The Center for Public History is officially one year into its partnership with Houston Public Media and M.D. Anderson Library, highlighting 100 years of Houston’s history as the University of Houston nears its centennial milestone. 

The Center for Public History began documenting the University’s history and published its first articles in the Houston History Magazine in 2021. The magazine’s editor, Debbie Harwell, has worked with over 40 students on this project. 

“Our students have done the bulk of the research for the pieces that Houston Public Media is producing, and that’s where it all starts,” Harwell said. “We have stories that represent the key themes of diversity and inclusion, innovation and health.” 

Carey Shuart, founder of the Carey Shuart Women’s Research Collection, generously donated to help jumpstart the 100 Years of Stories project. 

The students’ work includes nearly 30 articles for the project, with plans to add to this number. The first 10 stories selected to be featured by Houston Public Media each covered a decade of the University’s 100-year history. There are currently eight episodes available on their website. 

Harwell has taken advantage of her role as an instructional assistant professor, inviting students in her classes to work exclusively on the 100 Years of Stories project over the past semester. 

In their research for Houston Public Media, students covered the University’s start as a junior college in 1927, prolific female leaders such as LGBTQ+ activist Phyllis Randolph Frye and former University president Marguerite Ross Barnett and more defining moments in UH history. 

Houston History Magazine intern Grace Conroy and graduate instructional assistant Samantha De Leon have both worked with the Center for Public History for over a year while at the University of Houston. Now, they have plans to produce articles well into the 2022-23 academic year for this specific project. 

“I did an oral interview with President Renu Khator last fall that was indescribable,” graduate student De Leon said. “It was an invaluable experience because she’s a woman of color who has elevated UH to the status that it has today.” 

So far, history major Conroy has covered three different decades of the University’s history. Her most memorable is 2017 to 2027 as it gives a view into the future of UH. 

“In my oral history interviews with UH medical students, I was able to see how passionate they were about University of Houston and its mission to train more primary care providers,” Conroy said. 

As the end of their three-year grant approaches, Harwell hopes that the work they are doing to publish UH’s history will inspire another grant that will help carry this project through 2027. 

“I think it’s really important to continue to tell those stories, so we can take it on up to the centennial and maybe beyond,” Harwell said. “There are so many stories out there in the history of the city of Houston that have their origins here with people at the University.”