Celebrating the Retirement of Prof. Sherri Olson
By Stefanie Malinoski
After a 37-year tenure at the University of Connecticut, Professor Sherri Olson retired in January, closing a distinguished chapter in the Department of History. For more than twenty years, Dr.Olson served as the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for European History, shaping curricula, mentoring colleagues, and inspiring educators and students.
In 1998, she helped launch the first Medieval Studies outreach seminar for middle and high school teachers, “Late Medieval Europe & the Black Death.” Offered by UConn’s Medieval Studies Program in partnership with the Center for Professional Development, the program was originally known as the Medieval Studies Secondary School Outreach Seminar.
The seminar’s first formal collaboration with ECE, then called the High School Cooperative Program, followed in 2004 with “War, Peace, and Toleration in the Ancient and Medieval World.” The first official mention of Early College Experience appeared in 2006, with the seminar focused on “The Poor & the Idea of Poverty in Ancient & Medieval Society,” marking the beginning of an over 20 year partnership. Over the years, UConn’s Collegium Musicum, under the direction of Professor Eric Rice, added a musical component to the seminars. This ensemble of student singers and instrumentalists perform music from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance and Baroque periods, often using period-specific instruments.
In her role as ECE Faculty Coordinator for Medieval History, Dr. Olson provided a wide range of seminar themes in collaboration with colleagues at UConn, and her former graduate students now serving as faculty members at colleges and universities across the country. Her former students were always eager to return to UConn to share their research with Connecticut educators. The program has run almost every year since 1998, each time offering educators a fresh and engaging theme, and we look forward to continuing the program under new leadership.
Now embracing a slower pace, Dr. Olson plans to return to some of her hobbies, including knitting, and continuing to contribute to the field through book reviews and other scholarly pursuits.