Ytori - Spring/Summer 2023

THE MAGAZINE FOR THE UNIVERSITY of FLORIDA COLLEGE of LIBERAL ARTS and SCIENCES

— PATRICIA HILLIARD-NUNN

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When you stand together, love one another, study, and focus, there’s nothing you can’t do.

SPRING/SUMMER 2023 Contents

SPRING/SUMMER

2023

Ytori is published twice a year by the University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“Ytori” means “alligator” in the language of the Timucua, the native inhabitants of north-central and northeastern Florida.

STAFF

DAVID E. RICHARDSON, Dean

STEVE EVANS, Executive Director of Advancement

MEREDITH PALMBERG, Senior Director of Strategic Engagement

DOUGLAS RAY, Associate Director of Communications

LAUREN BARNETT, Editor-in-Chief

BRIAN SMITH, Writer

EMMA BARRETT, Editorial Assistant

ALI PATTERSON, Proofreader

KATHLEEN MARTIN, Art Director

MICHEL THOMAS, Multimedia Specialist

NATASHA BADAL, Photographer

© 2023 by the University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or duplicated without prior permission of the editor. University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is an equal access/equal opportunity university.

HAVE A STORY IDEA OR WANT TO GET IN TOUCH?

ADDRESS

Ytori, University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

2014 Turlington Hall PO Box 117300

Gainesville, FL 32611

EMAIL

newsandpublications@clas.ufl.edu

WEBSITE news.clas.ufl.edu

ON THE COVER

In celebration of 75 years of coeducation at UF, a chair becomes a powerful symbol of progress and equality, while also representing the challenges women have overcome in academia.

Design by Kathleen Martin. Brown chair: ©Natasha Breen/ Adobe Stock.

@UF.CLAS @UF_CLAS @UF_CLAS

34 Dynamic Duo Guided by a mentor, a current student investigates her future with the FBI

36 Ahead of Their Time Honoring esteemed young alumni named to 40 Gators

From the Dean

Welcome to the latest issue of Ytori, where we delve into archives, explore oral histories, and peruse old yearbooks to uncover over a century of change in the college.

This year, we commemorate 75 years of coeducation at UF, celebrating the history of women on campus. As trailblazers, they have fought for equality over the years, claiming more and more seats at the proverbial table. Our cover story highlights this progress (page 16), and the chair on our front cover is a symbol of that journey.

Within these pages, our students make deeper connections to history as they uncover Gainesville’s past (page 10), while a history professor documents the day-to-day life of the Cuban people (page 28). Global partnerships increase our impact as we tackle some of the most complex issues facing communities in the Amazon (page 24). This spring we celebrated the Department of Geological Sciences, which also marked a 75-year milestone (page 14) as it looks toward its AI-enhanced future.

Once again, in this past academic year, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences celebrated the graduation of thousands of our students who spent much of their time at UF during the pandemic. The college’s faculty used creativity and flexibility to teach and advise these students on the path to their degrees. Some personal reflections on the challenges and changes from that time provide lessons on resilience (page 30).

This issue of Ytori is the 10th since the magazine’s first edition in the fall of 2016. The milestone prompts us to answer the most frequent question we receive: What is a Ytori? Simply put, it means “alligator” in the language of the Timucuan people, who lived in the north-central region of what is now Florida prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. We learned about the word in 2016 from Professor George Aaron Broadwell, whose work on a grammar and dictionary of the Timucua language is profiled in this issue (page 8).

I hope that you have enjoyed reading Ytori over the last seven years. I am grateful for the talented writers, editors, graphic designers, and photographers who have taken the magazine from an ambitious idea to a cornerstone of our outreach to you, our readers. Thank you for being an integral part of our college community.

Sincerely,

David E. Richardson Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Photo by Michel Thomas.

PAYING IT FORWARD

PASCALE ATALLAH (PhD '13) isn’t just an accomplished leader in the world of chemistry. She’s also a fierce advocate for education. Born and raised in Lebanon, where women find limited opportunities, Atallah doesn’t take any of it for granted.

When Atallah first arrived in Florida, she remembers feeling lost in her coursework. She struggled with imposter syndrome, doubting her own value in academia. The language barrier didn’t help either. But over time, mentors in the Department of Chemistry encouraged her to find self-assurance. Butler Professor Emeritus KEN WAGENER helped instill confidence and cultivate a sense of belonging. “He helped me realize that all the things that make me different, make me special,” she said. UF gave Atallah more than an education — it offered a lasting change in perspective.

After graduation, Atallah developed a passion for helping others achieve the same sense of empowerment. She entered the research realm as a polymer scientist but quickly decided she wanted to direct her energy toward service to society. In her current role as product and social sustainability manager for Chevron Phillips

Chemical (CPChem), Atallah leads the social responsibility focus area of their corporate sustainability which includessocial impact, and human rights. As a certified coach and mentor, she also helps young girls and women in STEM gain their own self-confidence.

Atallah’s transformative experience at UF inspired her to give back. She established an endowment this year that recognizes students who lead community service initiatives. Her efforts have been fueled by CPChem, which matches giving efforts dollar for dollar. Atallah hopes the partnership will be a longstanding way to encourage the welcoming culture she found at UF. It’s also a win-win for the industry, as the corporation helps build a quality workforce for the future.

“When you expand someone’s access to education, it gives them the agency to change their lives and the lives of others,” she said.

“The greatest legacy you can leave behind is to give people education.”

UNIVERSITY of FLORIDA

Photo courtesy of Pascale Attallah.

Roundup RESEARCH

Compiled by Brian Smith

Faculty and researchers work to grasp a firmer understanding of the past, present, and future of the world around us. Here’s a snapshot of recent grants and publication highlights.

Conservation efforts for the green sea turtle have begun to yield significant results, giving scientists a better look at the underwater ecosystems of the Caribbean. These turtles are integral to the region’s vast seagrass meadows, and their return in recent years has allowed these areas to thrive again.

Discover more of the college’s exciting new research developments: clas.ufl.edu/researchroundup

ALEXANDRA GULICK, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Biology, published findings in Ecosphere that sea turtles follow a fixed routine, often returning to the same areas over time to feed. In response to the turtles’ routine feeding, the seagrass will grow denser and shorter, leading to significant changes in the underwater landscape. “Our findings provide important insight for understanding grazing dynamics and sustainability in seagrass ecosystems and valuable tools for developing effective conservation methods for both turtles and seagrasses,” Gulick said.

A fossil in India that was once believed to be a specimen of a primitive animal called Dickinsonia has recently been revealed to be nothing more than a decaying beehive anchored to a rock.

This discovery is more significant than it appears at face value, as the original discovery of the “fossil” allowed scientists to assign a rough

SEA TURTLES BOUNCE BACK

Black holes have been a focus of astronomical research for decades, and thanks to a recent study co-authored by astrophysicist LAURA BLECHA, we are one step closer to understanding their complexities. About 500 million light-years from Earth, a pair of galaxies are merging. Within those galaxies are two black holes a mere 750 light-years apart, the closest we’ve ever seen two black holes together. Their proximity has caused noticeable “ripples” in spacetime, allowing scientists to observe parts of the universe previously invisible.

“These objects are millions to billions of times the mass of the sun, and when two of them come together and merge, they create extremely powerful ripples in the fabric of spacetime that can be detected across most of the observable universe,” Blecha said.

Researchers hope to use this information to better understand how black holes form and evolve, untangling another long-standing mystery of the universe.

Carbon is an incredibly versatile element with valuable properties like thermal and electrical conduction, durability, and fire resistance. It takes various natural forms, most notably diamonds and graphite, but in recent years new forms have been created in labs, like graphene in the 2000s. Thanks to a team of 25 researchers from nationwide institutions, including UF chemist AUSTIN M. EVANS, another new form, or allotrope, has been discovered that opens up new possibilities for the element.

age to the cave where the rock was found, and this age was then extrapolated to obtain a rough estimate of the entire subcontinent’s age. With this revelation, the entire history of the subcontinent must be rewritten.

Professor of Geological Sciences

JOSEPH MEERT, who had become an expert on the area’s geology,

was among the team who made this discovery, helping establish a new age estimate of the cave and area around it. New estimates suggest that the rocks in the area could date back about 1 billion years, but results have varied.

While other allotropes of carbon are rigid in their dimensionality, the new allotrope, called graphullerene, combines two-dimensional and zerodimensional elements to create sheets that are less rigid. In addition, graphullerene is both thermally conductive and electrically insulating, making it ideal for the development of miniaturized electronic devices — and possibly emerging quantum devices.

A BLACK HOLE DANCE

Story first reported by UF News.

Bee on a transparent background, abelha: © lupacodesign/Adobe Stock; Bee close up: © Joost/Adobe Stock.

Photo by Natasha Badal.

Michael Koss/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ M. Weiss (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

What’s in a Name?

By Lauren Barnett

At first glance, Ytori might seem an odd choice of name for our publication — the title doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. Over the years, the befuddled questions from our readers have remained steady and constant.

But Ytori is a poignant homage to the original residents of our campus. It captures the university’s history, honors Florida’s native peoples, and celebrates our school spirit. It also honors a language not spoken for the past 200 years.

Centuries before the arrival of Europeans and long before backpackladen students first roamed the lands, an Indigenous tribe called the Timucua inhabited North Florida. By 1800, the tribe was devastated by European impacts, with descendants of Timucua integrated into other ethnic groups. Although there are no longer any speakers of the Timucua language, Elling Eide Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Linguistics

GEORGE AARON

BROADWELL carries on their legacy, preserving the pieces left behind.

As one of the few scholars in the world versed in the Timucua language, Broadwell eagerly proposed a few words as the college brainstormed options in preparation for the magazine’s inaugural issue in 2016. He offered the winning name: Ytori.

It’s a translation of the word for “alligator” in Timucua.

“It’s the perfect name for our college magazine,” Broadwell said. “There has been a long, significant history of interactions between humans and gators in Florida for as long as we have records.”

Ytori acknowledges a thread of continuity running between our modern society and that of our predecessors: Today, Gator fans have adopted the toothy reptile as a mascot of athletic prowess. The alligator also served as a powerful representation of strength in Timucuan society — so much so that the word took on a second symbolic meaning of “grandfather” or “godfather,” according to Broadwell.

Broadwell has developed a close familiarity with each word in the

Timucua language. He has pored over historical manuscripts and books over the past five years, noting patterns in the texts. In no small feat, he has successfully reconstructed a complete grammar of the Timucua. The resulting volume, Timucua Language: A Text-Based Reference Grammar, will be published next year.

Apart from its linguistic value, Broadwell hopes the new analysis will expand Floridians’ perspectives on the state’s history and encourage a deeper understanding of the Indigenous cultures of native Florida.

“For the first time in hundreds of years, we’re now able to read Timucua language as it was originally expressed,” he said. “It’s a real breakthrough.”

Alligator: © Mammut Vision/Adobe Stock

Photo by Lyon Duong/University of Florida.

ALL ROADS

Lead to Rome

By Emma Barrett

A large military presence, the rise and fall of emperors, complex architecture, and the spread of the Latin language may come to mind when one hears “ancient Rome.” The civilization grew from a small town in central Italy in the eighth century B.C. into the most powerful empire in the world — until its fall in the fifth century A.D. Despite being composed of the toughest leaders and smartest engineers, the core of its society was rooted in humans just like us.

JENNIFER REA, professor and chair of the Department of Classics, investigates connections between

ancient Rome and modern science fiction and fantasy. She studies legendary figures in both antiquity and modern popular media, who often reflect common anxieties, beliefs, and hopes for the future.

Through literature and creative works, writers of this time expressed their views and curiosities about society — a society that experienced violence, war, and suffering just as ours does today. According to Rea, if you just watch the news, you can see how we are becoming increasingly anxious about our future. Looking to the past, we see communities in

TIMELESS LESSONS

Why lessons from the Eternal City matter in a modern world

antiquity also worry about poverty, war, and international relations.

Rea believes we need informed individuals who have studied the world’s history to learn from the triumphs and tragedies of previous societies, which could help us understand and make positive changes to our ever-evolving world.

“From examining societies that rose and fell, we can better understand how we got to who we are today,” she said. “You learn empathy and how to envision the world you want to live in.”

The Fault is (Not) in Our Stars

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles inspires thought-provoking questions about how much control we have over our life choices and destinies. It’s personal for Rea: A fleeting, chance encounter on a train in Italy led to her parents’ marriage — but had they not taken action to exchange addresses, the relationship would not have blossomed.

If There’s a Will, There’s a Way

Virgil’s ancient Roman epic, Aeneid, shares the story of war refugee Aeneas, who flees the burning ruins of his city and founds a new one. The poem raises questions about how societies recover from civil war and how they reimagine their identities as they rebuild and recover. When all seems lost, we can seek and find new beginnings.

Good Things Take Time

In the classic story Labors of Hercules, the Hydra is a terrible monster with numerous heads. Each time one head is cut off, two more would appear. Hercules finally defeats the Hydra by patiently cutting off each head and having his nephew cauterize the wounds. Perseverance and hard work helped Hercules accomplish his task — something we can all practice in our daily lives.

Sophocles: © fogbird/Adobe Stock; Soldier: © RealPeopleStudio/Adobe Stock; Wall Clock: © PF-Images/Adobe Stock; Hydra: © Kazakova Maryia/Adobe Stock.

Taking Care of Business

By Lauren Barnett

Historians mix work and pleasure to unveil Gainesville’s first-ever comprehensive business history

Historian SEAN ADAMS grew up far from the sandy soils of the Sunshine State, like many others who have built their careers at the University of Florida. Still, he’s found himself leading the charge to preserve the state’s colorful past.

While on a family outing to Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Pennsylvania, a six-year-old Adams held a musket in his hands for the first time. The young Adams marveled at the thought of such a momentous battle in American history taking place just a short drive from his hometown.

Flash forward, and decades later, Adams is still on a mission to bridge the past and present — now he’s just a bit more focused on a quest to help others capture that same feeling of wonder he discovered as a boy.

As the Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of History, Adams spearheads the Inquire Capitalism initiative to promote scholarship in the history of capitalism — an oftenoverlooked realm, according to Adams. While his expertise lies in 19th-century U.S. history and industrialization, lately Adams’ interests have taken a more altruistic turn.

“I’m at the stage in my career now where I just want to help people build connections to history,” he said. “And after living and working in

Florida all these years, I’ve seen how that doesn’t often happen here.”

Many people move to Florida to forget their past, Adams notes. But he’s concerned that the state’s business histories, and the larger story of the communities around them, will be lost if they are not captured. He wants Floridians to build personal connections to their history and see themselves as active participants in it. “Florida’s history is newer and quirkier,” Adams said. “I think you just have to embrace it.”

Gainesville, the site of the university’s main campus, is a transitory place where people come and go quickly once degrees are earned. Adams said this can make it challenging to maintain a sense of history and community. To address this issue, Adams and his team of Inquire Capitalism interns are on a mission to raise awareness about the importance of preserving Florida’s business history.

The term “business history” may conjure ideas of billionaires and corporations, but Adams and his team reconstruct a history of local, small businesses. They’re cataloging the places where people eat, socialize, shop, plan funerals, and pick up their prescriptions.

The real magic happens when a student makes a local connection. You can see their eyes light up.”

— SEAN ADAMS

“A sense of belonging gives people hope,” said PAULA DE LA CRUZFERNÁNDEZ, coordinator of the Inquire Capitalism program. “Business history is your history — it’s about the everyday people working to build a community and culture.”

Using city directories, postcards, and ledgers, the team is slowly filling in the town’s history gaps with comprehensive, layered snapshots spanning each decade. Next, they plan to scour local newspapers and conduct oral histories to connect interesting stories to each space. And with their ultimate goal of creating an open-access, interactive digital exhibit, they’re ensuring this history remains accessible and engaging for generations to come.

As Adams’ undergraduate interns have identified their own personal interests, they’ve begun to pursue individual projects that investigate corners of Gainesville’s business history. “The real magic happens when a student can make a local connection,” Adams said. “You can see their eyes light up.”

Third-year history major CATHERINE HILL is delving into Gainesville’s storied automobile dealer district. The internship has solidified her interest in material culture, she said, as she pieces together the past by investigating artifacts.

Third-generation Gator JORDAN DICKENS chose to explore the history of Gainesville’s “sin” district, the strip of businesses just north of UF’s campus known as Midtown. Dickens’ curiosity stems from a connection to family history — his parents frequented former social landmarks such as the Purple Porpoise, giving meaningful context

to his research. “It’s interesting to see how communities actually develop around these locations,” he said.

PATRICK GREY, a 2023 Beinecke Scholar, examines Gainesville’s multiple black business districts, which have shifted over time as the city’s geography changed. Throughout much of Gainesville’s business history, segregation remained a harsh reality. “Black businesses aren’t given enough attention, so I’m excited to shed some light there,” he said.

Adams encourages everyone to take a closer look at the stories behind the places they encounter every day. Just as you use genealogy tools to discover family roots, you can connect over a shared place with neighbors past and present by discovering more about your town’s background.

“There’s a story behind everything, even if it’s faded into the past,” he said.

Opposite

This

page: Sean Adams at the Matheson Museum. Clockwise, from top left: Paula de la Cruz-Fernandez, Catherine Hill, Patrick Grey, and Jordan Dickens.

page: A fan advertisement from the automobile district. Insurance map details from the Sanborn Map Co., 1913. Materials courtesy of the Matheson History Museum Library and Archives. Photos by Michel Thomas.

Racial Reckoning

By Douglas Ray

It has been a season of reckoning for historical injustices in and around the campus of the University of Florida, led in part by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Graduate students uncovered a 1920 article in which a Gainesville newspaper editor acknowledged membership in the Ku Klux Klan and other published accounts that contributed to the climate of racist terrorism following the end of Reconstruction and the emergence of Jim Crow policies. Their findings, along with a presentation on the report of a presidential task force, a film premiere, lesson plans for K-12 classrooms, and accounts of experiences of antiracism activists in North Central Florida, were part of a series titled “Challenging Racism at UF” that ran from Jan. 14 to April 21.

“In oral history, we learn about the power of storytelling. This reveals truths that can sometimes be very uncomfortable,” said PAUL ORTIZ, history professor and director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program. “We’re not trying to denigrate institutions — we love the University of Florida. But if we’re going to be a top-tier research institution, we need to use the tools of historical research to make the university a more welcoming place.”

“It’s great that our students have done this research and produced these materials that will allow others to write dissertations and senior thesis projects, but we’re not really doing our jobs if we’re not sharing this material with the public,” Ortiz said. “And that relationship with the public is a reciprocal exchange of knowledge.”

Investigation into how the local newspaper, The Gainesville Sun,

reported on racial violence during Jim Crow came at the suggestion of editors at the newspaper, who enlisted the Oral History Program along with community members to underscore transparency. The findings were presented on Jan. 14 at the Cotton Club Museum in Gainesville. The Cotton Club Museum has been restored from a building with its own history as a social gathering spot for Black residents during Jim Crow.

“We admire originality,” opens an editorial in The Daily Sun, a precursor to The Gainesville Sun, on Dec. 16, 1920. “We abominate imitation. There was a time, shortly following the close of the Civil War and during the days of Reconstruction, when Southern men, in defense of themselves and their wives and children, felt compelled to organize that mystic order which has gone into history as the Ku Klux Klan.”

SAMUEL PROCTOR ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM LEADS EXPLORATION OF HISTORICAL INJUSTICES

“This editor was a member of that order,” editor Robert D. Davis wrote without apology, except to assert that the number of murders had been overstated. “It was simply that all murders and all lawlessness was charged on account of the Ku Klux. It was the mystery about them, the midnight, the white sheets, the parades and a few discreet killings that produced the terror they were designed to produce.”

On Jan. 1, 1923, a woman was allegedly assaulted in Sumner, a town about 45 miles southwest of Gainesville. The assailants were supposedly two Black men who had barged into her house, although historians doubt the details as they were reported at the time. It led to the destruction by a white mob of a nearby town called Rosewood and the massacre of at least six but as many as 150 of its Black residents.

An editorial five days later included this: “We feel too indignant just now to write with calm judgment and we shall wait a little while. One thing, however, we shall say now — in whatever state it may be, law or no law, courts or no courts — as long as criminal assaults on innocent women continue, lynch law will prevail and blood will be shed.”

Ortiz spoke at the community presentation on the Oral History Program’s research and noted, “This is an appalling history — it is the story of one newspaper in the South that played an integral role in creating and maintaining white supremacy.”

“In one sense, this newspaper is like many newspapers in the South at the time,” he said. “The Gainesville Sun is one of a small but growing number of newspapers that want to come clean and be honest about its role in creating one-party rule, voter suppression and anti-Black violence.”

Ortiz observed that overcoming challenges like racial bias isn’t an inevitable, consistent march through time. “You take some steps forward and then a couple of steps back. The arc of progress doesn’t happen without a lot of work,” he said.

“We need the Oral History Program to research and preserve Black history, but it’s also important that we make sure these materials are accessible,” Ortiz said.

We need the Oral History Program to research and preserve Black history, but it’s also important that we make sure these materials are accessible.”

— PAUL ORTIZ

Pages of the Gainesville Daily Sun report on events surrounding the Rosewood Massacre in Jan. 1923. From an archive maintained by NewsBank

GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES

the Ages One for

By Lauren Barnett

Much has changed since the Department of Geological Sciences was founded in 1948, shortly after the University of Florida became coeducational. It’s been a winding road, not without its ups and downs as the department worked to cement its identity over time. Now, as the department celebrates 75 years of academic excellence, the anniversary offers an opportunity to honor the past while embracing all that lies ahead in the future.

2023 has also been a chance for alumni, faculty, and students to celebrate. A special reunion weekend in March included a social night, open house, lectures, a celebratory dinner, and after-parties. Chair of Geological Sciences and Professor of Geology ELLEN MARTIN tells all.

Photo by Michel Thomas.

Grand Canyon: © Belikova Oksana/Adobe Stock.

Students and faculty study greenhouse gas exchange in Greenland. Photo by Ellen Martin.

Below: Geology Summer Field Camp students at the San Rafael Swell in central Utah. Photo by Jim Vogl.

You all had quite the party this spring! How did it feel to celebrate 75 years?

The highlight of the anniversary weekend for me was watching old friends reconnect and witnessing the strength of friendships that formed years ago. At our welcome party, the local brew pub was buzzing with people greeting and hugging each other (a welcome sight following the isolation created by the pandemic) and sharing memories from field camp, field trips, class projects, and lab activities, including many stories about the faculty, past and present.

The department has been a collegial, welcoming place throughout my time at UF. My conversations with alumni over the anniversary weekend made it clear that the sense of collegiality has been a trademark of the department since it was established in 1948.

Why are the geological sciences critical in the climate discussion?

Many disciplines are involved in climate research, but geological sciences is the one discipline that looks at the role of the entire Earth system and provides a long-term perspective on climate variability.

The paleoclimate perspective from geological sciences provides constraints on how the system is likely to respond to future events. The climate is a complex system and our

meet me BY THE POTATO

ability to determine future implications of manmade warming is limited by the accuracy of climate models. The data needed to test and validate those models comes from geological studies of how the Earth system responded to previous climate events.

How do your faculty approach this pressing challenge?

Climate change is one of the biggest problems the world is facing, and the societal impacts of this change are already visible in our state. The Florida peninsula is experiencing sea level rise, the resulting ‘sunny day’ flooding, and increased hurricane activity.

A number of our researchers are taking a novel approach to understanding the potential societal consequences of climate change by looking outside of Florida. In particular, there is a focus on the changes in the Arctic, where temperatures are rising four times faster than in Florida. The rapid changes in the Arctic allow our researchers to determine which feedback processes are likely to amplify versus diminish the impact of global climate warming.

A lot hinges on your faculty’s work. What do you see on the horizon for their research?

Geological Sciences is a small department that does a comprehensive job of covering the Earth sciences.

We have researchers studying processes initiated in the Earth’s core, through the mantle, up to the Earth’s surficial crust, and even out into space to processes occurring on other planets.

Our faculty continues to address cutting-edge geological questions using empirical, observational, and/ or analytical techniques. Recently, we have branched out by adding more computational approaches including AI and machine learning techniques. These tools provide new insights into old problems, complementing our more classical approaches and helping us stay at the forefront of the discipline.

What do you find most rewarding about leading this department?

Eight early career faculty have joined the department since 2018. We also have 17 senior faculty, all of whom started here prior to 2008. So, there’s a 10-year gap that creates an interesting dynamic. We try to balance rethinking old ideas and traditional policies that may have gotten a bit stale with maintaining some of the practices we feel make us a strong, successful department. The ability to listen to diverse opinions that stem from different backgrounds and experiences allows us to be creative and move forward together in a positive way.

Famed UF landmark Turlington Rock (known affectionately as “The Potato” by Gators near and far) is a popular place to exchange ideas and meet up with friends. But unless you’re in the know, you may chalk up the pillar as an abstract sculpture.

The truth is far more interesting: Turlington Rock is a time capsule. Formed by a mixture of Suwannee limestone and seashells, it’s a geologic relic from the Oligocene era. 25-million-year-old marine fossils cover its surface.

How did the 10-ton sedimentary slab come to land in its resting spot at UF? Geology professor JAMES EADES made the fortuitous discovery in a limestone quarry 100 miles from campus. The quarry, Florida Crushed Stone, donated the rock to UF in 1984.

It was good timing. The Department of Geological Sciences had just moved into the newly built Turlington Hall and it had been looking for a way to announce its new home. Eades had found the perfect way to make the department's presence known.

Turlington Rock by Scott Harper; background photo by Brianne Lehan/University of Florida.

a seat at the

By Lauren Barnett

we honor the trailblazing women who dared to dream bigger

When it comes to women’s history at the University of Florida, you probably already know the basic outline: In the early days, academic culture was resistant to gendered voices for change. A liberation movement helped slowly, slowly build progress. Today, we’re more gender equal than we have ever been in our history, but that doesn’t mean we’re completely there yet.

It took time and immense effort to reach this point. One brick at a time, the women of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences laid a foundation to uplift other women as they ascended to roles as faculty, deans, and administrators. They’ve embraced challenges, led by example, and set the stage for the university’s phenomenal rise to Top 5.

As UF celebrates 75 years of coeducation,

Table

THE 2022 ACADEMIC YEAR MARKED 75 YEARS of collegiate coeducation (educating women alongside men) on the UF campus. We honor the pioneers who paved the way for acceptance both in and out of the classroom.

Pull up a chair

and we’ll tell you all about how women in our college and across campus not only found their chairs at the proverbial roundtable — but their voices, too.

On a cool spring evening in March of 1957,

student ADELE KHOURY (AA '59) left her University of Florida dormitory to meet her future husband BOB GRAHAM (BA '59) for a cup of coffee. They were out from 11:10 p.m. to 1 a.m. The next evening, the pair caught a movie at 8:30 p.m. Both evenings, Khoury made her curfew just in time. Over the following weeks, the future governor of Florida and first lady frequently went out on the town: They saw shows, attended campus events, and danced at the military ball.

These tidbits might seem like footnotes in the personal diary of a couple’s emergent romance, but the truth signals something deeper.

For UF’s pioneering women, records of the “good ole days” looked quite a bit different than they do now. While students today often record and publicly share moments of their evening escapades on social media, female students were once mandated to disclose their activities and companions; it was not a choice. Well into the 1960s, female students living on campus complied with a university policy of sign-in-out sheets, logging their comings and goings from residence halls. There was no such policy for male students. Khoury’s detailed logs harken to a different time. They’re a reminder that we must not take our freedoms for granted — they’re also a celebration of just how far we’ve come.

FLORIDA WOMEN through the years

1853

1861

1903

1906

1909

1918

1920

A coed East Florida Seminary is founded in Ocala (UF chooses this as its date of establishment)

Civil War begins and Ocala’s East Florida Seminary closes

Coeducation ends and female students are terminated during the academic year

UF moves to Gainesville as a male-only institution

Women enroll in UF’s summer school programs

UF’s first female faculty member, chemist Ida Mai Lee, is hired

Mary Alexander Daiger becomes the first woman to earn a degree from UF, thanks to summer school coursework

The women’s basketball team was dissolved in 1903 when UF was named an all-male institution.

* Editor’s Note: To distinguish the contributions of our college’s faculty, staff, and alumni, we have chosen to bold the names of individuals affiliated directly with our college.

Adele Khoury Graham, 1979. State Archives of Florida.

THE TRAILBLAZERS

Today, there is a wealth of qualified Gator women to emulate, but a hundred years ago there was no such reservoir from which to draw. However, women have played significant — if overlooked — roles since the University of Florida’s formative days. University catalogs reference women on the faculty and staff as early as 1906. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was established as one of UF’s original four colleges in 1910. The college accelerated opportunities for women by hiring IDA MAI LEE, listed as an assistant professor of chemistry in the 1918 academic catalog. She’s celebrated as UF’s first female faculty member. It’s a common misconception repeated around campus that women were not allowed to become students at UF until 1947: Since the early days of the university, women could be found in the same summer school classes as men on campus. Although they weren’t listed as full-time students, women could still apply their coursework toward a degree. So, in 1920, MARY ALEXANDER DAIGER became the first woman to graduate from UF. Official records are scant, but she’s

WORKING TOGETHER FOR CHANGE

In the spring of 1925, the state Legislature passed a law saying that any woman wishing to study courses not offered at the Florida State College for Women (present-day Florida State University) could attend the University of Florida. So, alongside a small group of women who arrived on campus in September 1925, horticulturist Lassie GoodbreadBlack took her place in a long line of men. But just because the doors had opened to them, women were not always welcomed. Goodbread-Black stepped up and handed her registration fee of $31 to the registrar

believed to have graduated with a degree in the liberal arts and sciences. Later, RUBY LUCILLE RICKS BROWN would be the first woman to receive a master’s degree in arts and sciences from UF in 1923, paving the way for women in graduate education. An influx of veterans at the close of World War II set the stage for coeducation at UF. The campus expanded to accommodate the arrival of over 9,000 students. As returning soldiers relocated and brought their wives to Gainesville, many women vocalized a desire to earn higher degrees. After all, they were eligible for financial support from the federal government under the GI Bill. Largely in response to these needs, the Florida Legislature opened the doors for women to become regularly admitted students in 1947, officially ending segregation of the sexes.

at the window — who abruptly refused to help her. “He said, ‘Step aside, lady! Step aside, lady!’” Goodbread-Black recalled in a 1984 interview with the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program. Her feelings were crushed. But a visit to the university president, Alfred A. Murphree, fixed it all. Murphree welcomed her into his office with open arms, soothing her fears. He said, “Don’t cry, daughter, just wait. We’ll work things out,” she recalled. Murphree placed a call to the registrar and set her up in classes to become the first woman to attend UF full-time.

Photo of Lassie Goodbread-Black courtesy of her family. All other images courtesy of UF Archives.

THE FACULTY

As UF became coeducational, progressive strides were made not only in the student body but also in the diversity of faculty. In 1947, DOROTHY RETHLINGSHAFER was hired as the first female faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, standing nearly alone in a sea of male faculty and administrators across campus. As an associate professor of psychology, she found her voice in the male-dominated field of experimental psychology — and although it took until her retirement in 1969 to achieve it, she was promoted to the rank of full professor.

The few other women hired at UF during the late 1940s were brought on to teach physical education courses for women to counter a stigma that they were too physically “fragile” to attend a regular college.

Rethlingshafer wasn’t the only midcentury woman in the college to rise to the top of their professional organizations and hone their leadership skills along the way.

GLADYS KAMMERER arrived to the college in 1958 as the first female full professor in the Department of Political Science. Her list of leadership

appointments grew to be quite extensive over the years, culminating in 1964 with her appointment to a steering committee on the UF Senate. We celebrate her today as the first woman in an official UF leadership role for the faculty. At the time of publication, our college is led by five associate deans who are women, each of whom can trace their success back to a path forged by Kammerer.

In an anomaly too ironic to omit from this discussion, Kammerer was selected as the first woman to receive the Florida Blue Key Teaching Award. But she found herself excluded from attending the banquet to receive it — women were not allowed to attend the reception.

While female faculty members expanded academic mindsets throughout the ’60s, a revolution was happening in the realm of physical education as well. Title IX was passed in 1972 to prohibit discrimination of students based on their sex, swinging wide the door for women to participate in intercollegiate athletics. That year, Ruth Alexander drove forward the birth of an intercollegiate athletic program for women, the Lady Gators.

A Champion for

A nepotism policy once affected women at the university, restricting employment for immediate family members. IRENE THOMPSON, faced with this policy, relegated her career aspirations to teaching at a local high school.

WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION

It was only after the passing of her husband, who was a history professor, in 1966 that she found an opportunity to teach English at UF. Thompson pushed boundaries from the get-go, tirelessly fighting for women’s perspectives.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings taught creative writing in the college during the 1930s. Her success empowered others to embrace the power of their voices.

THE LEADERS

Male perspectives have been a defining and dominating force in the realm of educational administration, but as the representation of leadership expanded, women carved their own paths.

With approximately 500 women enrolled in 1948, Marna Brady was named Dean of Women. But when she showed up for her first day, it was clear that no one had prepared for her arrival. Instead of a real office, Brady’s makeshift workstation was stuck in Anderson Hall’s hallway, a mere table and chair in the corridor.

Still, she pushed forward in her role, establishing social codes for both men and women on campus. The first guidebook for women, the ‘Coedikette,’ was published. Sororities were colonized and the first permanent residential hall for women, Yulee, was built shortly after — on a former cow pasture.

In the late 1960s, as scholars across the nation began to openly critique sexism, a women’s studies curriculum began to take shape. In fact, Gainesville itself became an epicenter of feminist activity, earning a national reputation as one of the birthplaces of the women’s liberation movement. In 1971, the Department of English’s IRENE THOMPSON (see sidebar for more) introduced a night class called “Images of Women in Literature from Ovid through Norman Mailer.” It was the first course on campus dedicated to examining the perspectives of women. 370 students showed up the first night of class. Formal authorization for the university’s women’s studies program came in 1977, just 30 years after UF became coeducational.

One of the founders of the Women’s Studies program, O. RUTH MCQUOWN, made history when she became the college’s first female associate dean. She cemented her legacy once more when she helped establish the college as we know it today, from a merger of two previous colleges (University College and the College of Arts and Sciences).

As the 1980s and 1990s continued, the Women’s Studies program saw major growth, and in 1994, it developed into the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research. Thanks to a generous contribution from KATHRYN CHICONE USTLER (BA '61), Ustler Hall was renovated in 2004 to house the center. The historic women’s gym became the only freestanding building in the U.S. devoted entirely to women’s studies. It’s also the first academic building on campus named after a woman. Outside its impressive façade, a monument to UF’s women celebrates leaders in the community who dared to dream bigger.

Today, there are too many incredible, important women to highlight in our college — just take a look at the five of seven associate deans leading the path. They exemplify the college’s values and upward trajectory. With them at the helm, we’re all on the rise.

“As I deviated more and more from the expected norms for women by those in power, I became more and more an anathema,” she said in a 1987 manuscript now in the University Archives. She was the first to teach

1938

1925

Women permitted to enroll at UF full-time (restrictions in place)

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings teaches a creative writing course in the English department.

FLORIDAWOMEN through the years

1947

UF becomes coeducational, welcoming 601 women to the class of regularly admitted students

women’s studies on campus and later made history as the inaugural director of the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research. Her wisdom greatly influenced salary equity tribunals in the 1970s.

1948

Marna Brady is named UF’s first Dean of Women

THE STUDENTS

With the current undergraduate student body hovering at 55% women, UF’s spirited fight song “We Are the Boys of Old Florida” isn’t quite a fair representation of campus today. However, it was an accurate depiction of the times when it was written in the early 20th century. While there’s a place for both women and men now “down where the old Gators play,” that wasn’t always the case.

Although women were permitted to officially join the university as full-time students in 1947, the following decades still presented their share of hurdles. Women living on campus observed a strict curfew, were prohibited from wearing shorts or jeans, and had to report their comings and goings.

It’s critical to note that the early milestones of UF’s coeducation excluded non-white scholars entirely. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson knocked a devastating blow to the Black community. The “separate but equal” construct of legalized segregation was enforced by law and by custom. Its eventual repudiation with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling signaled the start of a battle for inclusion and equity

THE SPIRIT OF FLORIDA WOMEN

Through the early 1960s, the Women Students’ Association produced a publication called the Coedikette. Distributed to each female student, the annual guidebook featured a citrus cartoon mascot named Li’l Orange. As the “Spirit of Florida Women,” she offered advice and presented a list of restrictive rules, advising ladies on a code of conduct and dress code. At the time, the university acted in loco parentis as a legal guardian in place of a parent. A 10:30 p.m. curfew was imposed on weekdays. Dresses or skirt outfits were required in all classes.

After 1958, Bermuda shorts could be worn in the heat of the summer, but faculty members could ban them from their respective classrooms.

The rules codified in the “Coedikette” applied to all single undergraduate women living on or off campus — and notably, did not apply to the university’s male students. The rise of the women’s liberation movement inspired a group of female student leaders to draft recommendations to dissolve the rules. They succeeded in 1969.

on campuses nationwide, including at UF. Finally, high school teacher Daphne Duval Williams became UF’s first Black female student in 1959. She paved the way for many Black students, faculty, and staff to gain their seats on campus.

External factors, including the Civil Rights movement and the emergence of the women’s movement, shaped UF throughout the 1960s. The number of women entering the university increased dramatically, with women representing 36% of the student population by 1972.

As the 1970s roared on, women on campus became more actively involved in student leadership opportunities.

SHEREE SAWYER, a psychology major, became UF’s first female captain of the cheerleading squad. In 1969, political science major JOAN WARREN became the first woman to run for student government president, losing the election. Four more women would attempt to run after her.

Finally, the college’s own CHARLOTTE MATHER broke through the proverbial glass ceiling. Nineteen percent of UF’s student body turned out to elect her, versus the normal 7% in previous elections. On February 17, 1983, Mather earned 61% of the vote to become UF’s first woman to be elected student body president.

The political science major would create the Minority and Women Cabinet divisions within Student Government, giving a platform to underrepresented student groups.

Female students began to overtake their male counterparts in sheer number on campus: By the end of the 1990s, their enrollment surpassed male students, garnering much attention and discussion. Today, of course, women in the college and across campus excel academically as top graduates in their areas of study and socially as leaders in all realms. It took a long time to change the campus culture of our once all-male institution, but women are now firmly recognized as leaders of the future.

*Women at the University of Florida, a publication of the University of Florida’s 150th Anniversary Committee, provided much of the comprehensive history gathered in this article. A special thanks to University Archivist Sarah Coates for additional support.

FLORIDA WOMEN through the years

The individuals featured here are just a fraction of the large cast who have contributed to making our community what it is today and what it can be tomorrow. We hope that by reflecting on the sturdy foundation built by these generations of women, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will continue to empower and uplift the education of future generations of women. The men and women who supported — and continue to support — gender equity, identity, and expression, as well as racial identity, should inspire and challenge us as we look ahead.

1959

1970

Daphne Duval Williams becomes UF’s first Black female student

UF hires its first Black faculty and staff. The small group of eight includes English professor Betty Ingram

All curfews for female students are eliminated

1971

1972

Irene Thompson teaches UF’s first women’s studies course

Title IX is passed to prohibit discrimination against students based on their sex. Concurrently, UF’s intercollegiate athletics program begins

1976

1977

1985

Anita Spring succeeds Ruth McQuown as Associate Dean of CLAS, excising sexist language from undergraduate and graduate catalogs

1998

History is made as the number of women enrolled at UF exceeds men

1999

2004

Political scientist Ruth McQuown becomes the college’s first female associate dean

The Women’s Studies Program is established, dedicated to providing classes that explore the perspectives of women and advocate equality for all

1983

Political science student Charlotte Mather becomes the first woman to be elected UF’s student body president

2007

Psychology professor Elizabeth Capaldi

Phillips becomes UF’s first female provost

Kay Chicone Ustler funds restoration work to turn UF’s former Women’s Gym into the only freestanding campus building in the U.S. devoted solely to Women’s Studies

Patricia Hiliard-Nunn joins the African American Studies program, exposing local racial injustices and paving the way for deeper examination of the Black experience

In honor of his wife and mother, Herbert Yardley establishes a campus garden space and commemorative women’s wall to recognize their contributions to the campus community.

Chart Women's Progress 75 Years of Coeducation

clas.ufl.edu/progress

Amazon GUARDIANS OF THE

By Lauren Barnett

Photos by Michel Thomas.

“

” We want to be protagonists of our own history.

— KALUTATA KUIKURO

IN 1993, ANTHROPOLOGIST MICHAEL HECKENBERGER

MADE HIS FIRST JOURNEY

TO VISIT THE KUIKURO, an Indigenous group living in a remote territory of southeastern Brazil. He traveled from Rio de Janeiro by plane, bus, and flatbed with Chief Afukaka and his young son Amuneri, following their months together at the UN summit Rio-92. Upon arriving on the bank of the Xingu River, they packed a motorboat, a first for the Kuikuro villagers, for the 12-hour journey downriver.

After a midnight arrival at the riverbank port of the Kuikuro, many of the villagers helped carry supplies for his year-long stay the six additional miles down the road. Wading through neck-high water along the way, Heckenberger recalls, “I was thinking some giant Amazonia gator, jacaré, or prehistoric snapping turtle would emerge to snatch me away.”

He remembers the moment he emerged from the river: The Kuikuro village, a circle of houses around a large central plaza, their thatched roofs bathed in soft blue moonlight, came into focus. It was hard not to feel like you were stepping back in time, he said.

When he first lived with the Kuikuro in 1993, according to Heckenberger, the Amazon was the “biggest black hole” in the world of archaeology. But it didn’t take long to become well acquainted with the Amazon’s land and creatures: He’d soon encounter massive anacondas, battle malaria, and suffer from bot flies laying eggs in his skin. He even carried a sidearm on solo treks through the brush, at the request of the Chief, prepared to fend off jaguars or other dangerous fauna.

“The Amazon is a character in every visitor’s story,” he said. As a lived experience, “it swallows people whole.”

It has also been full of surprises for Heckenberger, who has been given a rare chance to gain a deep understanding of the Kuikuro’s traditional practices and cultural heritage in a partnership spanning three decades.

Over time, he has developed a particularly close bond with Chief Afukaka Kuikuro, the principal Chief of the Kuikuro Indigenous Nation. He estimates that he lived about three years of his life in the Chief’s house. He refers to the Chief as his “teacher, friend, and brother.”

Their partnership took time and patience. At first, the Kuikuro leaders hesitated to welcome him into their village. But Heckenberger worked closely with the community to ensure projects reflected their priorities and concerns, presenting ideas that

benefited all. Building on the Kuikuro’s local knowledge and oral histories, he worked with them to map ancient settlements, roads, and ditches using state-of-the-art mapping, GPS, and GIS, connecting the dots to the cultural heritage of the Kuikuro people.

“I was wary of researchers,” Chief Afukaka said. “But as I started to understand the archaeology and maps, I started to see how it could help us.”

With mutual respect, the partnership flourished. Heckenberger pushed Kuikuro history back to before 500 years ago — eventually digging even deeper to show their connections to the land 2,000 years ago. The scientific approach helped the Kuikuro establish their rights to the lands they inhabit. “Archaeology is a powerful tool to show that our people have been on the lands since primordial times,” said the Chief’s son, Amuneri.

As he continued to map Amazonia over the years, Heckenberger also helped deliver one of the great scientific revelations of the 21st century: The Amazon is not a primordial wilderness.

This research, the first to demonstrate that the Amazon had its own model of urbanism, uncovered large towns and chiefdoms. Heckenberger exposed extensive remnants of an urbanized network of settlements and, in the process, an Indigenous nation’s hidden history of sustainability was unearthed, too.

It was long assumed that Amazonian soils prevent intensive agriculture and, thus, large populations. But the maps and excavations revealed a landscape transformed by humans. He discovered “garden cities” among the settlements engineered to combat dry and warm weather periods with careful forest management. We have much to learn from these models of climatic resilience, Heckenberger noted.

Ancient Amazonians learned how to work with the lands to create more fertile soils, carefully managing the forest by grouping trees and concentrating a few species together. It’s now believed that much of the jungle's biodiversity may have been carefully crafted by the Indigenous communities themselves: the ancestors of the present-day Kuikuro. It’s a hopeful reminder as we enter a period of terrible destruction for the Amazon: Humanity and the rainforest can coexist — after all, they lived in harmony for millennia.

In 2020, Heckenberger and the Kuikuro turned from mapping the history of their ancestors to safeguarding the future of their tribe. Epidemics had wiped out large portions of their populations in the past, so as the Kuikuro faced the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, they knew what was at risk. They partnered with Heckenberger and others to employ the ESRI GIS software-based application used for the cultural heritage work, which allowed the community to track movement in and out of the village. In no small feat, this contacttracing collaboration and associated

medical supplies and personnel and community needs kept pandemicrelated deaths or hospitalizations to zero in the eight Kuikuro and related Indigenous communities.

As the Kuikuro fight to maintain their traditional ways, they understand that change is necessary. “We have to live in both modern and Indigenous worlds to not lose ourselves,” said Chief Afukaka. The community uses these tools as much to preserve their culture as move it forward, Heckenberger said. They don’t want their culture to disintegrate.

Today, the tribe has a front-row seat as the Amazon teeters on the edge of a “tipping point” of destruction, essentially living at ground zero of an irreversible transition from tropical forest to a non-forested ecosystem. The Kuikuro territory is under threat from all sides: Wildfires encroach on their lands, catastrophic droughts threaten crops, deforestation increases erosion and erases habitats, and public health is compromised by water pollution.

“It’s unthinkable to me that there may not be an Amazon forest around in my lifetime,” Heckenberger said. “The best solution could be to put the charge in the hands of Indigenous peoples — they have all this knowledge to share.”

As modern challenges infringe on the tribe’s territory, an urgent need to recover their ancestral techniques has emerged. The Kuikuro are looking back to their ancestors for guidance on how to survive in this rapidly changing climate. “Previous generations knew by the stars when to plant,” Chief Afukaka said. “Now the younger generation doesn’t even know how to plant at all.”

From top: Chief Afukaka Kuikuro, Amuneri Kuikuro, Kalutata Kuikuro.

“ WE HAVE TO LIVE IN BOTH MODERN AND INDIGENOUS WORLDS TO NOT LOSE OURSELVES.”

— CHIEF AFUKAKA KUIKURO

In February, Heckenberger brought several leaders of the Kuikuro tribe, representing three generations of collaborators on the UF projects, to speak at the University of Florida to encourage future partnerships. The public event was sponsored by the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program and the Department of Anthropology. The large meeting room was packed to the brim, with students, faculty and community members filling in every available space.

As Chief Afukaka Kuikuro and his heirs took their seats at the front, a captivated audience fell silent. Event co-hosts Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of Archaeology KENNETH E. SASSAMAN and Heckenberger gave minimal introductory comments, turning the stage over quickly to ensure the Kuikuro voices took precedence.

The Chief’s oration was delivered in his native Carib language and translated to Portuguese, with help from his heirs. Archeologist Helena Lima, a collaborator from the Museum Goeldi in Brazil, translated their

discussion into English. She currently directs the group’s collaborative project, the Amazon Hopes Collective, from Brazil.

The project draws together the Kuikuro, scholars, and scientific consultants to address current problems, including forest fires, food security, and pollution. Their long-term goal is to protect Indigenous groups across the Xingu region from external threats and preserve their way of life by connecting them with the global community.

As heir to the chiefdom, Amuneri is concerned about the challenges ahead. “My father is old, and I’m worried about taking the knowledge and wisdom of my father forward,” he said. “As a chief, I’ll have a great responsibility to maintain the culture.

The Chief’s grandson, Kalutata, has developed his own strategies to preserve their culture. As president of the Kuikuro Indigenous Association (AIKAX), he uses film and audiovisual production to encourage Indigenous peoples of the Amazon to create first-

hand content of their experiences and daily lives. It’s a deeply personal approach to activism. “We want to be protagonists of our own history,” said Kalutata.

On the global stage, Heckenberger calls for more space to be created for Indigenous peoples to share their knowledge with scientists. It’s not just about the past — it’s about coming together for the future of the Amazon. He hopes to invite Kalutata back for a semester or two to study and interact with UF students and faculty.

“The Kuikuro are committed to preserving the rainforest for future generations,” Heckenberger said. “They can guide the path forward.”

Left to right: Michael Heckenberger, Helena Lima, Kenneth Sassaman.

“THE KUIKURO ARE COMMITTED TO PRESERVING THE RAINFOREST FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. THEY CAN GUIDE THE PATH FORWARD.”

— MICHAEL HECKENBERGER

Connecting

Cuba

By Emma Barrett

LILLIAN GUERRA never planned on climbing the branches of her family tree. Still, in the summer of 1995, she found herself biking through the streets of Havana armed with her mother’s address book referencing homes of family and friends. She showed up at their homes unannounced, knocking at their doors. Guerra’s immediate family left Cuba in 1964; no one had returned since. So it was quite a shock for relatives as they opened their doors to Guerra, who closely resembled her mother. Six family members even fainted upon seeing the unexpected specter from the past.

Guerra, now a professor of Cuban Studies in the Department of History, describes her Cuban heritage as “inescapable.” Growing up in the vast plains of Kansas, the closest person she could identify with was an African American boy in the first grade, one of her first friends. People would compare the turn of their noses and the color of their skin. Sometimes, derogatory terms were used to describe her father, which made Guerra want to figure out who she was and why her family was treated this way.

“I was plotting my path back to Cuba, even when I didn’t know it,” Guerra said.

Moving to Miami in 1984 proved to be a turning point for Guerra, as it sparked even more curiosity about her family’s heritage. She knew that to truly understand her past and Cuba’s kaleidoscopic culture and history, she had to experience it for herself one day. Over a decade later, Guerra finally found herself en route to the island nation, embarking on a mission that would give her a deeper appreciation for the complexities and contributions of Cuban society.

Starting with that fateful first visit to Cuba in the summer of 1995, Guerra spent many long days in sweltering conditions, gathering historical materials. Researchers were not allowed to take materials home or photocopy them, so Guerra painstakingly transcribed whole

UF historian unveils the day-to-day life of the island nation’s people

A peasant farmer’s hardworking hands, a man’s field of crops combating Cuba’s “Special Period” rations, and a recycled beer can car — just a few of the many archival materials Guerra has gathered to show unexpected details of Cuban life.

documents over the course of years. The resultant four books and dozens of articles and essays on Cuban history have expanded knowledge across the Straits of Florida.

Along the way, Guerra discovered the many realities of Cuba that separation from the island nation had previously denied her.

“When you have that experience, it just changes you,” Guerra said. “It became a mission to try to document this world for other people who would not be able to ever see it.”

Locals also began showing up with materials of their own. Often, they were strangers, just eager to share their archives with Guerra. As she collected stories and artifacts, Guerra recognized an urgent need.

“We really need a place in the United States that is sort of the premier location for knowledge of Cuba,” Guerra thought. “And not just knowledge that we put out through our books, classes, or an occasional interview in the press, but knowledge that can be accessed by anyone.”

So Guerra developed an open-access digital platform. From interviews with experts on Cuban studies to visual evidence of daily life, Guerra’s digital archives take viewers on a journey through the country’s varied landscapes and diverse peoples.

“There is a lot of joy to be had in just learning from people,” she said.

Guerra is also interested in the preservation of Cuba’s cultural resources. As a shifting climate presents new challenges, many archives across Cuba are at risk of degradation. Governmental policies add an additional layer of strife. Thus, Guerra jumped at the chance to work

with the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí in Havana to digitize and consolidate resources between libraries in the United States and Cuba. These exchanges have placed the University of Florida at the epicenter of Cuba’s cultural resource conservation.

“I think a lot of our mission at the university should be to promote human universality — those things that make us connected to one another, regardless of where we are located,” Guerra said.

Guerra continues to pick up speed in establishing connections between Cuba and the University of Florida, encouraging students to continue her efforts. Two of her graduate students have received special permission to travel to the island for historical research this year.

“Together, we have seen the value, immediate impact, and legacy of doing at UF what nobody can do in Cuba: Make Cuba’s history a boundless field of knowledge, discussion, debate, inspiration and democratization,” she said.

Guerra’s efforts to build an openaccess platform for Cuban studies would not have been possible without collaboration between UF’s Department of History, Smathers Library, UF’s Center for Latin American Studies, and libraries throughout Cuba. Explore visual galleries, oral interviews, and treasures from the archives.

All photos courtesy of Lillian Guerra.

Above right: Lillian Guerra and Director of the National Library of Cuba Eduardo Torres Cuevas in partnership.

Navigating the Pandemic

By Douglas Ray

The Class of 2023 overcame unique obstacles with support from faculty and staff

ALEXANDRA TAYLOR arrived on campus at the University of Florida in August 2019, a nervous freshman from Central Florida who had retreated into academics as a high school student with few close friends other than her younger siblings. She knew she was right where she belonged, having set her sights on the Gainesville campus in seventh grade. “I have always been a little Gator at heart, but I am the first in my family to go to UF,” said Taylor, whose birthday parties as a child were decorated in orange and blue.

Still, that first semester felt a bit overwhelming. It was almost with a sense of relief when, after returning from spring break in early 2020, she and the rest of the student body were sent home to study remotely as the COVID-19 pandemic forced safety precautions throughout the United States.

Taylor graduated this May along with a cohort of students whose experiences at UF were shaped by a pandemic that began their freshman year. They overcame challenges but also had unique opportunities. Early research found an “alarming” proportion of university students who showed

Photo by Michel Thomas. Coronavirus image: © elaborah/Adobe Stock; design by Kathleen Martin.

signs of depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts during the COVID-19 pandemic but stressed that more study is needed.

Academic advisors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences said they saw the stress on students dealing with academic challenges on top of disruptions in their family lives. Some adapted quickly to online learning, while others needed extra help with coping strategies.

Faculty members in the college said they also have had to find coping strategies to deal with teaching students online, a trend that didn’t end with the return primarily to classroom instruction.

Taylor attributes much of her success as a student to that period of studying at home. “Meetings and classes over Zoom really helped me come out of my shell,” Taylor said. “Because it was online, I was able to put on a brave face. Otherwise, I was just too shy and scared.”

To stay connected, Taylor joined organizations. Taylor became the undergraduate representative on the board of directors for Phi Delta Epsilon Medical Fraternity. The international organization has opened doors for diverse students to enter the medical profession for over a century. Taylor graduated in May with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and a French and Francophone Studies minor.

The COVID-19 pandemic also prompted Taylor to jump into clinical research. She has been researching therapeutic interventions for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 alongside

infectious disease expert Nicole Iovine in UF’s College of Medicine.

“I wouldn’t have had that opportunity without the pandemic,” Taylor said.

ROSE JACQUES graduated in December 2022 but found her academic path through the pandemic more of a struggle. Her family suffered financial hardships after her mother was laid off from her job. “I stayed home a good bit through the pandemic to help out,” Jacques said.

“I think my experience at UF was very different from what I imagined, largely because of my family situation. My grades were the same, but I had to put in more effort just not to fall behind,” Jacques said. “I feel like I missed out on a lot of things.”

Jacques credits the counseling she received through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Academic Advising Center. There, she got involved in the Beyond120 experiential learning program, where she joined an excursion to Washington, D.C. in 2022. That helped her land an internship with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Despite finishing her undergraduate work in just three and a half years, Jacques successfully balanced coursework as a double major in international and Japanese studies. She now advises international students at Florida International University and plans to seek a role eventually with the U.S. Foreign Service.

“Everything is getting back on track,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Rose Jacques.

While the pandemic disrupted students’ lives, and their experiences as Gator undergraduates were shaped by more remote learning, graduation rates in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences appear unaffected. The four-year graduation rate for those entering the college has run between 72%-75% in recent years. According to CLAS Academic Advising Center data, those who matriculated in 2019, just before COVID-19 forced the campus-wide shutdown, are projected to fall within that range.

A survey of students at Texas A&M University in the spring of 2020, as many campuses were locked down,

found 71% said their stress level had increased, with 18% reporting suicidal thoughts. The study, which appeared in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, found that just 43% of students surveyed could cope adequately with the stress related to the pandemic.

The study reported that the most significant contributor was academic stress, with the majority stemming from increased difficulty due to the precipitous transition and maintenance of online classes.

While many people expect college advisors will be a resource for navigating academic pathways,

“really it is so much more,” said Associate Dean for Student Affairs

GILLIAN LORD, who also serves as director of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Academic Advising Center, as well as professor of Hispanic linguistics.

“Academic advisors are often the people students reach out to regarding all sorts of struggles,” Lord said. “While the need has certainly been great during the pandemic, I’m not sure the role has really changed,” she said.

What has changed is the demand for student mental health services, which Lord said has “skyrocketed.” Although she attributes only a portion of the rising need to the pandemic. She said other factors — including social media — also play a part.

Nationally, the recommended ratio of students to advisors is 250 to 1, according to Lord, who said in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, it is 800 to 1. “We definitely need to increase staff, but we have been unable to do so yet,” she said.

“While many people expect college advisors will be a resource for navigating academic pathways, really it is so much more.”

— GILLIAN LORD, Associate Dean for Student Affairs

“Advisors would love to spend more time with students, but we need to limit sessions to 20 minutes,” Lord said. During some parts of the year, there are enough available appointments but during class registration season and other times, students may struggle to book time with an advisor. The center schedules appointments only three days in advance, but there is some allowance for emergencies.

In 2022, the Academic Advising Center provided 26,181 appointments to students in the college — about the same as since the pandemic began. A comparison with pre-COVID levels isn’t available because the data collection process has changed.

For faculty, some of the changes forced by the pandemic have become endemic, just like the virus itself. That has positive as well as negative consequences, some faculty members said.

“When we went completely online, it was difficult to get students to show their work,” said JASON HARRINGTON, associate instructional professor

in the Department of Mathematics. Harrington describes himself as “old school” in that he prefers to teach before a live classroom audience.

Some students struggled to manage new skills like scanning their worksheets, converting them to PDF files and uploading them all to Canvas, UF’s online academic portal. As a result, he found himself engaging more with academically challenged students than previously, when it was those whose hands were up because they had ready answers.

While some of his colleagues continue to offer classes online or on a hybrid model, Harrington has returned to in-person instruction. “Students are always asking me about the modality of the course — online or in person. That never happened before,” he said.

“I didn’t feel connected to the students. I didn’t feel the engagement. When I tell terrible math jokes … It turns out that 68% of all statistics are made up on the spot … I like to hear them groan,” Harrington said with a chuckle.

Even before artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT began to find their way into many academic disciplines, math instructors found that technologies such as WolframAlpha not only could spit out the correct answer to a problem, but they could also detail the steps that lead to it, “showing the work” their professors prize.

“We’re going to have to figure out how to do online testing and adapt to these new technologies,” Harrington said, that might not have resulted from the COVID pandemic, but will be with us going forward.

“I didn’t feel connected to the students. I didn’t feel the engagement. When I tell terrible math jokes … It turns out that 68% of all statistics are made up on the spot … I like to hear them groan.”

JASON HARRINGTON, Instructional Professor, Department of Mathematics

Photos by Michel Thomas.

Dynamic Duo

By Brian Smith

How an unexpected partnership helped one UF student earn an internship at the FBI

MADELYN MARCOS will be the first to admit that college life hasn’t always been easy. As a first-generation student, Marcos had some ups and downs along the way. But despite experiencing many of the typical trials and tribulations that afflict firstgeneration students, the absence of a support system has not been one of them.

Marcos, a transfer student from St. Petersburg College who enrolled at UF in Spring 2022, is nearing the finish line — she’s on track to earn her degree in political science later this year.

When she arrived at UF, Marcos knew she needed to find guidance on campus. “While my parents have always been very supportive, I was coming into something completely new,” she said. Luckily for Marcos, she learned about Beyond120 and joined at the start of Fall 2022.

Beyond120, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ signature experiential learning program, offers resources to ensure success beyond graduation day. Among other perks, students can gain career advice from

to professionals with real-world experience in their prospective fields. The program seemed overwhelming initially to Marcos, who didn’t quite have a clear career plan in mind. With opportunities to meet with many alumni and listen to guest speakers from around the nation, the program opened up a slew of possibilities that felt daunting.

A meeting with CARLOS COLON (Criminology, '98) brought Marcos’ future into focus.

Carlos, an FBI agent stationed at the Tampa field office, had become

guest speakers and get connected

Photo courtesy of Carlos Colon.

Photo by Natasha Badal.

engaged with Beyond120 the year prior. Marcos’ interest in law initially brought the two together on the MentorConnect platform.

Colon taught a virtual class called “Careers in the FBI” every Thursday night where he would share work stories and have students participate in mock investigations to give them a better feel for his job. Marcos always enjoyed these classes, especially watching other students’ reactions to his more outlandish or exciting stories.

Before meeting Colon, Marcos considered applying for law school in Florida. She also contemplated taking a gap year to travel the world. With the guidance of her new mentor, plans quickly changed. At Colon’s encouragement, Marcos applied for a summer internship with the FBI.

“He told me it would be a huge commitment,” Marcos said. “But after listening to the stories he would tell during his visits to campus, I knew that this was what I wanted.”

A commitment indeed: It took nearly eight months to the day for Marcos to move through the application process. All along the way, Colon was there to help Marcos where he could, like helping her create her first federal resume. For the most part, though, he stood back and let her accomplish as much of the application as she could on her own, always there to fall back on when she needed questions answered or advice.

Her mentor remains humble about his role in the experience. “All I really did was point her in the right direction,” Colon said. “She did all of the hard work herself, and the fact that she ended up getting the internship says more about her than me.”

Now, Marcos patiently awaits the first day of her internship, working alongside Colon and his talented colleagues at the FBI field office. Although she has her heart set on working alongside Colon, she plans to make the most of her time there and thoroughly explore as many different career paths as possible. After her internship and undergraduate degree are completed, Marcos plans to attend law school, hoping to pursue a career with the FBI.

Marcos knows many students may already have solid plans for postgraduation, but she has a piece of advice for those out there who don’t quite yet feel a pull in a certain direction: Attend a Beyond120 event. “You’ll start building professional connections,” she said. “So, no matter what happens, you’ll benefit from it.”

Above all else, Marcos believes that creating connections with others is the most valuable lesson she’s learned through her involvement in Beyond120. And whether it’s bonding with other students who have similar interests or fostering relationships with mentors in your field, Marcos said, the program has much to offer.

As a mentor, Colon has also found his time with the Beyond120 program rewarding. The best part, according to Colon, is getting the chance to talk to students and hear about their excitement for the future.

“The way I see it, why wouldn’t you want to be a mentor?” Colon said. “UF gave me so much as a student, and now I get to give back — to me, it’s a no-brainer.”

“UF gave me so much as a student, and now I get to give back — to me, it’s a no-brainer.” — CARLOS COLON

THIS YEAR, CLAS EXCELLENCE is on full display on the UF Alumni Association’s 40 Under 40 list — over a quarter of honorees are graduates of our college. Our 12 honorees have made significant impacts on their communities and organizations, leading with passion and purpose. They bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to their roles, inspiring future generations of leaders and crafting a legacy of excellence and service.

of

Com piled by BrianSmith

ONCHANTHO AM

Associate General Counsel for UCF’s College of Medicine

Location: Orlando, Florida

UF Degree: BA Sociology '08

Am is a well-known leader and advocate at the local and national level, motivated by her childhood experiences as a Cambodian refugee and her time in the foster care system. She earned her Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law and served as VP and CLO for a nonprofit focused on mental health, substance misuse, and child well-being. Currently, Am acts as associate general counsel for the UCF College of Medicine, while also continuing her public service work in her free time.

LESLIE ANDERSON

Director of Collections, Exhibitions, and Programs, National Nordic Museum

Location: Seattle, Washington

UF Degrees: BA History '04, MA Art History '06

Anderson is a world-renowned curator, event coordinator, writer, and teacher. She has held positions at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the National Nordic Museum in Seattle. Anderson has collaborated with notable figures such as the mayor of Salt Lake City, the Icelandic band Sigur Rós, and the president of Iceland.

PASCALE ATALLAH

Product and Sustainability Manager, Chevron

Phillips

Location: The Woodlands, Texas

UF Degree: PhD Chemistry '13

Born and raised in Lebanon, Atallah moved to the U.S. in 2008 to pursue her PhD in chemistry at UF. After working in research for a while post-graduation, Atallah recognized her passion for service. In her role at Chevron, she drives leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, examines the company’s environmental impacts, and keeps sustainability at the fore of decision-making. Read more about her experiences on page 5.

DREW BAGLEY

Vice President of CrowdStrike, Member of the Europol Advisory Group on Internet Security

Location: Greenville, South Carolina

UF Degrees: BA Political Science and BS Public Relations, '05, MA Mass Communication Law '06

Bagley is a well-known figure in the cybersecurity industry and advises Europol, the U.S Department of State, and the Domain Name System Abuse Institute. He leads CrowdStrike’s data protection initiatives, privacy strategy and global policy engagement. He has held teaching appointments at several prestigious schools around the globe, including American University, the University of Leipzig, the University of Maryland, and the University of Florida.

Graphic of time: © selim/Adobe Stock. Textured strap: © /Adobe Stock.

ANITRA RAIFORD CLEMENT

Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP

Location: Tampa, Florida

UF Degrees: BS Psychology '09, JD '12

Clement is a highly regarded lawyer known throughout the state for her expertise in defending individuals against harmful business practices. She specializes in cases involving personal injuries, wrongful death, unfair trade practices, and consumer protection. She is known for her dedication to understanding her clients’ long-term business goals, and solving problems creatively and efficiently while keeping client values top of mind.

DANE EAGLE

Florida’s Secretary of Economic Opportunity

Location: Tallahassee, Florida

UF Degree: BA Economics '05

Eagle was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to serve as Florida’s Secretary of Economic Opportunity in September 2020. As the Secretary, Eagle works to advance Florida’s economy by championing the state’s economic development vision and administering state and federal programs to help citizens, businesses, communities, and visitors thrive.

STEPHEN ENGLISH

Physician Assistant, Moffitt Health Center at the University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi Academy of Physician Assistant (MAPA) President

Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi

UF Degree: BS Zoology '07

English began his career as a football player for UF and a high school football coach. However, he went on to pursue his Master’s in Physician Assistant Studies from Mississippi College in 2013, which led to becoming a physician assistant at the Moffitt Health Center at the University of Southern Mississippi. Additionally, English became the president of the Mississippi Academy of Physician Assistants (MAPA).

CARLOS MANUEL GOMEZ

Vice President of Augury Strategic Software Alliance, Baker Hughes

Location: Houston, Texas

UF Degrees: BSBA Finance and BA Economics '06

Gomez is a servant-leader with extensive multicultural and multinational experience. He has led multiple organizations across the globe with a focus on leading, developing and instilling a powerful sense of purpose and ownership. Gomez has led strategy, mergers and acquisitions, services, and commercial organizations with an agile and adaptive growth mindset.

BHARGAVA KANDALA

Director of Quantitative Pharmacology, Merck

Location: Bridgewater, New Jersey

UF Degrees: MS Statistics '12, PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences '14

Kandala wears many hats in his position at Merck, where he serves as a group leader, writer, and mentor. His work involves developing novel drugs and vaccines for infectious diseases, publishing in high-profile magazines, and mentoring students in data science and modelinformed drug development. Kandala also holds an adjunct faculty appointment within the Department of Pharmaceutics at the UF College of Pharmacy.

JAMIE LEE MARKS

Senior Analyst, Office of Native American Affairs

Location: Washington D.C.

UF Degrees: BA Women’s Studies and Political Science '07, MA Cultural Anthropology '12

Marks is committed to serving and protecting Native American communities. Currently, as a Senior Analyst in the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s Office of Native American Affairs, she supports the agency’s efforts to advise the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy, providing technical expertise across federal agencies. Additionally, Marks has been teaching research writing classes at the college level for over a decade and provides career mentorship to students and recent graduates.

DEIDRA STRICKLAND

FBI Special Agent

Location: Houston, Texas

UF Degree: BA Women’s Studies '14

After starting her career in law enforcement as a police officer in Jacksonville, Strickland rose through the ranks to become a special agent with the FBI. She has received awards such as the State Law Enforcement Leader of the Year award. She was also recognized as the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) - North Florida Member of the Year. Strickland recognizes the significance of mentorship and has mentored many firstgeneration college students.

JAMES UTHMEIER

Chief of Staff to Governor Ron DeSantis

Location: Tallahassee, Florida

UF Degrees: BS Business Administration '10, BA Political Science '10

Uthmeier currently serves as General Counsel to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis where he manages all litigation and legal work for the governor and state executive agencies. He also serves as the Chief Ethics Officer for the governor and directs the judicial nominations process.

Creative LICENSE

By Brian Smith

RETURN TO THE MOTHERLAND: DISPLACED SOVIETS IN WWII AND THE COLD WAR

By Seth Bernstein | Cornell University Press

Although the Soviet Union was on the winning team during World War II, not everyone who called the country home was lucky enough to consider themselves a winner. SETH BERNSTEIN , associate professor of history, tells the oft-overlooked story of millions of Soviets displaced during the war, and their fight through hardships like forced labor, suspicion of disloyalty, and persecution.

Bernstein pulls from over a hundred first-person interviews, transnational archived material, and recently declassified secret police files, many of which were collected in Ukraine. Bernstein fears many of those archives and resources might be very difficult to access in the future because of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine began after Bernstein finished writing the book, but the war has only made Bernstein’s book more relevant. There are many parallels between the refugees Bernstein wrote about and the refugees who left Ukraine during the war, and Bernstein hopes that his book will help people better understand and relate to their plight.

“There is a sense that migrants, especially refugees, are victims without agency,” Bernstein said. “My book shows that such a view is mistaken. I hope that after the war ends, states and societies will treat the refugees as people with complex motivations rather than people assigned to the simplistic roles of victims or traitors, as they were under Stalin.”

Summer Reads

Looking

clas.ufl.edu/read

Photo by Michel Thomas.

1 | LIQUID SHADES OF BLUE

By James Polkinghorn Oceanview Publishing

Upon learning of his mother’s apparent suicide, ex-lawyer Jack Girard finds himself at the center of a tale about mystery, grief, and trauma. Haunted by memories of his past, as well as his tyrannical father, Jack must uncover the truth behind his mother’s death — or risk becoming the next Girard family victim. In his debut novel, alumnus JAMES POLKINGHORN (Political Science '80) delivers “a ride on the lethal waves of corruption and murder,” according to New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly. Polkinghorn makes excellent use of his experience as a trial lawyer in South Florida, breathing life and realism into the novel’s world.

2 | THE MORAL PSYCHOLOGY OF LOVE

By Arina Pismenny Rowman & Littlefield

What is love, and how can we love others ethically and morally? The latest in a long line of “Moral Psychology” collections, The Moral Psychology of Love offers insights into these questions, as well as related topics that are less frequently discussed in other media.

ARINA PISMENNY, a lecturer at the University of Florida, joins Berit Brogaard, a philosophy professor at the University of Miami, in carefully curating a collection of thirteen essays to “explore the moral dimensions of love through the lenses of political philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience,” according to the publisher.

3 | PATRIOTS AND TRAITORS IN REVOLUTIONARY CUBA, 1961–1981

By Lillian Guerra University of Pittsburgh Press

Award-winning author and professor of Cuban and Caribbean history LILLIAN GUERRA (see page 28) looks back at the rise of a Sovietadvised Cuba in the 1960s-80s. At the time, there was a social binary where Cuban citizens were considered either patriots or traitors — Guerra aims to explore the gray space in between. She dives deep into the lives of citizens caught at the center of this existence, telling a story of complacency, exploitation, and division. Guerra also analyzes the roots of this mentality and how the state ingrained divisive consciousness into everyday activities on the island.

4

|

THE POWER

OF BLACK

AND FREEDOM

FEMINIST AND WOMANIST PEDAGOGY: STILL WOKE (RACE AND EDUCATION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SERIES)

Edited by Gary L. Lemons and Cheryl R. Rodriguez Lexington Books

VINCENT ADEJUMO, a lecturer in the African American Studies program, contributes to this collection of stories joined together by themes of feminism and Black women empowerment. The collection offers first-hand insights into the experience of Black women in academia, with contributors sharing their personal stories both as students and as teachers, shining a light on their successes and struggles.

5 | WASTE WORKS: VITAL POLITICS IN URBAN GHANA

By Brenda Chalfin Duke University Press

In her third published book, BRENDA CHALFIN, a director for the Center for African Studies and professor of anthropology, examines Ghana’s planned city of Tema. She uses it as a jumping-off point to discuss our relationship with waste infrastructure and how it affects urban life. Delve into the surprisingly political world of how we dispose of our bodily waste, and how this planned city deals with some unique challenges in its pursuit of tightly orchestrated domestic infrastructure. Reviewers have called the book “a timely addition to postcolonial scholarship on community planning and development and excreta infrastructure politics in Africa.”

6 | INTRODUCTION TO ARABIC LINGUISTICS

By Youssef Haddad Wiley-Blackwell

Professor of Arabic Language and Linguistics YOUSSEF

HADDAD’s textbook is the outcome of over a decade of experience teaching at the University of Florida. The book provides a thorough and systematic treatment of core areas of Arabic linguistics. It demonstrates the internal logic of Arabic as a language and linguistic system, inviting the reader along the way to engage with the material as an active participant rather than a passive observer. Instructors who wish to adopt the book for their course have access to a companion website that contains PowerPoint presentations, extra exercises, sample exams, and extra readings with questions for more advanced students.

7 | EN BAS SALINE: A TAÍNO TOWN BEFORE AND AFTER COLUMBUS

By Kathleen Deagan University of Florida Press

KATHLEEN DEAGAN ’s

(Anthropology '74) third book takes an in-depth look at Caribbean life in one of the most turbulent periods in its history. It explores a Taíno town near Christopher Columbus’ point of arrival and the effects of European settlement and conquest on the town’s culture and people. Notably, this book is the only archaeological account of the consequences of contact from the perspective of the Taíno peoples’ lived experience. It challenges preconceived notions that Caribbean society collapsed as soon as Europeans arrived. Instead, Deagan hypothesizes that while it was changed with the introduction of European norms like gendered behavior, society did not immediately see a devastating disruption.

8 | COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY AND ARTISTIC AGENCY IN COLONIAL LATIN AMERICA

By Maya Stanfield-Mazzi and Margarita Vargas-Betancourt University of Florida Press

Author MAYA STANFIELDMAZZI is a professor of art history at UF and an affiliate faculty in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies program. MARGARITA VARGAS-BETANCOURT

is UF’s Latin American and Caribbean Special Collections Librarian. Their newest collaborative publication explores the role of art and artists in colonial Latin American society, specifically in Mexico, Peru, and Cuba. Between the 16th and early 19th centuries, artists may have played a huge role in everyday Latin American life. StanfieldMazzi and Vargas Betancourt describe a society where artists served as political figures, revolutionaries, and activists in addition to creating art.

9 | BEYOND RACIAL CAPITALISM: CO-OPERATIVES IN THE AFRICAN

DIASPORA

Edited by Caroline Shenaz Hossein, Sharon D. Wright Austin, and Kevin Edmonds Oxford University Press

The newest release from SHARON D. WRIGHT AUSTIN, professor of political science, explores one of the ways Black people worldwide have banded together to fight systemic exclusion: through the formation of co-operatives. These co-operatives create smaller economic systems of shared resources, which financially benefit everyone in the cooperative but also help develop a sense of unity and social freedom. The book uses dozens of case analyses from across the globe, all of which highlight how members of the titular Black Diaspora take back control in the face of oppression.

10 | THE ROAD TO THE LAND OF THE MOTHER OF GOD: A HISTORY OF THE INTEROCEANIC HIGHWAY IN PERU

By Stephen G. Perz and Jorge Luis Castillo Hurtado University of Nebraska Press

In their new book, STEPHEN G. PERZ , a professor of sociology at UF, and Jorge Luis Castillo Hurtado from the University of Nebraska collaborate to delve into the history of the Interoceanic Highway in Peru. This historic highway was vital to connecting the isolated region of southern Peru to the rest of the world. Its 500-year history spins tales of political corruption, ecological and cultural devastation, economic rises and falls, and boons in criminal activity. The book’s focus might be this one highway, but it also speaks to the importance of infrastructure worldwide and how it can impact societies and cultures for the better and the worse.

11 | YOUR HEALTHY CANCER COMEBACK: SICK TO STRONG

By Fitz Koehler Fitzness Books

Double-Gator FITZ KOEHLER (Political Science '95, Exercise and Sport Sciences MS '98) helps readers conquer cancer and emerge stronger than ever. This guidebook provides a powerful tool for cancer patients and survivors, teaching strategies spanning exercise, nutrition, rest, mental strategies, weight management, and supplemental services. A companion journal brims with thoughtful prompts to document progress and capture memories of the journey to recovery. Koehler, a world-renowned fitness innovator, combines athletic expertise with her own intimate experiences battling cancer to create a blueprint for others to achieve a healthy cancer comeback.

clas.ufl.edu/

Professor of Political Science SHARON

D. WRIGHT AUSTIN received the Fannie Lou Hamer Outstanding Community Service Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

JAEHAN BAE and SARAH BALLARD, assistant professors of astronomy, and AMY WILLIAMS, assistant professor of geology, were selected to join the Research Corporation for Science Advancement’s Scialog Fellowship, where they will apply their expertise to help answer questions about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

The Research Corporation for Science Advancement has named SARAH BALLARD, assistant professor of astronomy, a 2023 Cottrell Scholar.

Professor of Geology MARK BRENNER received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Paleolimnology Association.

Elling Eide Professor of Anthropology GEORGE AARON BROADWELL was awarded the Victor Golla Prize from the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas in honor of his contributions to linguistic scholarship and service to the scholarly community.

RONISHA BROWDY (English '11) joined Florida State University’s Department of English as an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition.

HON. CHRIS BROWN (BA '95, 'JD 99) was recently elected to become Collier County’s judge.

FREDERIC GUERRIER (Chemistry, '77) received the title of “Legend in African American History” from the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum.

GABRIELLA HAMERLINCK, assistant instructional professor in the Department of Geography, was awarded the 2023 Harm J. de Blij Award by the American Association of Geographers for her excellence in undergraduate geography teaching.

Professor Emeritus JONATHAN HAMILTON, a faculty member in the Department of Economics, was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Service Award by the Southern Economic Association.

RECOGNIZING

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF STUDENTS, STAFF, FACULTY AND ALUMNI OF THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Sarah Ballard

Mark Brenner

Sharon D. Wright Austin

George Aaron Broadwell Ronisha Browdy Matthew Jones

Frederic Guerrier

RECOGNIZING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF STUDENTS, STAFF, FACULTY AND ALUMNI OF THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Third-year

honors student PATRICK GREY was selected as a Beinecke Scholar, a prestigious award supporting his future graduate education.

JORDAN JOHNSON (Economics '09) was appointed to the Florida Small Business Development Center Network Statewide Advisory Board.

Assistant Instructional Professor MATTHEW JONES was recognized on Cardiff University’s “30ish Under 30” list for his contributions toward growing academic and cultural connections between Wales and the United States.

JOHN KRAUS (Microbiology '89) has been named executive vice president and chief medical officer for Otsuka, a Princetonbased healthcare company leading the mental health space.

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has named Professor and Chair of the Department of Astronomy ELIZABETH LADA an AAS fellow in honor of her work studying star and planet formation.

PhD student in Spanish VICTORIA MUÑOZ was awarded the Calvin A. VanderWerf Excellence in Teaching Award. Given by UF’s Graduate School to the university’s highest-ranked teaching assistant, the award recognizes her excellence in teaching.

The Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected VASUDHA NARAYANAN, a distinguished professor in the Department of Religion, as a new member.

The University of Florida Research Foundation recognized the university’s most productive and promising faculty members. PAUL ORTIZ, professor of history, DUNCAN PURVES, associate professor of philosophy, DEREK CUMMINGS, professor of epidemiology, JONATHAN MARTIN, professor of geology, JASON BLACKBURN, professor of geography, and LORI KNACKSTEDT, associate professor of psychology were named 2023 UFRF Professors.

ALBERTO PEREZ, assistant professor of chemistry, and COURTNEY SPRAIN, assistant professor of geological sciences, received Early Career Development Awards from the National Science Foundation, in recognition of their outstanding leadership in research and education.

LOUIS REINSTEIN (Religious Studies '96) was elected to Plantation City Council, Group 5.

UF’s Director of Forensics and Instructional Professor KELLIE ROBERTS (Higher Education Administration '13) was named the 2022 recipient of the Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha Lifetime Achievement Award.

VASSILIKI BETTY SMOCOVITIS, professor in the Departments of History and Biology, was elected to the Board of Directors for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

NEIL SULLIVAN, professor of physics, received the Jesse W. Beams Award from the American Physical Society for his work with quantum materials and dark matter.

Professor of Biology

MARTA L. WAYNE’S work with RNA and gene expression earned her the title of lifetime fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Vassiliki Smocovitis

Gabriella Hamerlinck

John Kraus

Alberto Perez

Jaehan Bae

Kellie Roberts

Marta L. Wayne

UNIVERSITY of FLORIDA COLLEGE of LIBERAL ARTS and SCIENCES

The Dean’s Circle recognizes the extraordinary generosity of alumni, friends, faculty and staff who make annual gifts of $500 or more to the Dean’s Fund for Excellence. As a member of the Dean’s Circle, your investment will help the college meet the educational needs of our students, take advantage of extraordinary opportunities, and meet new challenges in teaching, research and service.

Through the Dean’s Circle, alumni and friends have provided:

• Funding for promising undergraduate and graduate students.

• Faculty seed grants for pursuing new research interests and other academic endeavors.

• Scholarships and awards to students for travel abroad experiences.

• New computer hardware and software for research and teaching.

“So much of what is accomplished in our college, and beyond the walls of campus, would not be possible without the generosity of alumni and friends who stand behind our mission.

— Dean David E. Richardson

goes by as time

By Lauren Barnett

ACROSS

1 90 miles from Conch Republic (page 28)

5 “And the rest” in Latin (abbr.)

8 Military mission for distressed vessels (abbr.)

9 Jupiter’s volcanic moon

10 Area of skin supplied by a single spinal nerve

13 Row, row, row your boat

14 Not-yet opened flower

15 SARS, Black Death, Spanish Flu (page 30)

18 Roofed theater in ancient Greece and Rome (plural)

19 Urgent call for help

20 Parish clergyman

22 An individual’s lifetime

24 Preposition indicating a direction

25 1896 Supreme Court case upholding racial segregation (page 22)

DOWN

2 “No crying over spilled milk”

3 The Iron Lady also held this title of nobility

4 Spain's most “fortunate fleet”

6 Indigenous group of North Central Florida (page 8)

7 Midcentury term for female students (plural, page 16)

10 To place money in a bank account

11 Second-person singular present tense of verb “to be”

12 Japanese sash; Jedi Knight

16 “Without further ”

17 Vacationland

20 “Batman Forever” star Kilmer

21 Arm of a starfish

23 Pages of a document (abbr.)

FOR ANSWERS TO THE PUZZLE, VISIT clas.ufl.edu/crossword

Photo courtesy of UF Archives.

FUELING PASSION

YU TIN LIN, a third-year undergraduate with a triple major in chemistry, biology, and statistics, began his freshman year with his sights set on becoming a physician. However, Lin’s undergraduate research involvement in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences changed his entire trajectory.

As a recipient of a variety of awards, including the CLAS Scholars Program and the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, Lin is thankful for the support he’s found at UF. The opportunities have crystallized his desire to pursue a career in scientific research. He only wishes that more students could be provided with similar opportunities to cultivate their success.

“These experiences really encourage students like me to nurture the learning process and develop their goals,” Lin said.

Born and raised in Taiwan, Lin initially struggled to adjust to his new learning environment at the University of Florida.

Still, he persevered, taking courses across a variety of disciplines to develop his skills. An introductory research class offered by Beyond120 lecturer JACOB WATSON first piqued Lin’s interest, inspiring him to pursue an internship in the Department of Chemistry’s Prentice Lab.

“I didn’t have any experience in a lab, and I was afraid to even touch the equipment at first,” he recalled. But Lin embraced the opportunity to learn from leading chemists, finding mentors in BOONE PRENTICE and RAMON MIRANDA QUINTANA. Lin attributes much of his academic development to the encouragement and empowerment provided by his mentors.

“Transformation is possible, and the catalysts are research opportunities,” Lin said. “But underlying everything should be curiosity; it’s what drives us all forward.”

INVEST IN THE FUTURE BY SUPPORTING OUR STUDENTS AND RESEARCHERS TODAY.

Boone Prentice and Yu Tin Lin collaborate in the Prentice Lab. Photo by Michel Thomas.