Our Faculty

Background

H. Stephen Straight, president of the Binghamton University Retirees Club, is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Linguistics at Binghamton University. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan and continued his education at the University of Chicago, receiving Master’s and Doctoral Degrees in linguistics. Professor Straight specialized in psycholinguistics and studied French, German, Japanese, Yucatec Maya, Spanish, and Romanian. He pursued his doctoral research with the Maya of Yucatan and resided in Bucharest, Romania for a year as a Fulbright senior lecturer. After retiring from Binghamton University in 2010 Straight accepted appointment as Fulbright Program Advisor in the Office of External Scholarships, Fellowships, and Grants, where he helped students apply for funding towards a successful academic and employment future. He continued his work through mentoring academic faculty in Myanmar in the Institute of International Education's program Connecting with the World: International Relations at Higher Education Institutions 2013-2014. Professor Straight is the founding director of Binghamton's unique Languages Across the Curriculum program (http://lxc.binghamton.edu), which provides course-specific opportunities for the meaningful use of languages other than English throughout the Binghamton undergraduate curriculum. He also served as Binghamton’s vice provost for undergraduate education and international affairs from 1999 to 2009.

In retirement H. Stephen Straight has continued his involvement in anthropology, linguistics, and international education in professional associations such as the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum Consortium, the Association of International Education Administrators, and the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States.

Education

• PhD, MA, University of Chicago
• BA, University of Michigan