Oral Histories

Often the story of an organization is told in the service of commemoration or celebration of the goals and achievements of that organization.  Beginning with the Stories of UTSC: 1964-2014 Legacy project, faculty and student researchers began collecting the “untold” stories of our campus.  Our goal with this project, in addition to extensive archival research, is to build on that earlier collection and continue to capture the lived experience of the members of our campus community – faculty, students, and staff at all levels – through the collection and preservation of oral histories.  The oral histories, with permission from participants, are digitally archived in a collection external to this website as part of Scarborough Storytelling administered by the UTSC Library Digital Scholarship Unit.  Many thanks to those who have generously agreed to share their stories.  

Below are a few examples of the stories that have been preserved.  Clicking on the image will take you directly to the audio and transcript files in the digital archive.  There are many more to come so stay tuned….

If you are interested in participating and contributing your story to the collection, please contact Christine Berkowitz at chris.berkowitz@utoronto.ca.

Oral History with Sylvia Mittler

Professor Sylvia Mittler speaks about her French courses at UTSC and how language intertwines with history and culture. Speaking about diversity and language, Professor Mittler goes on to share how the campus has incorporated French culture in its events and how campus cultural activities have changed over time. Researcher: Martha

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Oral History with Lenard Whiting

Lenard Whiting has working at UTSC since 1994, serving as a Lecturer in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media and as Director of the UTSC Choir until his retirement. In this interview, he speaks about establishing the choir at UTSC in his first year, developing it into a series

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Oral History with Will Kwan

Will Kwan, an artist who studied in the Arts Management program at UTSC from 1997 to 2002, recounts his time at UTSC both as a student and later (2007) as an Associate Professor. Will identified first and foremost as an artist as he goes on to describe career trajectories in

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Oral History with Kevin Wright

A lifelong resident of Scarborough, Kevin Wright, reflects upon UTSC theatre production and the larger campus. A theatre production manager in the Leigha Lee Browne Theatre and course instructor in the Arts, Culture, and Media Department since 1995, he discusses joining UTSC at a transitional time of technological change, as

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Oral History with Adrian De Leon

Adrian De Leon discusses his rationale for attending UTSC in 2012 and reflects upon his time as Vice President of Academics for the SCSU (Scarborough Campus Students’ Union) and as part of the tri-campus Governing Council. Prompted to speak on themes of community, inclusion, and exclusion, De Leon recounts staging

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Oral History with Franca Iacovetta

Professor Franca Iacovetta joined the History program in the Division of Humanities at UTSC in 1990, the first hire in 13 years and the second woman in the program. Franca is now a retired preeminent scholar of immigration/ women’s history. She shares a bit of her earlier life history and

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