Laura Ettinger has been promoted from associate professor to full professor of history in the School of Arts & Sciences.
She earned her PhD and MA in History from the University of Rochester and her AB in History from Vassar College. She has been a member of the Clarkson faculty since 1998. In 2012, Ettinger was a Fulbright Scholar to Croatia.
Ettinger’s research and writings focus on the history of women, gender, and the engineering, scientific, and medical professions in the United States. She is also an oral historian who sees her mission as amplifying people’s stories and using history to make a difference.
Ettinger is the author of Nurse-Midwifery: The Birth of a New American Profession, a book named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice. Her current research project, funded by the National Science Foundation, investigates the careers and lives of a varied group of American women engineers who graduated from college in the 1970s, a time when a small but growing cohort of women entered the profession. With filmmaker Zac Miller, she has produced an award-winning short documentary and three award-winning educational videos featuring trailblazing women engineers.
Ettinger is a co-Principal Investigator on Clarkson’s National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant to improve equity for STEM faculty at the university. She is the lead on the ADVANCE oral history research project designed to inform attempts to change campus cultures and increase recruitment, retention, and advancement of female-identified STEM faculty.
She teaches courses on modern American history, the history of women and gender in America, the history of public health in America, and the history of the American family, among others.
Ettinger is the winner of multiple teaching and research awards, including Clarkson’s Distinction in Faculty Mentoring for Research and Scholarship Award, Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Society for the History of Technology’s Martha Trescott Prize for the best published historical essay on women in technology.
Originally from Baltimore, she enjoys spending time with her family—including her husband, Jondavid DeLong, and daughters, Alison and Caroline Ettinger-DeLong—and friends, traveling, and running.