Artists & Scholars in Public Life at the University of Florida and Beyond
UF is proud to be a member-institution of Imagining America (IA), a national consortium committed to using the arts, humanities, and design to enact a more just and liberatory world. Faculty, staff, students, and community partners are invited to join the UF Imagining America Working Group and advance public scholarship through IA gatherings, collaborative projects, and resources.
Announcements:
- Welcome to the new IA@UF website. We’re glad you’re here! Join the UF Imagining America Working Group by signing up for the listserv: UFImaginingAmerica-L@lists.ufl.edu
- Share your project
Recent Projects
2016
The Florida Queer History Project, founded in June 2016, is a growing archive of oral histories dedicated to highlighting the queer experience throughout the last century. The project aims to provide a means for queer-identified individuals to express and document how their sexual orientations and gender identities have shaped their lives. The Project also seeks to document the contemporary LGBTQ+ Movement through a variety of fieldwork initiatives—most recently by attending the 2017 Pride weekend in Washington, DC.
2016
The Florida Queer History Project, founded in June 2016, is a growing archive of oral histories dedicated to highlighting the queer experience throughout the last century. The project aims to provide a means for queer-identified individuals to express and document how their sexual orientations and gender identities have shaped their lives. The Project also seeks to document the contemporary LGBTQ+ Movement through a variety of fieldwork initiatives—most recently by attending the 2017 Pride weekend in Washington, DC.
2016
SPOHP 2009 public program featuring *Joel Buchanan* and including speakers Bernie Machen, Mrs. Evelyn Mickle, Zoharah Simmons, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson and others. This program launched SPOHP’s African American History Research Project funded by the Office of the Provost.
2016
SPOHP 2009 public program featuring *Joel Buchanan* and including speakers Bernie Machen, Mrs. Evelyn Mickle, Zoharah Simmons, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson and others. This program launched SPOHP’s African American History Research Project funded by the Office of the Provost.
2016
In Spring 2016, a Gainesville-wide speaker series will invite Florida residents from all backgrounds to share their stories about making Florida home.
Imagining Florida is a five-part series of lectures and discussions from January-April 2016. Talk writing with Gainesville author Lauren Groff at the ACLD Headquarters Branch Library. Unpeel the history of Florida citrus with Gary Mormino at the Matheson History Museum. Feast your eyes on African-Floridian art with Robin Poynor and Patricia Hilliard-Nunn at Santa Fe College. And dust off treasured artifacts from famous Floridians with curators from the UF Smathers Libraries.
2016
In Spring 2016, a Gainesville-wide speaker series will invite Florida residents from all backgrounds to share their stories about making Florida home.
Imagining Florida is a five-part series of lectures and discussions from January-April 2016. Talk writing with Gainesville author Lauren Groff at the ACLD Headquarters Branch Library. Unpeel the history of Florida citrus with Gary Mormino at the Matheson History Museum. Feast your eyes on African-Floridian art with Robin Poynor and Patricia Hilliard-Nunn at Santa Fe College. And dust off treasured artifacts from famous Floridians with curators from the UF Smathers Libraries.
2015
Writing for the Public is a professional development seminar sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of Florida. The event, organized by Dr. Sean Trainor, was held on 12/11/2015. The seminar is designed to teach participants how to effectively engage the public through their writing.
Public engagement is no longer optional for scholars and educators in humanities. It is now a basic professional requirement: a way in which we claim our scholarly territory, justify humanistic enterprise before skeptical publics, demonstrate public impacts of work for funding bodies, and prepare for uncertain job markets.
2015
Writing for the Public is a professional development seminar sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of Florida. The event, organized by Dr. Sean Trainor, was held on 12/11/2015. The seminar is designed to teach participants how to effectively engage the public through their writing.
Public engagement is no longer optional for scholars and educators in humanities. It is now a basic professional requirement: a way in which we claim our scholarly territory, justify humanistic enterprise before skeptical publics, demonstrate public impacts of work for funding bodies, and prepare for uncertain job markets.
2015
In 1904 amid speeches, barbeques and fanfare, the United Daughters of the Confederacy Kirby Smith Chapter No. 202 placed a statue, “ In Memory of the Confederate Dead 1861 – 1865,” in front of what was then the county courthouse. The 18-foot statue is supported on a pedestal made of Georgia granite. The monument was funded through private contributions and that final list of donors is purportedly sealed within. The courthouse has long been replaced by newer buildings, over time trees and roads have grown up around the statue. On August 22, 2015, one hundred and eleven years later the Confederate Statue’s symbolism is revisited through lectures and public discussion asking these questions: Should it be removed from its present public space? Could it fit into a modern public sphere?
Speakers Paul Ortiz, Zoharah Simmons, Malini Schueller, Nailah Summers, Jack Price, Carol Thomas, and attending members of the community provide valuable insight for those interested in probing this discussion.
2015
In 1904 amid speeches, barbeques and fanfare, the United Daughters of the Confederacy Kirby Smith Chapter No. 202 placed a statue, “ In Memory of the Confederate Dead 1861 – 1865,” in front of what was then the county courthouse. The 18-foot statue is supported on a pedestal made of Georgia granite. The monument was funded through private contributions and that final list of donors is purportedly sealed within. The courthouse has long been replaced by newer buildings, over time trees and roads have grown up around the statue. On August 22, 2015, one hundred and eleven years later the Confederate Statue’s symbolism is revisited through lectures and public discussion asking these questions: Should it be removed from its present public space? Could it fit into a modern public sphere?
Speakers Paul Ortiz, Zoharah Simmons, Malini Schueller, Nailah Summers, Jack Price, Carol Thomas, and attending members of the community provide valuable insight for those interested in probing this discussion.
2015
This year, [2015] the nation has witnessed and commemorated a series of Civil Rights Anniversaries. The fiftieth anniversaries of “Bloody Sunday” and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have encouraged the public to celebrate the courage and resolve of both the sung and unsung figures of the Civil Rights Movement. However, the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the Watts Uprising in Los Angeles, in the context of the recent uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore and New York, is a sobering reminder that the resolve and courage of the Civil Rights figures is desperately and urgently necessary today. For as Martha Ragland, former president of the Tennessee Council of Human Relations, declared, “We need quickly and massively to attend to the unfinished business of democracy.”
Recognizing the “unfinished” project of democracy, the members of this panel will address race, democracy and ongoing struggles for civil rights in academia, communities and the nation at large. The presentations range from meditations on the emotional and psychological effects of freedom fighting on Civil Rights figures to discussions of the continuous neglect of Black, female activists in the historical accounts of the Civil Rights to inquiries into the present status of democracy in a society riddled with police brutality and state violence. The “Unfinished Business: Race, Democracy and the Ongoing Struggle for Civil Rights” panel seeks to bring all of these issues to the forefront to highlight the vital need for nuanced, collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to both the past and present racial struggles.
Justin Dunnavant is a doctoral student studying archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida.
Randi Gill-Sadler is a doctoral candidate in the English Department and joined SPOHP in Fall 2014 as a graduate coordinator.
Justin Hosbey is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida.
Darrell White is the Director of the Natchez African American History and Culture
Dr. Paul Ortiz is a history professor at the University of Florida
2015
This year, [2015] the nation has witnessed and commemorated a series of Civil Rights Anniversaries. The fiftieth anniversaries of “Bloody Sunday” and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have encouraged the public to celebrate the courage and resolve of both the sung and unsung figures of the Civil Rights Movement. However, the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the Watts Uprising in Los Angeles, in the context of the recent uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore and New York, is a sobering reminder that the resolve and courage of the Civil Rights figures is desperately and urgently necessary today. For as Martha Ragland, former president of the Tennessee Council of Human Relations, declared, “We need quickly and massively to attend to the unfinished business of democracy.”
Recognizing the “unfinished” project of democracy, the members of this panel will address race, democracy and ongoing struggles for civil rights in academia, communities and the nation at large. The presentations range from meditations on the emotional and psychological effects of freedom fighting on Civil Rights figures to discussions of the continuous neglect of Black, female activists in the historical accounts of the Civil Rights to inquiries into the present status of democracy in a society riddled with police brutality and state violence. The “Unfinished Business: Race, Democracy and the Ongoing Struggle for Civil Rights” panel seeks to bring all of these issues to the forefront to highlight the vital need for nuanced, collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to both the past and present racial struggles.
Justin Dunnavant is a doctoral student studying archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida.
Randi Gill-Sadler is a doctoral candidate in the English Department and joined SPOHP in Fall 2014 as a graduate coordinator.
Justin Hosbey is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida.
Darrell White is the Director of the Natchez African American History and Culture
Dr. Paul Ortiz is a history professor at the University of Florida