Dr. Amelia Lyons, associate professor at the University of Central Florida, led UCF students in visually organizing and documenting information about veterans from Florida who died in the Second World War and who are buried and/or memorialized at the Épinal Cemetery in Eastern France. Together, participants in the project created twenty-seven biographies on different Florida veterans buried at Épinal.
Visitors to the project’s website can interact with a map of Florida showing the veterans’ hometowns as stars within the state. When visitors click on the individual stars, a short biography appears while the map quickly moves to display their resting place at Épinal.
Principal Investigator
• Dr. Amelia Lyons
Digital Consultant
• Dr. Amy Giroux
Student Involvement
• Mark Barnes – Graduate Assistant
• Michael Burke – Graduate Assistant
• Karen Kelly – Undergraduate Intern (Spring 2017)
• Dr. Lyons’ Undergraduate Students
Student Skill Development
The Florida Épinal Cemetery Project teaches students a variety of skills including ways to conduct academic research, academic writing, and the creation of metadata. In addition to these vital skills that promote professionalization, students have become personally invested in this work. Evan Murray, a student in a class of Dr. Lyons stated that the project made him feel proud to tell the story of a serviceman who was “forgotten in life and death.”
Partnerships
• RICHES™
• Association U.S. Memory Grand Est France
• UCF Center for Humanities and Digital Research (CHDR)
Funding
University funding for two graduate research assistants