Active Students (Fall 2025)*
Undergrad majors: 423
Undergrad minors: 205
Undergrad certificates: 3
Graduate students: 58
2025-26 Student Credit Hours: 31,450
*All active students with declared CAH programs are included in the enrollment counts.
The Department of History had an exciting and productive year highlighted by our extensive community engagement. The department hosted several events, including the annual Jerrel H. Shofner Lecture, presented by Anna Andrzejewski of the University of Wisconsin – Madison, a series of events surrounding Veterans Day, and the Pauley lecture delivered by Ursula Lehmkuhl, Professor of International History at the University of Trier in Germany. The department hosted History Harvests throughout Central Florida, including Kissimmee, Goldsboro, Georgetown, New Smyrna Beach, and Merritt Island. At UCF Celebrates the Arts in April, John Sacher delivered an address following a performance of What the Constitution Means to Me. Sacher continues to provide historical commentary on Fox 35 Orlando, regularly discussing state current and national historical events.
The department remains active with campus and community engagement through multiple public history initiatives. It supports the UCF Community Veterans History Project and the Florida France Soldier Stories Project. RICHES continues exploring Florida’s hidden history through digital scholarship, while PRINT (People, Religion, Information Networks and Travel) expanded its collection of primary sources during the third year of a three-year grant. The department also supports research on Eatonville and the production of various podcasts focused on Florida history.
Faculty members published five books and 16 articles, presented at more than 50 international, national, and state conferences, and delivered dozens of public lectures throughout Florida and across the country. Three faculty members also received awards recognizing their recent publications. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni earned the Frank Moore Cross Book Award in the History of the Ancient Middle East for Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East, published by the University Press of Colorado in 2025. Robert Cassanello received a Silver Medal at the Florida Book Awards for Crafting Constitutions in Florida, 1810-1968, published by the University Press of Florida in July 2025. Tadashi Ishikawa received honorable mention for the 2026 Book Prize from the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies for Geographies of Gender: Family and Law in Imperial Japan and Colonial Taiwan, published by Cambridge University Press in 2025. Additionally, UCF granted research incentive awards to Ishikawa, Earley-Spadoni, and Hakan Ozoglu.
The history department also saw several faculty receive grants for their continued research work. Amelia Lyons received a $274,429 grant for the Veterans Legacy Program, a public history initiative done in partnership with the National Cemetery Administration. Yovanna Pineda received a $5,000 grant from the Albert Lepage Center for her podcast series, Hammer and Keyboard. She also received two different $25,000 grants for work on the podcast and a new project that is developing an artificial intelligence tool to identify human trafficking recruitment in online gaming environments. Duncan Hardy received two fellowships from institutions in Germany: a Hiob Ludolf Fellowship from the University of Erfurt and a Visiting Fellowship at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Bielefeld, which were both used for his current manuscript project. Jessica Robkin received funding from the Merops Foundation to continue her research work with the Kerkenes Project in Turkey. John Sacher received funding from Louisiana State University to work on a book manuscript related to their Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley archival collections.
Graduate students continued to earn recognition for their work. Graduate students Sebastian Garcia and John Lancaster received a gift of $12,500 to continue their work on the podcast The Memory of Negro Fort. The department also had several graduate students present their research at the Florida Historical Society meeting and the Florida Conference of Historians annual meeting in Gainesville. Garcia received Order of Pegasus, the highest honor given to a graduate student for his research excellence. He was recognized at both UCF’s Founders Day and commencement ceremonies. For our undergraduate students, we awarded several departmental scholarships, and our student interns presented their project findings at the annual internship showcase, hosted online at the end of the semester.
The department also mourned the loss of long-time lecturer, James C. Clark, who passed away in October. Clark taught at UCF for more than 30 years and had a lasting impact on generations of students. Since his passing, the department has created the James C. Clark Memorial Scholarship that honors his legacy by supporting future history students. A celebration of life was held in collaboration with his family in April.
