Florida Speaker Series
J. Michael Francis, Ph.D.
April 20, 2023 | 6:00pm
In Person or Streamed Live
USF St. Petersburg campus, Lynn Pippenger Hall
Dr. J. Michael Francis received his Ph.D. in History in 1998 from the University of Cambridge. Between 1997 and 2012, he taught at the University of North Florida. In 2012, Dr. Francis was named the Hough Family Chair of Florida Studies at the USF St. Petersburg campus and was Chair of the Department of History and Politics from 2016-2020.
Dr. Francis has written and edited five books as well as numerous book chapters and articles. Since 2016, he has served as the Executive Director of an ambitious new digital history project, titled La Florida: The Interactive Digital Archive of the Americas (www.laflorida.org).
Dr. Francis has received more than two dozen national and international awards, including
a four-year appointment as a Research Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History
in New York, and a Jay I. Kislak Fellowship at the Library of Congress in Washington,
DC. He was appointed to the Florida Historical Commission in 2021 by Florida Governor
DeSantis. That same year, Spain’s King Philip VI bestowed upon Dr. Francis the Officer’s
Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, one of the country’s most prestigious
civil orders.
Lost Voices from St. Augustine’s Parish Archive, 1594 - 1821
Dr. J. Michael Francis explores the early history of colonial St. Augustine, focusing on the rich corpus of baptism, confirmation, marriage, and death records housed in St. Augustine’s Diocesan Archive. With documents that date back to 1594, the parish records provide a unique lens through which to examine the city’s distant past and the diverse population that shaped its history. Francis will highlight some of the stories that emerge from the badly damaged pages, and he will introduce audience members to a digital archive that provides unparalleled public access to this remarkable collection. Dr. Francis wrote about the extensive project in the Fall 2022 issue of FORUM, the magazine of Florida Humanities.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Complimentary event parking in Lot #19 AND in the parking structure (250 5th Avenue South).
Books will be available for sale.
Book signing follows the lecture.
For more information:
DeeLynn Rivinius, ‘20
Florida Studies Associate
rivinius@usf.edu (727) 873-4490
To request reasonable accommodations, please leave a message on the event line at least 5 days prior to the event.
PAST SPEAKERS
Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize-winning USF Alumnus
February 28, 2023 | 6:00pm
USF St. Petersburg campus, Lynn Pippenger Hall
Jack E. Davis is a professor of history and the Rothman Family Chair in the Humanities
at the University of Florida specializing in environmental history and sustainability
studies. Dr. Davis is the author or editor of ten books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning
The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea. He is also a proud USF alumnus.
The Bald Eagle was chosen as a Los Angeles Times top-five non-fiction book of 2022, New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, Amazon Best Book of 2022, and an Apple Best Books of 2022.
The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird
Americans love bald eagles. But that wasn’t always true. By the end of the 19th century, they nearly shot bald eagles into extinction, treating them as unwanted barnyard predators and, falsely, as kidnapping baby snatchers, even while they embraced the bald eagle as the symbol of their country. The Bald Eagle is both a cautionary tale of humanity’s debilitating ways with nature and a celebration of its ability to change to form salutary relationships with nonhuman species.
CHARLES GREACEN, B.F.A. AND GARY MORMINO, PH.D.
March 28, 2023 | 6:00pm
USF St. Petersburg campus, Lynn Pippenger Hall
Charles Greacen is a New Jersey native and Tampa transplant. He graduated from Denison University with a degree in fine arts. Greacen is a former artist for the Tampa Tribune and Tampa Times. For 17 years, he created cartoons for Tampa Bay regional publications.
Gary Mormino is a local historian, author, and teacher. He holds the Frank E. Duckwall Professor of History Emeritus and is the co-founder of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus. Dr. Mormino is a frequent contributor to the Tampa Bay Times and other newspapers.
Florida Landmarks, Lodgings & Legends
Longtime Tampa artist Charles Greacen creates meticulous, photo-like drawings of iconic
structures in the Tampa Bay area and beyond in his book Florida Landmarks, Lodgings
and Legends published by St. Petersburg Press. He works with pen and ink in a painstaking
style that uses thousands of dots for texture and shading. The works are accompanied
by short histories, personal and funny memories, and observations. An article on Greacen
and his work appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of FORUM, the magazine of Florida Humanities.
Historian Mormino joins Greacen for a conversation about Florida landmarks and lore. They will share personal narratives and a historical sense of place to this pictorial trip around our state.
In collaboration with Florida Humanities
