BOOKS PUBLISHED BY USF ST. PETERSBURG PROFESSORS

Sarah Sell

Julie Buckner Armstrong, Professor of English

Julie Buckner Armstrong grew up in working-class Birmingham and left at twenty-four, never thinking she would return. “Learning from Birmingham: A Journey into History and Home” recounts her inevitable return many years later as a scholar and teacher of civil rights movement literature. The book combines archival research and personal history to bring important questions of race relations into the present day.

Gary Mormino, Professor Emeritus and Florida Studies Program co-founder

In his award-winning book, “Dreams in the New Century: Instant Cities, Shattered Hopes, and Florida’s Turning Point,” Gary Mormino focuses on Florida in the first decade of the new century, 2000–2010, and its connections to some of the most significant events in contemporary American history.

Mormino’s book was selected as the gold medal winner in the 2022 Florida Book Awards, Florida nonfiction category, and chosen by the Florida chapter of the Library of Congress Center for its National Book Festival. Additionally, the book received the Charlton Tebeau Award from the Florida Historical Society. The award recognizes the best historical book of the year.

Mormino has been retired from USF for several years but continues teaching a modern Florida history seminar.

Thomas Hallock, Professor of English, Literature & Cultural Studies

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down his sabbatical research, Thomas Hallock turned to the files of personal writing accumulated in his desk for twenty years, resulting in his latest book, “Happy Neighborhood: Essays and Poems.” In this hybrid collection, Hallock confronts the challenges he has faced as a father, particularly as he sifts through his own family history. Grappling with the struggle of finding peace at home and in Florida, Hallock seeks poetry that can accomplish honest emotional work.

Dawn K. Cecil, Professor of Criminology and Campus Chair

As a co-editor of “The Emerald International Handbook of Feminist Perspectives on Women’s Acts of Violence,” Dawn Cecil helps provide a comprehensive introduction to a wide range of international, interdisciplinary knowledge that applies feminist perspectives to the phenomenon of women’s violence.

Byron Miller, Associate Professor of Sociology

In his book “Interracial Romance and Health: Bridging Generations, Race Relations and Well Being,” Byron Miller tackles a growing public health issue that impacts millions of people in interracial relationships.

“People should be free to love whomever they want without paying a penalty to their health and well-being due to racism,” said Miller. “But in the process of writing, I learned the perpetuation of racist and ethnocentric beliefs in society continues to take a social and emotional toll for many who cross racial lines for romance.”

AnnMarie Alberton Gunn, Associate Professor of Literacy Education

Susan V. Bennett, Associate Professor of Literacy Education

Co-edited by AnnMarie Gunn and Susan V. Bennett, “Teaching Multicultural Children’s Literature in a Diverse Society: From a Historical Perspective to Instructional Practice” is a comprehensive resource for teaching multicultural children’s literature. The book provides foundational information on how and why to integrate diverse children’s literature into the classroom.