and early maritime culture
The history of American colleges and universities
The social history of American intellectual life
The uses of electronic networking in undergraduate teaching
Current Research and Writing
Maritime Nation: A History of American Maritime Life & Culture (to be published in both a print and electronic version by
Columbia University Press, 2006) with support from the ACLS History E-Book Project.
Principal Publications:
Books and Monographs:
Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1754-2004
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2003)
Scholars & Teachers: Faculties of Select Liberal Arts Colleges and Their Place in American Higher Learning.Barnard College and the Mellon Foundation, 1995.
The American Nation: A History of the United States [with John A.Garraty]. 6th edition, Harper & Row, 1986.
International Studies and Academic Enterprise: A Chapter in the Enclosure of American Learning.Columbia University Press, 1984.
"The Transformation of American Academic Life; Harvard University, 1821-1892,
Perspectives in American History, VIII (1974), pp. 239-332.
Josiah Quincy: The Last Federalist, 1772-1864. Harvard University Press, 1974.
Journal Articles:
“The Education of Alexander Hamilton, “ New-York Historical Society Journal of American History (Fall 2004)
"But Can They Teach?” In Praise of College Professors Who Publish," Teachers College Record, 95 (Winter 1993), 242-257.
"International Studies and General Education: The Alliance Yet to Be," Liberal Education, 70 (1985), pp. 343-374.
"'In the Land of the Blind': Non-Academic International Studies in the 1930s," The Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, 449 (1980), pp. 381-399.
"The Current State of International Studies in American Universities: Special Consideration Reconsidered,"Journal of Higher Education, 51 (1980), pp. 381-390.
"Four Academic Ambassadors: International Studies and the American University Before the Second World War,"
Perspectives in American History, XII (1979), pp. 563-607.
"American University Teachers and Opposition to the Vietnam War: A Reconsideration," Minerva, XIV (1976), pp. 307-329.
"From Town to City: Boston in the 1820s," Political Science Quarterly, 88 (1973), 191-213.
"The Usable Past: The Harvard Rebellion of 1834," William & Mary Law Review, II (1970), pp. 587-610.
Book Reviews, Short Contributions, Journalism:
In Academe, American Historical Review, Change, Chronicle of Higher Education, Dictionary of American Biography,
Journal of American History, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, [London] Times Literary Supplement, Minerva,
The New York Times, Political Science Quarterly, Teachers College Record
Other Writing:
Review of Daniel Finamore, ed., Maritime History as World History (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004),
in The Historian [forthcoming]
Review of Amherst College Faculty, Teaching What We Do, in Teachers College Record (Spring, 1994), pp. 421-423.
Featured review of Jaroslav Pelikan, The Idea of the University: A Reexamination,The American Historical Review, 98 (February 1993), pp.118-119.
Review of Joseph Brent, Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life, The New York Times Book Review (February 7, 1993), p. 11.
"Why Research and Teaching Can Coexist," The Chronicle of Higher Education (August 5, 1992), backpage.
Biographical entries for "Frederick A. P. Barnard" and "Josiah Quincy," in American National Biography,(Oxford University Press, 1999)
Biographical entries for “Grayson Kirk” and “William G. McGill” in The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives ,
Kenneth T. Jackson, ed. (2002)
Recent Public Addresses:
“Columbia ’68: A Chapter in the History of Student Power,” a talk in the series, “Columbia Engages Its Past,” Low Library,
Columbia University, April 27, 2004.
”Celebrating F.A. P. Barnard,” at “Barnard Celebrates Columbia’s 250th Birthday,” Barnard College, April 16, 2004
”Columbia’s Presidents,” Columbia University Club, New York City, January 26, 2004.
”Columbia University in the City of New York,” Municipal Art Society, New York, New York, October 23, 2003
”In Praise of Extension: General Studies in the Greater Columbia University,” General Studies Phi Beta Kappa Induction, May 19, 2003.
”On Getting No Respect: Columbia and Its Alumni,” Speech to the regional officers of Columbia Alumni Federation, October 3, 2002.
”Columbia University in the City of New York: Then and Now,” University Seminar on the City, January 29, 2002.
”The Rise and Fall of the Exclusionary Impulse at Columbia,” School of General Studies Alumni Dinner, April 3, 2001
“’Men of Our Type’: A Social Profile of the Columbia Trustees,” to the Columbia University Seminar on the History of Columbia University, December 12, 2000.
Consulting Activities:
Advisory Board, National Institute of Technology & Liberal Education, 2002 -
Middle States Reaccrediting Team for Lycoming College, March 15-18, 2001.
Chair of Advisory Committee for the Center for Educational Technologies, Middlebury College, 1998-2001
On-site review of the sea and shore components of the "Semester at Sea" Program of the Sea Education Association, Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, March - July, 1998
Chair of Review of Social Studies Curriculum, The Dalton School, 1995-96
Consultant for the International Division of the Ford Foundation, 1974-1978.
Personal Information:
Live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City [ 375 Riverside Drive 10025]
Married (1965) to Ann Ballantyne McCaughey, real estate broker; Parent of a daughter, Hannah, Barnard College 1989, creative director of Outside Magazine; A son, John, Hampshire College 1991, General Studies Technology Certificate 1998, software designer
ram31@columbia.edu
212 854 5938 (o)
212 932 1510 (h)