Oral History Interview, Steven Bauman (OH#1517)

Abstract

In this three-part oral history interview, Steve Bauman reflects on his academic journey as a professor in Mathematics at UW-Madison from the early 1960s to the 2000s. Bauman describes how he became a math professor despite not being a strong mathematics student as a child. He then details his career starting with how he ended up in Graduate school at Illinois, following with getting his first job at Princeton, and finally settling in at UW-Madison. Bauman discusses many events that occurred at UW-Madison including Vietnam protests, the Dow 50 protests, TAA protests, and faculty labor union formation on campus. He also details his teaching experience. Bauman discusses university governance and ideas about academic freedom on campus and within the whole University of Wisconsin System. Bauman finally discusses his work after retirement and how he engaged in grievance work on campus as an ombudsman. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Archives and Records Management oral history collection.