Paul Arras is an Assistant Professor in Communication & Media Studies at SUNY Cortland. He researches the history of American media, particularly television, with a focus on issues of community and identity.
Dr. Arras received a Ph.D. in history in from Syracuse University in 2016. His dissertation, The Lonely Nineties: Visions of Community in Contemporary U.S. Television (published as a monograph in 2018), examined prime time television in the decade for its depictions of community, demonstrating how those shows both responded to the increasing fragmentation of late-20th century American culture, and occasionally imagined pathways to improvement in American life.
In 2015-16, Dr. Arras earned a Public Humanities Fellowship through the New York State Council for the Humanities. As part of the fellowship, Dr. Arras worked with the Near Westside Initiative in Syracuse, NY, creating an oral history podcast highlighting stories in the neighborhood.
A native of the area, Dr. Arras has spent time outside of Central New York, earning an MA in Modern History from King’s College, London in 2007. His undergraduate degree is from Syracuse University, where he double-majored in Broadcast Journalism and History. In between his BA and his MA, Dr. Arras co-founded an internet webcasting company that broadcast sports and events for regional colleges and other entities.