Department Archives: History

The History Department hosted the annual Jerrell H. Shofner lecture series covering Florida culture and history earlier this week. Nearly 100 students, faculty and alumni attended this year’s lecture as guest speaker, Gary. R. Mormino, discussed “Florida and the Age of Terror.” Mormino explored Florida as it navigated its way into the new millennia in […]

Senior history major Rachael Rothstein-Safra was recently recognized as a Knight of Distinction. The Knights of Distinction Program highlights students who participate in experiences that allow them to apply knowledge learned within the classroom to real world situations and environments. You can read more about Rachael as she reflects on her most memorable UCF history […]

The Orlando Sentinel featured visiting assistant professor, Yanek Mieczkowski in an online op-ed. In this piece, Professor Mieczkowski comments on the recent SpaceX launch of the Falcon 9 rocket and how it plays to what former president Eisenhower envisioned for the future of the Space Age. You can read Professor Mieczkowski’s column here.

Almost a month after Hurricane Maria, much of the island of Puerto Rico is still without power. Significant infrastructure damage and limited resources have given many Puerto Ricans reason enough to relocate to the U.S. mainland. UCF history Professor Luis Martínez-Fernández discusses a potential mass migration to the state of Florida in the wake of […]

Fifty years ago, Florida’s Legislative Investigative Committee, led by Senator Charley Johns sought to remove homosexuals from Florida’s state universities. As a result of the “Johns Committee’s” efforts, more than 200 gay and lesbian students and teachers were expelled or fired. Featuring two of the victims and one interrogator, The Committee exposes the committee’s subversive […]

Students from Dr. Hong Zhang’s Chinese history class attended a local celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Also referred to as the Moon Festival, it’s one of the most important Chinese festivals and takes place when the moon is at its brightest during the lunar calendar. “Seeing the diverse array of people that not only attended […]

Central Florida is home to one of the world’s highest concentrations of Puerto Ricans. Almost two weeks since Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, efforts to grasp to magnitude of the devastation are still underway. In a recent interview, Professor Luis Martínez-Fernández, historian and expert on the Hispanic Caribbean, discusses the history of Puerto […]

Three scholars, namely Zev Garber, Lev Hakak, and Shmuel Katz have recently undertaken to edit a jubilee volume (Festschrift) in honor of Moshe Pelli, authority on the Hebrew Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment), as well as longtime Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Judaic Studies and the Abe and Tess Wise Endowed Professor of Judaic Studies […]

The UCF Community Veterans History Project, coordinated by the History Department’s Dr. Barbara Gannon, has been awarded the Anne J. Caudal Foundation Grant. The Anne J. Caudal Foundation’s grant helps to fund the UCF CVHP’s efforts to collect the stories of veterans in the Central Florida community as well as employ and educate students to […]

Dr. Rosalind Beiler, Associate Professor of History, received a Community Based Research Grant from the Office of Research and Community Engagement at the Burnett Honors College to partner with History Revealed, Inc., a historical research organization that focuses the public education of lesser-known groups of people from the past. The Community Based Research Grant is […]