Ytori - Fall 2019

FALL 2019

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

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. — JOHN MUIR

Photo courtesy of the Sierra Club

Cover: The new program UF Intersections: Animating Conversations with the Humanities is encouraging collaboration across disciplines. See page 22.

Jim Harrison

22

46

Now in its second decade, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere leads a bold, innovative new program that takes on “grand-challenge questions� and brings diverse departments together.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences lost a champion earlier this year with the passing of David R. Colburn. Learn more about the impressive achievements and lasting legacy he leaves behind.

REIMAGINING THE HUMANITIES

4 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

REMEMBERING DAVID COLBURN

Above: Fort Pickens was among the Civil War sites where professor Sean Adams led a team of educators for a firsthand look at history.

Ralph T. Webb

QUESTION

8

Petty Disputes, Serious Study

10

Lessons from Hurricanes Past

16

Where History Happened

DISCOVER

14

Hearing their Voices

CONNECT

32

Evening of Excellence 2019

38 Taking Stock

Profiles

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– 31 –

– 34–

– 36 – YTORI — FALL 2019 | 5

Matthew Lester

English professor Debra Walker King was honored as a 2018-19 Teacher of the Year in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for outstanding dedication to her students.

From the Dean The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has seen major changes over the past two years, none more impactful than the hiring of 240 new faculty members. As the University of Florida continues to rise in the U.S. News and World Report Top Public Schools rankings — climbing to No. 7 this year — this infusion of expertise and talent will allow us to meet the evolving needs of our students and continue to enhance the national standing of the university.

While we look forward to the wonderful contributions these new faculty members will bring to our college, we’d be remiss if we didn’t honor the faculty who have propelled us to where we are today through their outstanding research, teaching and service. As you flip through the pages of this issue of Ytori, you’ll read about a number of programs our faculty have shaped into the difference makers they’ve become. From the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere’s UF Intersections: Animating Conversations with the Humanities program, to the Health Disparities in Society minor offered within the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research, these stories shine a light on the impressive work going on in the college right now.

In the Intersections program (page 22), we see how the college’s humanities departments can combine their knowledge to answer “grand-challenge questions” facing the world today.

6 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Encouraging this spirit of collaboration across the college’s wide range of disciplines can only strengthen our curriculum and the exceptional opportunities we offer our students.

This issue also spotlights those who were honored at the college’s Evening of Excellence award ceremony earlier this year and how our experiential learning program, Beyond120, provides students with the tools they need to succeed after graduation.

Sadly, we mark the passing of David Colburn, former Bob Graham Center Director and former chair of the Department of History, known to many at UF as an invaluable friend, mentor and colleague. Turn to page 46 to learn more about his dedication to the college and his fascinating life story.

Moving forward, I encourage you to check out the news section of our website (news.clas.ufl.edu) to stay up to date with the latest groundbreaking research conducted by our faculty, national awards won by our students and recent bestsellers published by our alumni (page 42).

Go Gators and Go Greater,

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

LINDA FISCHER WELLS ’61 didn’t study religion when she attended UF, but that hasn’t kept her from committing decades of service to the department. As the long-serving chair of the Department of Religion’s Advisory Board, Wells has worked diligently to further the public’s understanding of the field.

“I had so much respect for the department and always felt like it was largely an undiscovered gem,” she said of her decision to get involved in the early 1980s.

Over the years, the board has supported the Department of Religion in its efforts to make the faculty more diverse, to offer graduate degrees and to connect with other departments and centers on campus.

“It gives me a sense of humility to see the hard work that people are doing to study religious life,” Wells said. In addition to her work on the board, she and her husband Charley have consistently given back to the college through financial gifts.

For Wells, who received a BA in political science from UF and went on to practice law, serving on the advisory board gives her the opportunity to appreciate how religion shapes the world around us. “We get to learn from them just as a student would learn in the classroom,” she said. “We’ve received and learned much more than we’ve given.”

To learn more about giving back, contact the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office of Advancement at 352-294-1971 or alumni@clas.ufl.edu.

U N I V E R S I T Y of F L O R I D A Allison Durham

Caption; The Department of Religion’s Advisory Board; back row, left to right: Louis Reinstein, Ralph Nicosia, Vernon Swartsel, Perry Foote, Jr. Front row, left to right: Humeraa Qamar, Joanie Levin, Linda Fischer Wells

UF linguist studies why we bicker with those closest to us

By Andrew Doerfler At a typical Thanksgiving dinner, you can expect to find a few hallmarks: A golden brown roast turkey, globs of cranberry sauce and, of course, plenty of squabbling among family members.

Professor of Linguistics DIANA BOXER has put those holiday quarrels to good use in a new study focused on 8 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Phil Wrigglesworth

PETTY DISPUTES, SERIOUS STUDY

bickering. To collect data for the paper, students in her sociolinguistics course received an unusual assignment: Before they set off for Thanksgiving break in 2016, Boxer instructed them to take notes when they noticed anyone bickering — and when they participated in bickering themselves.

After repeating the assignment over the following semester’s spring break, Boxer ended up with 100 transcripts that detailed roommates spatting about unwashed dishes, siblings at odds over directions while driving, parents chiding their children for laziness and much more.

Bickering is usually defined as small, petty quarreling over trivial matters, but Boxer wanted to understand these arguments on a deeper level. The recorded exchanges offer a window into how these disputes crop up and play out between family members, romantic partners and close friends.

The subject of bickering is well within Boxer’s area of expertise: She often studies negative speech behaviors, previously taking on nagging, complaining, commiserating and boasting. By identifying the attributes that define each of these behaviors, she hopes to help people recognize them and head them off in their own lives.

“We can’t control much about what’s going on in the world around us,” she said. “But we can control what’s going on in our immediate environment by not participating in negative speech behaviors.”

Bickering, while usually short-lived and not very serious in the short-term, can end up eroding relationships when it accumulates.

“Over time, bickering can make people feel like a family member is a negative person who’s always picking on them,” Boxer said. “If we build more harmonious relationships we can be happier people.”

In addition to analyzing her students’ field notes from their breaks, Boxer conducted a series of open-ended interviews with couples, pairs of coworkers and other subjects about their experiences with bickering. The aim of both parts of the study was to find what makes bickering distinct from similarly negative behaviors like complaining and arguing.

The resulting article was published in a special issue of the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, co-edited by Boxer, that focused specifically on conflict in close personal relationships. In the paper, Boxer determines that bickering relies on “close social distance” — the participants need to

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know each other well enough that they abandon the niceties that hold back snide remarks.

“You don’t usually bicker with someone you don’t know very well because you’re trying to build solidarity,” she said.

“But with family members you don’t bother to do that dance of negotiation, that back and forth to establish a relationship.

I’m advocating that we should.”

The study, which Boxer co-authored with graduate student Joseph Radice, also identified common subjects that people bicker over (disputes over “household concerns,” such as cleaning the kitchen, made up over half of the examples), which relationships are most prone to bickering (perhaps unsurprisingly, romantic partners dominated at 38 percent), and the speech behaviors involved in bickering (accusations abounded, initiating 30 percent of the examples).

“ OVER TIME, BICKERING CAN MAKE PEOPLE FEEL LIKE A FAMILY MEMBER IS A NEGATIVE PERSON WHO’S ALWAYS PICKING ON THEM.” Boxer found that bickering has no benefits, as opposed to complaining, which can build solidarity among people in shared circumstances. People use bickering to air out “minor disagreements about relatively trivial topics,” the study concludes, but, unlike arguing, it “rarely escalates into verbal or physical violence.”

So why study a type of conflict that is, by its very definition, trivial? While bickering might be insignificant on its own, minor conflicts in our close personal relationships set patterns for larger disputes throughout our lives.

“Conflict begins at home,” Boxer said. “If we are learning to be conflictive people with our families, that can translate into other spheres of life.”

Increasingly, she said, major conflicts with wide-ranging consequences — wars between nations, urgent political clashes or societal tensions — take precedence in research over studies about more intimate conflicts. Boxer thinks we shouldn’t overlook the small stuff.

“Family conflict has always interested me, and very little has been done about it,” she said.

The lack of such work motivated her to propose the special issue of the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, which featured several articles about family conflict.

Not being a psychologist, Boxer is hesitant to give others advice about how to avoid bickering — but she hopes her findings offer researchers in other disciplines a starting point to build upon. She has already found the research useful in her own life. “With everything I study,” she said, “I learn what I shouldn’t do.”

Bickering, by the Numbers Boxer’s study breaks down who bickers, how they bicker and what they bicker about. The data is based on 100 conversations collected by students while on break from school.

THE BICKERERS Who do we get snippy with? Here’s how frequently each of the following relationships took part in one of the bickering exchanges:

ROMANTIC PARTNERS 38% SIBLINGS 21% PARENT/CHILD 16% ROOMMATES 14% FRIENDS 11%

THE TOPICS What topics get us squabbling? These were the subjects that most often provoked bickering:

HOUSEHOLD CONCERNS 52% DRIVING 15% RELATIONSHIP 13% OPINIONS

10%

BORROWING

5%

LAZINESS

5%

HOW IT STARTS By the time you realize you’re bickering, it’s too late. How does it all begin? The study shows the “sequence-initiating speech acts” that lead people down the path to bickering:

ACCUSING

30%

COMMANDING

21%

COMPLAINING

15%

DEBATING

13%

ADVISING

8%

TEASING

7%

WARNING JUSTIFYING

4% 2% YTORI — FALL 2019 | 9

In Fernandina Beach, Florida, an example of the widespread destruction caused by the hurricane of 1896 that devastated Atsena Otie Key.

By Scott Rogers

O

n September 29, 1896, the island of Atsena Otie Key was struck by a powerful hurricane.

Located just off the coast of Cedar Key in the Gulf of Mexico, Atsena Otie Key was home to a world-renowned cedar mill and 50 families — until the resulting storm surge destroyed the mill, prompting a steady exodus from the island.

While devastating to industry in the area, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. Just 54 years prior (and 26 years before the construction of the mill), the island, then serving as a U.S. Army headquarters, was struck by another hurricane.

The damage was so severe that the government abandoned the post, considering it unsalvageable.

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It raises the question: If there was recent evidence that a location was especially prone to strong hurricanes, why build a center of industry there? How could everyone forget so quickly?

This is an all-too-common problem that UF anthropologist and Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of Florida Archaeology KENNETH E. SASSAMAN is trying to solve — with the help of some innovative technology.

A specialist in the Archaic (8,000 to 3,000 BC) and Woodland (3,000 BC to 1670 AD) periods of the American Southeast, Sassaman has always been interested in how he can use history as a tool to guide policy and decision-making in the present.

Specifically, Sassaman wondered if he could use a historical precedent to show how climate change might affect Florida.

To find out, he dug into Florida’s history of indigenous coastal dwelling going back more than 13,000 years, when sea-level was down 80 meters and the Gulf Coast lay more than 200 kilometers from its current position.

Courtsey of Florida Memory

With the help of digital technology, UF professor plans to bring the history of a devastated town to the present

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Sassaman hoped to offer insights on how indigenous groups adapted over thousands of years to drastic environmental changes that resembled present-day issues.

Unfortunately, this early history presented one huge problem he couldn’t work around.

“No matter how I spin it, no matter what the narrative is, if it’s that old, it doesn’t resonate with the present,” he said.

“It’s too foreign. And the further back in time we go, the less empathy and connection people have to it.”

“ We turn storms into the boogeyman.”

While venting these frustrations to a colleague one day, Sassaman happened to share the tale of Atsena Otie Key. Riveted, his colleague pointed out that Sassaman had the answer right in front of him.

Here was a wealth of recent information, including oral histories from those that lived through the 1896 hurricane, that would feel much more immediate to a modern audience.

Yet there was still a major issue Sassaman knew he would

have to contend with: presentation. A book or exhibit on the island’s unique past just wouldn’t have the impact Sassaman knew he’d need to get his argument across.

“History is not always accessible to people outside of academia,” he said. “It doesn’t appeal to their emotions or their visceral sense of personal connection.”

To address this, Sassaman formed a partnership with Digital Heritage Interactive, a studio run by UF alumni that specializes in applying digital technologies to cultural resources, to create an interactive walkthrough of Atsena Otie Key. Sassaman ultimately hopes users will be able to navigate the town in virtual reality as it appeared in 1896, talk to real people who lived there before the hurricane and see the devastation the storm reaped for themselves.

“Part of this project is to make history sensory, emotional, personal and biographical,” Sassaman said. “It’s going to be the story of Velma Crevasse at age 11, living on Atsena Otie Key, waking up to the eye of the hurricane thinking the storm was over, only to turn around and see a wall of water approaching her and her house.”

The team is planning to have multiple time periods on the island built out, allowing viewers to move through different

Courtsey of Florida Memory

Damage inflicted to the town of Cedar Key in 1986.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 11

12 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Loretta Risley / Alamy Stock Photo

The island of Atsena Otie Key as it appears today, a deserted reminder of what happens when human overdevelopment and natural occurrences collide.

Kenneth Sassaman

The drone used to scan Atsena Otie Key and operator Eben Broadbent.

eras in a non-linear fashion to show how vulnerable this location was to storm surges and erosion. One minute a user could be in 1896, then suddenly jump to 1842, 1935 or 1950 — all years a hurricane struck the area.

“We turn storms into the boogeyman,” Sassaman explained, when, in reality, an at-risk area like Atsena Otie Key is what happens when a large storm and a human-made vulnerability crash into each other. Long before 1896, the cedar in the area had been overharvested, increasing the odds a storm surge could wreak havoc on the island. Sassaman hopes that being able to see the firsthand consequences of development in an area that has been destroyed by natural occurrences multiple times might encourage people to think harder before building in such an environment.

His partner, Digital Heritage Interactive, is based in Orlando and run by two like-minded UF alumni with degrees in anthropology, DIANA GONZÁLEZ-TENNANT ’11, MA, and her husband EDWARD GONZÁLEZ-TENNANT ’11, PHD, who have previously developed digital walkthroughs of historic settlements. One of their previous projects, Rosewood, allowed users to explore an African American town in Florida that was destroyed during a 1923 race riot.

“Atsena Otie Key and similar projects provide an engaging and interactive method for communicating two things with the public,” Edward said. “The first is an accurate picture

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A virtual rendering of Atsena Otie Key before the devastating hurricane of 1896.

of the incredible heritage resources located on the island.

Second, the virtual reconstruction reveals the growing danger climate change poses for such resources. Once these resources are gone, they’re lost forever. This project lets us retrieve them from the dustbin of history.”

“The hope is to incite discussions about climate change, both past and present,” Diana said. “What made Atsena Otie Key vulnerable was not that the storm wiped it out, but that the storm drove industry away — that’s why the town no longer exists.”

“ Part of this project is to make history sensory, emotional, personal and biographical.”

While this project is still in its early stages, some important early steps have already been completed. To re-create Atsena Otie Key, Sassaman and team began by working with the GatorEye Unmanned Flying Laboratory (GatorEye UFL), a drone program run by the Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab at UF. GatorEye UFL scanned the island, uncovering the original foundations of buildings and

allowing the team to match up what remains with historic maps of the town. This high-resolution mapping managed to accomplish in 40 minutes what previously might have taken Sassaman months.

From here, Sassaman’s team will move forward with building out the digital re-creation of the island over these various time periods. The plan is to house the initial digital headset that will allow users to navigate the town in the Cedar Key Historical Society’s museum, while remote users will be able to access a website to experience the walkthrough themselves.

Sassaman sees the potential for expanding the team’s use of technology to make this re-creation of Atsena Otie Key even more interactive, with an augmented reality version of the town built out so that visitors to the island can actually walk around and see what used to be there by just holding up their mobile devices.

While this augmented reality stage is still a while off, the creativity and willingness to engage with the public in such an innovate manner speaks to how important Sassaman feels this history is to our present times.

“History is the archive of human experiences that we use to shape our perception of where we are and where we’re going,” Sassaman said. “We need to mobilize these experiences and make them available — now.” q YTORI — FALL 2019 | 13

Hearing Their Voices The English Language Institute helps foreign students adapt to their new environment

By Barbara Drake

14 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Anna & Elena Balbusso

S

elom Ametepe felt ready for the next step in her academic life. There was only one holdup.

A biologist from Lomé, Togo, a country in West Africa, Ametepe had been selected by the Institute of International Education for the 2018–19 Fulbright Junior Staff Development Program, allowing her to pursue graduate studies in the United States. But, her acceptance letter came with a catch: Her English wasn’t yet as strong as it would need to be to succeed in the program.

Many similar graduate programs and fellowships expect that international participants show a firm command of English before heading to a U.S. university. That’s where the English Language Institute (ELI) comes in.

Founded in 1954 and overseen by the Department of Linguistics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the ELI is one of the oldest intensive English programs in the United States. Each semester, it welcomes hundreds of motivated students from around the world.

While some students are with the program for only one semester or six weeks, others intent on attending a U.S. college or university can spend half a year or longer studying with the ELI’s faculty and staff of language experts.

That was the case for Ametepe. With ELI’s training, she could pursue graduate studies in molecular biology and return to her home country with the necessary tools to address critical issues like food shortages and health issues.

But first, she needed to prove that she had the English skills required by her preferred master’s degree program.

To do so, she would have to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The exam is scored on a scale of 0 to 120, and Ametepe, who was already fluent in French and Éwé, would need an 80 or better — though a high score wouldn’t necessarily guarantee her future success.

“A TOEFL score of 100 does not mean a student has any idea how to negotiate the higher education system in the U.S. or has the language skills to do so,” said ELI director Megan Forbes. Lack of these skills can bar an international student from finding an internship or a position in the United States.

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With the ELI’s instruction, though, Ametepe would receive intensive training in a proven environment. Class sizes are small (no more than 15 students), and the ELI’s faculty teach the core skills of academic English along with how to succeed in the U.S. classroom setting, whose norms are often different from those of international universities. Students learn how to make polite requests, interrupt respectfully, debate controversial topics and understand American sarcasm — skills that native speakers often take for granted.

As a complement to their daytime studies, students can participate in the ELI’s Cultural Immersion Program (CIP) — “the first and most extensive” of any such program in the United States, according to Forbes.

“ I CAN ACCOMPLISH A LOT OF THINGS TO HELP MY COUNTRY,” AMETEPE SAID, “BUT TO DO THAT, I NEED CREDIBILITY. WITH THE MASTER’S DEGREE I AM GOING TO OBTAIN, MY VOICE NOW WILL BE HEARD.”

Allison Durham

CIP activities give international students opportunities to practice their English skills in social settings. Scheduled weekday activities include mixers at the Reitz Union, soccer and volleyball; weekend events feature group outings to Blue Springs, St. Augustine Beach, Disney World and other attractions in North and Central Florida.

Ametepe, meanwhile, was more concerned with studying for the test than socializing. She adjusted to the demands of practicing English 25 hours a week, plus preparing for the TOEFL and Graduate Records Examinations (GRE).

Hunched over her books and laptop, Ametepe would study late into the evenings in Matherly Hall, where a quiet classroom let her focus better than she could in the busy libraries.

In Togo, she had taken the TOEFL twice and missed by more than 10 points, largely because of the speaking portion.

At the time, Ametepe had spoken English the way it was written in her textbooks — formally. She reminded herself, “I am learning to speak daily English, not book English.”

When it came to writing, some of her instruction at ELI conflicted with the standards she had learned in Togo. A teacher, for instance, insisted that the students state their main ideas directly: “No beating around the bush.” That went against the grain of French academic writing, which favored long, ornate phrases.

After studying nonstop for almost three months, Ametepe took the TOEFL for the third time. Her nerves were wracked. So much was riding on this.

Ametepe enrolled in the Engligh Language Institute to strengthen her English skills.

The results devastated her: 75. Five points short. “Maybe the Fulbright Program will not continue to fund me,” she worried to herself. “I will have to go back to Togo with no master’s degree.”

For the first time, though, her score on the TOEFL essay portion went up — significantly. She resolved to hold strong and try again.

Finally, after her fourth try, Ametepe received an 81, surpassing her target of 80 and allowing her to pursue her next degree at the University of Arkansas.

Ametepe plans to research how to maintain food safely and convert food waste into fertilizer — both useful for issues her country faces, as Togo produces abundant crops only to see much of it spoil quickly.

“I can accomplish a lot of things to help my country,” Ametepe said, “but to do that, I need credibility. With the master’s degree I am going to obtain, my voice now will be heard.”

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 15

Confederate troops loading cannons to fire on the Union-controlled Fort Pickens in Pensacola Bay.

By Sean Adams

W

orking as a historian keeps me in climate-controlled atmospheres — air-conditioned classrooms, comfortable offices, academic panels in staid hotel conference rooms and carefully maintained archives. In the summer of 2018, however, I purposely ventured out into the blast furnace that is western Florida and southern Alabama to see history firsthand, taking 36 teachers of elementary, middle and high school with me, plus a colleague.

The reason for this venture was a joint workshop by the Florida Humanities Council and the Alabama Humanities 16 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Foundation titled “The Civil War in the American South.”

For the past five years, I’ve led teacher workshops that combine lectures and field trips to the site of the 1864 Battle of Olustee at Fort Clinch and the haunting slave cabins at Kingsley Plantation in Fernandina Beach.

The idea is to put teachers in the places where history happened so they can bring that experience back to their classrooms, where students might gain a new perspective on the past.

It’s one thing to read about the historical significance of these sites and quite another to put yourself behind the thick masonry walls at Fort Clinch, or to see the way that

U.S. National Archives

Educators take to the battlefields for a firsthand historical experience

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the white plastered slave cabins at Kingsley form a semicircle around the big house once occupied by Zephaniah and Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley. While no visit can do justice to understanding Zephaniah’s relationship with Anna, his African American wife, the plantation grounds offer an excellent example of the architecture of slavery.

Thanks to a generous gift from the HTR Foundation (an organization devoted to preserving American Civil War sites), we were able to bring teachers to Civil War sites around Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida. Professor Lonnie Burnett, a Civil War historian, dean and associate provost at the University of Mobile, co-hosted this venture. Joined by teachers from Florida and Alabama, we began our exploration of the region in earnest with a trip to Fort Pickens, just south of Pensacola.

To get to Fort Pickens, we took a bus from downtown to Santa Rosa Island and landed at Pensacola Beach. As

we passed the condos and rental houses that haunt every Florida shore, the dive bars and beachside attractions became scarce. Urban sprawl was replaced by barren, sandy dunes, and we wound our way to Fort Pickens on the far western edge of the barrier island.

The fort is a historical park now, so the guns are silent, but when the park ranger described the process of loading and firing each piece so that a constant barrage could be maintained, we easily imagined the heat, noise and turmoil of battle.

When you’re deep inside the casement wall next to a massive artillery piece, it’s hard not to think about the tough job of the Union soldiers that lived and worked there. These men labored in a deafening furnace in 1861 — their ears bled from the explosions and most were severely concussed from the shockwaves.

A half century later, the teachers and I felt a connection to them. From atop the wall you can see the immense distance

“ There is something about being in these locations where the history we teach actually happens.”

FOUR HEAVY GUNS

BATTERY 2 GUNS

B.

2 GUNS

U.S .

BA R R AC

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CEMETERY

BATTERY

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BATTERY 2 GUNS

FORT SAN CARLOS DE BARRANCAS

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MA

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RIN

SP

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WOOSLEY

TO P

BATTERY 2 GUNS

RO AD

LIGHT HOUSE

LA

REDOUBT

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WARRINGTON BATTERIES 9 GUNS

BATTERY

P E N S A C O L A

U.S. NAVY YARD

B AY

FORT MCREE WATER BATTERY BATTERY CAMERON

FORT PICKENS

BATTERY LINCOLN

IN POSS. OF U.S. TROOPS

GULF OF MEXICO

SANTA ROSA ISLAND

SCALE OF MILES 1/4

1/2

3/4

A map of Pensacola Bay, home to Fort Pickens, the first site Adams and his group stopped at on their workshop.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 17

Keith Simmons

History professor Sean Adams speaks with educators during their historical tour through Florida and southern Alabama.

between Fort Pickens and Pensacola. Although Union and Confederate batteries launched salvo after salvo at each other in the early days of the conflict, few shells reached their targets. More fish than men were hurt in the opening battle of Florida’s Civil War. We came away from the visit with a pretty clear understanding of why Fort Pickens was not considered a choice assignment for the Union Army in the 1860s.

The following day, we took a walking tour of downtown Mobile, where the monuments to the city’s Mardi Gras traditions outnumber those to its Civil War past. Cars and trucks rumble down the same street where white Alabamans once celebrated the news that their state had seceded. Few structtures from that era remain, save some grand houses and churches. The modern city has overshadowed 19th century Mobile, and yet a glimpse of an old wooden balcony or a tall and weathered window pane reminds you that not every piece of the city’s history gave way to concrete and asphalt.

A visit to Historic Blakeley State Park on the east coast of the Mobile River delta capped off the workshop. At one point Blakeley sought to surpass its neighbor to the west, Mobile, 18 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

as the premier city in South Alabama. In the early 1820s, Blakeley’s 4,000 or so residents could boast that they nearly doubled Mobile in size, and their deep-water port brought a consistent level of commerce. Yellow fever took its toll on the city, though, and eventually it became an abandoned ghost town.

Today, Blakeley is a state park, and the enthusiastic staff there is just beginning to embark on a reconstruction of its history. The town site itself is almost empty: Generations of thrifty Alabamans descended upon the depopulated buildings for free construction materials. The poor boomtown is now scattered in pieces across the region. Nature has reclaimed Blakeley — for now.

During the Civil War, however, the city’s fortunes were briefly revived as Confederates fortified Blakeley with 4,000 soldiers and extensive earthworks to protect the Mobile River. Fort Blakeley, like Fort Pickens, offers a great example of the significance of historical places. The Confederate lines are still visible, and the park has reconstructed some of the fortifications to look as they did during the 1860s.

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The teachers and I marched up to the edge of the earthworks on a hot and muggy afternoon. It was probably cooler on April 9, 1865, when the 16,000 Union soldiers charged with capturing Fort Blakeley encountered its fortifications, but their immense task was still evident. Beginning about a thousand yards from the Confederate troops, Union forces first encountered roughly cut branches laid out to snag clothes and impede movement. They then passed between rows of sharpened sticks and slogged through water-filled trenches. After that, Confederate troops rolled out the cheval de frise — a defensive anti-cavalry device consisting of sharpened sticks radiating out from heavy logs — to further impede the Union forces. All the while, Confederate rifles and cannons raked the advance from behind thick walls of wood and earth.

We had a tame version of that advance in 2018, but after walking among these various impediments, we marveled at the courage of the average soldiers in 1865. And the fact that this battle took place on the same day as the Army of Northern Virginia’s surrender at Appomattox offers a

somber reminder of the scope and severity of the Civil War. There’s really no substitute for seeing the spaces where history happened, and although it took some imagination and a great deal of sunscreen, the teachers and I saw the Civil War come alive in Florida and Alabama this summer.

“There is something about being in these locations where the history we teach actually happens,” one teacher wrote to us, “that makes it even more relevant to us and eventually our students.”

Photos and videos can’t re-create the stifling heat and humidity we faced in our various hikes, but we hope they can spark an interest in the past for a new generation of Floridians. To accomplish that, I’m more than happy to venture out from my everyday air-conditioned life as a professor at UF. q Sean Adams is the Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of History at the University of Florida. He is the author of several books and specializes in the history of American capitalism and the history of energy.

Courtesy of Historic Blakeley State Park

The cheval de frise at Fort Blakeley, one of the sites visited by Adams and the group of educators, was used as an anti-cavalry device.

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A photo of the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, taken by Center for African Studies Associate Director Todd Leedy during the summer 2019 UF Honors Program.

Now in its second decade, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere is bringing disciplines together to tackle grand-challenge questions

By Andrew Doerfler and Scott Rogers | Illustrations by Jim Harrison

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T

he humanities have a perception problem.

Dogged by the recent sentiment that these disciplines favor ivorytower indulgence over direct career paths, humanities scholars often feel the need to defend the value of their studies to the world. This won’t be the case for long.

Today’s world faces unprecedented problems and questions — climate change, income inequality, racism and the role of technology in our lives — many of which can only be solved with help from the humanities.

At UF, the humanities find their home at the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. The center celebrated the 10th anniversary of its launch in April 2019 and is looking ahead to initiatives that could break new ground for the humanities across the nation.

Thanks to a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the center has been able to create a unique program aimed at tackling today’s most urgent issues through the humanities. UF Intersections: Animating Conversations with the Humanities allows faculty, doctoral students and staff from all corners of the humanities to come together and gives undergraduate students the chance to consider the questions that will define their lives.

“There are these grand intractable problems facing our world that can only be addressed by combining multiple forms of knowledge,” SOPHIA KRZYS ACORD, associate director of the center, said.

Intersections addresses four grand-challenge questions formulated by professors — from disciplines spanning African American studies, classics, religion, history and more — who usually wouldn’t have an opportunity to work so closely together. Each UF Mellon Intersections Group is conducting research and designing a cluster of courses on the topic while also planning events like speaker series to give students an opportunity to learn beyond the confines of the classroom.

This setup is something new for the field. “Collaboration in the humanities is something that is not entirely clear — there’s not a blueprint like there is in the sciences,” said BARBARA MENNEL, the Robert and Margaret Rothman Chair in the Humanities and director of the center.

While the Intersections questions vary, each group has similar goals — to expose students to diverse perspectives as they take on real-world challenges. Read on to learn more about each Intersections Group and see how the humanities will play a crucial role in shaping our world.

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“Students want to learn about theory, but they also want to know how that stuff applies to their real lives,” Ahlberg said.

Peterson and Ahlberg have brought these questions to life in a class they teach on ethics in the public sphere, the idea for which formed the initial inspiration for the Intersections Group. Instead of lecturing, the professors try to create an environment where students come to their own conclusions through discussion, reflection and hands-on experience.

“ STUDENTS WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THEORY, BUT THEY ALSO WANT TO KNOW HOW THAT STUFF APPLIES TO THEIR REAL LIVES.”

How Can We Engage Ethical Issues in Public Life?

If you feel like it’s harder than ever to talk with one another about the most pressing issues facing society, you’re not alone.

It’s a big reason why one Intersections Group is using ethical reflection to take on hot-button topics like climate change, the #MeToo movement and income inequality. As the country grows more politically divided, the Intersections Group on Ethics in the Public Sphere, led by religion professor ANNA PETERSON and philosophy professor JAIME AHLBERG, wants to inspire more constructive conversations — and, hopefully, encourage meaningful action in the process.

“Even when something is really polarized, you can find points of common ground,” Peterson said. “But you have to be clear about what values are at stake.”

The approach has been on full display at the “ethics cafés” the group hosts on campus, where students are invited to discuss some of the most charged questions of the day. Asked what a just system of immigration in the United States would look like, more than 30 participants at a meeting followed a series of guidelines — stay on topic, don’t monopolize the conversation — as they sought points of agreement, acknowledged what information they lacked and dug into the moral dimensions at play.

By calling attention to the ethical underpinnings of issues that dominate the news, this group hopes to make sometimes abstract philosophical, religious and moral questions feel urgent and relevant to students.

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“People have to buy in and feel like they’re part of coming up with these answers,” Peterson said.

A class excursion to the Harn Museum of Art, for example, gave students a chance to explore the question of displaying the work of artists accused of sexual misconduct, as the museum grappled over a piece in its own collection by prominent painter and photographer Chuck Close.

The most heated class discussion came when the students were split into groups and given vastly different shares of candy, meant to represent strata of wealth — and then tasked with proposing a just economic system. ALARA GÜVENLI, an undergraduate student who took the course in spring, found the course made her more open to different points of view.

“Students can get stuck in their own bubbles where people agree with them,” she said. “But in the class, we all had to listen to each other — and a lot of people had opposing ideas.”

Peterson and Ahlberg also invited journalism librarian (and fellow Intersections Group member) APRIL HINES to the class for a presentation about finding reliable sources.

“Thinking well about complicated moral problems as they’re unfolding requires not just theorizing about values, but also knowing how to find and process empirical data,” Ahlberg said. “Good ethics needs good facts.”

A constructive conversation, though, isn’t an end unto itself: The goal, ultimately, is to encourage students to act to address the issues that matter most to them personally.

Beginning in the spring 2020 semester, the Intersections Group will invite community organizations to campus for panel discussions to make students aware of the service and advocacy opportunities available in Gainesville.

The student body at a top-tier public university, Peterson said, presents an opportunity for the impact of this work to extend far beyond campus. “We have a diverse student body, and many first-generation college students,” Peterson said. “But these are also the people who go on to be the next professionals and leaders.”

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How do Black and Latinx People Shape Global and Local Cultures, Politics and Economies?

“Our students win when they are forced to stretch,” MANOUCHEKA CELESTE said.

A professor in the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research and the African American Studies program, Celeste is also the convener for the Intersections Group on Global Blackness and Latinx Identity, which aims to help students broaden their worldview.

This group strives to answer a question far too often neglected in traditional curricula: How do Black and Latinx people shape our world?

To fill this gap, the Intersection Group has been working to expose students to histories and cultures they may not be familiar with through a mix of classroom experiences and events. “It’s about students really engaging with ideas and histories that they usually don’t encounter in other classes,” Celeste said.

As the makeup of the country continues to become more diverse, this Intersections Group’s courses and events serve as an important touchpoint for a wide range of students.

“We want to explore in this time and era general aspects of immigration, of the diaspora of these groups to the U.S. but also the migration of these groups to Florida,” VargasBetancourt said.

In a globalized economy, students from all backgrounds need to know that after gradutation they won’t necessarily be working with people who look exactly like them or who have had the same life experiences.

“It’s very easy to be in your comfort zone and to be with people who are very similar to you,” Vargas-Betancourt said. “It is challenging to be with people who are different from you.”

This Intersections Group offers complex experiences and encourages students to think broadly, finding connections across groups. These experiences can have a huge impact on not only their professional lives, but in their role as citizens of a rapidly changing world. “That’s how we equip all our students to go out in the world and do better, because they’re not shocked by reality,” Celeste said.

“ IT’S VERY EASY TO BE IN YOUR COMFORT ZONE AND TO BE WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE VERY SIMILAR TO YOU.” “We need to prepare students to handle diversity,” said co-convener MARGARITA VARGASBETANCOURT, a librarian in the Latin American and Caribbean Special Collections. “Even students from underrepresented groups need to appreciate their cultural heritage.”

The Intersection Group’s year-long lecture series has brought speakers from varied backgrounds, including Nadève Ménard from the Université d’État d’Haïti, who examined Haiti’s complex linguistic landscape, and Aisha Durham from the University of South Florida, who discussed how artists like Erykah Badu and Missy Elliot are inviting us to reimagine hip-hop feminism.

For students from underrepresented groups, Celeste points to the power of seeing speakers and instructors who look like them and can speak to a shared life experience.

“Students are hungry to see themselves represented and to talk about their experiences,” she said. “It makes them feel better about where they are at UF and also gives them a chance to imagine who they can be once they leave here.”

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How do Technologies Influence Our Lives, Then and Now? Students in the Intersections Group on Imagineering and the Technosphere will soon find themselves playing a board game — of sorts. At the start of the spring 2020 semester, they’ll receive a “game board,” essentially a satellite image of UF’s campus. This image will be broken down into grids, with several areas highlighted — Turlington Rock, Century Tower and a sculpture on display at the Harn Museum of Art are a few examples.

Students will then visit each location and, through their mobile devices, learn about items or buildings they have walked past a hundred times but likely never stopped to consider too deeply before.

What was the Century Tower used for in the past? How is it currently employed? And how might it be used in the future?

“As human beings we understand something better when we can see and touch it,” said ELENI BOZIA, the convener for this Intersections Group and an Assistant Professor of Classics and Digital Humanities. “We’re trying to help the students grasp ideas.”

The ultimate goal of the game is to give students firsthand experience on how we use technology to alter ourselves and our physical world.

The group’s definition of technology, though, encompasses far more than the latest iPhone. While their work does cover the impact of “literal technology” like mobile devices, computers and cars, it also dives into what Bozia calls “cultural technology.” Cultural technologies consist of constructs like language, art, politics and religious traditions — all created by humans, just like literal technologies. Together, these combine to help us define and organize our lives.

At the heart of this Intersections Group is the desire to show students that we are all more connected across cultures and even time than we think.

For example, when students play the “UF Quest Game,” they’ll stop by the Harn Museum of Art to take a look at a 17th century Korean bodhisattva sculpture and be compelled to consider the piece on a variety of levels.

26 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

What technology was used to make it? What purpose did it serve? What does it mean to them, the students, sitting in front of them here in Florida, thousands of miles away from where it was originally created, hundreds of years later?

“ W E CAN OPEN THE STUDENTS TO THE IDEA THAT THIS IS EVERYBODY’S WORLD OUT THERE.” Bozia and the fellow professors who make up this Intersections Group hope to uncover what the lessons of past inventions can teach us about how to address the problems facing humanity today — especially when we consider our current rapid rate of technological advances.

“I want to show the students a sense of continuation,” Bozia said, pointing out that the labels we put on life and history are often arbitrary. Ultimately, Intersections on Imagineering and the Technosphere hopes to show that more connects us than divides us. “We can open the students to the idea that this is everybody’s world out there,” Bozia said.

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UF Quest Game After students visit a location on the UF Quest Game board, they’ll receive a 3D-printed model of that location’s most identifiable trademark. These models will then be placed on the board until all pieces have been collected.

The UF Quest Game has students stop by highlighted locations on campus marked by matching 3D-printed pieces.

The game's interactivity helps students grasp new ideas.

An accompanying website tells the story behind each landmark.

Through technology and hands-on learning, game players will see UF icons like Century Tower in a new light.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 27

group’s convener. “But what’s next? That’s the bigger question. “We have to transform how we think about those behind bars, who many think of as disposable and out of sight.”

The group believes there’s no single right way to address the issue. As an English professor, Schorb has explored the topic by teaching courses on convict writing and prison literature. A social scientist, meanwhile, will come at the issue another way — as will someone who has actually been incarcerated.

“Answering the question depends on researchers, activists and visionaries,” Schorb said. “You can’t undo the global entanglement of mass incarceration through policy changes alone. We have to imagine alternatives that don’t exist yet.”

But bringing together those invested in this issue from different disciplines and walks of life isn’t so easy. The resources provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have allowed the team to further a conversation that might have remained fragmented.

“ WE HAVE TO TRANSFORM HOW WE THINK ABOUT THOSE BEHIND BARS, WHO MANY THINK OF AS DISPOSABLE AND OUT OF SIGHT.”

What Would the World Look Like Without Mass Incarceration?

After years of skyrocketing detention rates made the U.S. prison population the largest in the world, the country’s decision makers have begun exploring ways to address mass incarceration. But despite the newfound attention to the issue, the Intersections Group on Mass Incarceration believes the conversation has been far too narrow. The team members aren’t just looking for ways to reduce prison populations, but to envision a society where justice doesn’t revolve around prison in the first place.

“A lot has been written about how we came to expand the prison system and develop the contemporary crisis of mass incarceration,” said English professor JODI SCHORB, the 28 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

To truly have an impact, the Intersections Group knows that it needs to involve those most immediately affected by mass incarceration.

They’ve put a major emphasis on elevating the community work being done off-campus — and in Gainesville, there’s no shortage of it, with organizations like the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding and the Legal Empowerment Advocacy Hub making local strides.

“We are all tangled up in mass incarceration in different ways, but we often fail to see it and how it negatively impacts our communities,” said STEPHANIE BIRCH, UF’s African American Studies librarian and the group’s co-convener.

Engaging undergraduates on this topic demands a variety of approaches, in part because students’ experiences vary so drastically.

“Some undergrads don’t often think about how prison and mass incarceration impact them,” Schorb said. “Others feel this every day, firsthand, in their families, homes and communities.”

The Interesections Group has held roundtable discussions that invite undergraduate students from different majors to share their perspectives on and experiences with the U.S.

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prison system, and they’ve even asked the students directly for their visions of what society would look like without mass incarceration. The pervasiveness of the prison system means that the topics can be linked to so many other facets of society.

“One of the ways we make mass incarceration relevant to students is by connecting it to other issues they may be concerned about — gender, race, labor, immigration, the environment, medical care,” Birch said. However, many students are already interested — their fall keynote lecture drew

undergraduates studying a wide array of fields including classics, health and human performance, sociology and business.

UF, Schorb said, is uniquely positioned to make a difference by increasing attention on this issue. Not only can its status as a hub of research and learning lead to better policy, but its students leave with the tools to make an impact.

“These students graduate and go out in to the world.

They vote, they volunteer,” she said. “They will drive the conversation forward.” q

Intersections Scholars Undergraduate students who engage with one of the grand-challenge questions are named Intersections Scholars. Students receive this designation by taking three courses that address the grand-challenge question of their interest. This experience helps prepare them for a range of diverse careers through the program’s emphasis on critical thinking, research, creative problem-solving and intellectual curiosity.

Sophia Krzys Acord

About 30 students took part in an Intersections Ethics Cafe, where they worked together to formulate a just system of immigration in the United States.

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“ I ALWAYS KNEW I WANTED TO BE A GATOR,” LUXENBERG SAID. “IT'S SOMETHING THAT HAS ALWAYS FELT A PART OF ME.”

Ari Luxenberg took a winding path to land his Hollywood dream job.

ARI LUXENBERG ’03 California dreamin’

By Terri Peterson and Rachel Wayne ARI LUXENBERG was 7 when Gator football coach Galen Hall awarded him a little orange whistle for doing the most push-ups for his age at a UF summer football camp. While that whistle has since been lost to history, Luxenberg’s Gator Pride has only grown.

“I always knew I wanted to be a Gator,” Luxenberg said.

“It’s something that has always felt a part of me.”

Today, Luxenberg credits his education at UF with giving him the foundation he needed to pursue his dream job in Hollywood, where Luxenberg now resides as the Senior Vice President of Business Affairs at Paramount Studios in the television division. In this role he negotiates deals to hire talent for the studio’s TV shows along with acquiring 30 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

After his 2006 graduation from the Emory University School of Law, Luxenberg accepted a position with a large law firm in Atlanta focusing on corporate law. Although he was getting valuable experience and making a good salary, Luxenberg still felt the pull of Hollywood.

So, he arranged a short vacation to Los Angeles and lined up some informational interviews at talent agencies. A month later, an agency called and offered him a position — in their mail room. Although this meant a significantly smaller salary, Luxenberg accepted and began planning his move to Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, the 2007 WGA strike spurred a hiring freeze, eliminating his opportunity. Undeterred, Luxenberg still moved out West, landing an assistant position in the business affairs department of the William Morris Agency’s music division.

After a few years in LA, Luxenberg was considering a move back to Atlanta to work for a big firm again.

“Then suddenly, everything seemed to click into place.

Just as I got the news I passed the California bar, I landed a dream job at Warner Bros. Television, which was the big break to join the studio executive ranks and finally make my way into the television side of the business,” he said.

“When leaving my law firm and setting off to LA on this journey, I knew in my heart that I had to pursue my dream regardless of the risk. It was a long difficult road, but truly my experiences at UF were invaluable in helping me see it through and reach the position I’m at today.”

Seri DeYoung

properties to develop into new shows. He was previously employed at Warner Bros. Television, where he worked on shows such as “The Leftovers” on HBO, “The Middle” on ABC and “Blindspot” on NBC. Luxenberg learned how to be a leader at UF, especially while serving as the president of Florida Cicerones, UF’s official student ambassadors. “Running that organization and feeling I’d been able to make an impact at UF was a constant reminder that through determination and hard work there’s nothing I couldn’t accomplish — including achieving my dreams in Hollywood,” he said.

At UF he strategically chose English as his major, following the advice of his academic advisor who believed it would provide a great foundation for law school — a key step in Luxenberg’s plan to move into the business side of the entertainment industry.

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AMY J. GALLOWAY ’81, JD ’85 For the love of learning

By Rachel Wayne AMY GALLOWAY was determined from a young age to become a lawyer. But when she first enrolled at UF as an undergrad, she made sure her college education was more than just a steppingstone toward law school. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences made that easy for her.

Galloway fully embraced the college’s varied disciplines, taking courses in philosophy and Chaucerian English to complement her political science major. “It really made me think out of the box, and that’s what I love about our college,” she said.

The liberal arts’ breadth of offerings and approaches, she believes, inspired her commitment to a lifetime of learning — and set her on the path to a rich, rewarding career. While at UF, she saw the real-world relevance of tried-and-true techniques like the Socratic method, and the immersive classroom environments fueled a curiosity about the world that has guided her ever since.

Florida pollster Jim Kane and professor emeritus of political science Richard Scher. Today, she’s working on ways to bring internships to the students, rather than the other way around.

“It might be more of a challenge to actually relocate, let’s say, to Miami-Dade for a semester, so we’re going to be able to offer students some opportunities near Gainesville,” she said.

The impetus for all this is Dean Dave Richardson, she said.

His initiatives are helping enhance the student experience to unprecedented levels.

She has been excited to see the Dean’s Leadership Council grow, making more alumni resources available to Richardson and his team. Galloway can’t wait to help students start their own lifetime of learning.

“ IT’S THIS IDEA OF REALLY INVESTING IN OUR STUDENTS FROM THE VERY FIRST YEAR THEY’RE HERE.” A bachelor’s degree in political science, a law degree and 30 years of practice later, Galloway hopes to help future generations have the same revelatory experience on campus that she did.

She remains involved with the University of Florida and currently serves on the Dean’s Leadership Council for the college. In particular, Galloway is passionate about Beyond120 and its focus on empowering students.

“It’s this idea of really investing in our students from the very first year they’re here,” she said. “It’s about really starting to learn, ‘What am I good at? What do I naturally excel at?’”

Among her many points of involvement are her efforts to develop internships and mentoring opportunities, both of which connect alumni with current students, often across disciplinary or industry boundaries.

Bringing Gators together has long been one of Galloway’s passions. Years ago, she joined a task force in the Department of Political Science to connect alumni in the South Florida area. Galloway helped organize events that featured talks from

During her time at UF, Amy Galloway embraced the breadth of a liberal arts education.

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Allison Durham

Herb Yardley accepting the Lasting Legacy Award at this year's ceremony.

EVENING OF EXCELLENCE 2019 Honoring those who make the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences exceptional

T

he annual Evening of Excellence shines a spotlight on those who make the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences an essential part of the University of Florida. This year’s ceremony was held on April 12, 2019, at the Florida Museum of Natural History and celebrated the staff members, faculty, students, alumni and others who best exemplify the values inherent in a liberal arts and sciences education. Keep reading to learn more about all of our winners.

LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES PARTNER AWARD: DISNEY CONSERVATION FUND The Disney Conservation Fund received the Partner Award for their long-term support of UF’s Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research to help save endangered sea turtles.

“We recognize and appreciate Disney’s understanding of the urgency of not only preserving but also bringing back popu32 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

lations of sea turtles,” said Karen Bjorndal, Department of Biology professor and Director of the Archie Carr Center.

“Those of us who have spent our lives trying to save these animals are grateful.”

SUPERIOR STAFF AWARD: MARISA GATES Research Administrator Marisa Gates was recognized for her outstanding work supporting the CLAS Research Office.

“Whenever she serves a person through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Research Office, Marisa assures them it will be okay and that she will help them handle whatever might come along,” said Beth Eslick, Director of the CLAS Research Office.

FACULTY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: MARK RUSH AND LAURA GUYER Two faculty members were honored this year for their distinguished achievement in research, teaching and service. To learn more about Mark Rush, turn to page 34. To read about Laura Guyer, visit page 36.

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR: LINDA FISCHER WELLS, POLITICAL SCIENCE ’61 Linda Fischer Wells ’61 was honored for her work as the chair of the Department of Religion’s Advisory Board. For more on how she has helped spread the work of the department, turn to page 7.

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STUDENT EXCELLENCE AWARD: EMMA LEONE, DANIEL ALLY AND SUJAYA RAJGURU The three students recognized at this year’s event embody the spirit of a liberal arts and sciences education.

Emma Leone ’19 dual-majored in linguistics and psychology on a pre-med track. Along with receiving multiple scholarships, she volunteers at Shands Hospital and the Dance Alive National Ballet and Pofahl Studios, where she teaches dancers of all ages.

Daniel Ally ’19 majored in physics and mathematics and serves as the President of the UF chapter of the Society of Physics Students. He is known for going out of his way to help fellow students; in the spring 2019 semester, he was the main organizer behind the Women in Science Day Fair.

Sujaya Rajguru ’19 majored in history, served as a fellow in the Bob Graham Center and participated in a leadership role in the UF Band. As an intern at the Matheson History Museum, she was a researcher for an exhibit on the history of desegregation in Alachua County schools, which resulted in Rajguru publishing an article in The Gainesville Sun.

HORIZON AWARD: SYED BALKHI, ANTHROPOLOGY ’11 Syed Balkhi was honored for his work supporting the Beyond120 program. At the age of 7, Balkhi started his first business in Pakistan. His entrepreneurial spirit has continued to this day, with his business OptinMonster ranking seventh in 2019’s Gator100, a list of the 100 fastest growing Gator-led companies. “We are inspired by Syed’s determination, passion, and entrepreneurial spirit as a student and beyond,” Kathryn Clark ’19 said.

OUTSTANDING ALUMNA: RHONDA HOLT, COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE ’86 This award honors an alumna or alumnus who has made significant contributions to their field while exemplifying the breadth and depth of a liberal arts and sciences degree.

Rhonda Holt, Vice President for Software Development and Operations at PBS, was honored this year for her long and distinguished career as a business and technology executive at a variety of organizations.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: TOM ELLIGETT, MATHEMATICS ’75

Allison Durham

Tom Elligett was recognized for providing both financial support and advocacy for the college. A partner at Buell & Elligett in Tampa, he is an appellate and trial lawyer who has participated in more than 500 appeals in the last 40 years. As an alumnus, he has given to the Dean’s Fund for Excellence every year since 1982, consistently supporting the greatest needs of the college.

Dean David Richardson, Marjorie Turnbull and David Mica.

CIVIC CHAMPION: THE HONORABLE MARJORIE TURNBULL, POLITICAL SCIENCE ’62 Marjorie Turnbull was honored for her dedication to serving the people of Florida since her graduation from UF. She began her political career in the Florida House of Representatives and has had a distinguished public career as a Leon County Commissioner, the Executive Director of Tallahassee Community College and a board member of many nonprofit organizations.

“ THE FIRST STEP TO A GOOD LIFE IS A GOOD EDUCATION.” — CATHERINE YARDLEY LASTING LEGACY AWARD: HERB ’55 AND CATHERINE YARDLEY ’56 Herb and Catherine Yardley were recognized for their decades of providing support to the college. Catherine, who passed away in 2018 and was honored posthumously at the ceremony, captured the Yardley’s commitment to education in her quote engraved in the Plaza of the Americas — “The first step to a good life is a good education. It is here for you.”

The Yardleys have invested in diverse areas across the college including the Speech and Debate Team, the Bob Graham Center, Student Affairs and outdoor spaces on campus. The Yardley Garden outside of Ustler and Farrior halls is just one example of how the Yardleys have improved the campus grounds by providing students and faculty with space for relaxation and contemplation.

“I’ve known the Yardleys for years and I am continually amazed by their generosity and vision, particularly in curating and encouraging creative and beautiful spaces on UF’s campus,” said Carter Boydstun, retired senior philanthropic advisor at UF and inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 33

up no opportunity bring up his colleague’s flattering remarks.

“The college was incredibly generous to give me that award — and so foolish. Thomas knows what it’s done for my ego,” Rush said.

“I’m paying the real price here,” Knight, a lecturer at UF since 2014, replied.

Beneath their repartee is a steadfast working relationship that began when Knight served as Rush’s teaching assistant while a PhD student. Today, they’re united by a common cause: teaching introductory economics courses to classes that exceed 1,000 students, most of whom watch the lectures online. While they bounce ideas off each other, the two also compete to out-score each other on student evaluations. Adding yet another layer to their relationship, Knight was recently appointed to a full term as department chair, effectively making him Rush’s “boss.”

Their massive audiences have meant that the two are often recognized on campus. In a joint interview, Rush and Knight talked about engaging students in large online classes, their local fame and what motivates them as teachers.

“ FOR ME, IT’S COMPARABLY EASY TO MAKE THE CLASS GOOD OR BAD. AND IF I MAKE IT GOOD, IT FREES UP MORE TIME, BECAUSE THE CHAIR DOESN’T COME BY AND YELL AT ME.” — MARK RUSH Professor Mark Rush is known for his humorous economics lectures.

THE ODD COUPLE OF ECONOMICS Award-winning professor has a productive partnership — and friendly rivalry — with TA-turned-colleague

By Andrew Doerfler At the college’s Evening of Excellence in April, then-acting economics chair THOMAS KNIGHT presented a faculty award to his friend and mentor MARK RUSH. Knight hasn’t heard the end of it since.

Rush, an economics professor who has racked up more than 30 teaching awards since coming to UF in 1982, passes 34 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

HOW DO YOU ENGAGE STUDENTS IN SUCH LARGE CLASSES, WITH MOST OF THEM WATCHING ONLINE? THOMAS KNIGHT: From a content perspective, I don’t think it’s any different. My goal is to replicate the small section, face-to-face environment the best I can — to deliver the same high-quality, rigorous course.

MARK RUSH: I don’t treat it any differently, either. I’m always begging the students for questions. Sometimes I’ve got to buy a question with a quarter. Thomas will never let me submit that as an expense request.

TK: Everyone needs a reason to hate their boss, Mark.

My husband (Horticultural Sciences Lecturer Gerardo Nuñez) teaches a lot of online courses, and he goes out of his way to be very poised and professional. I take the opposite approach: I go out of my way to use silly and self-deprecating examples, to make students feel they can relate to the material.

MR: If you can make the courses more humorous, the students are more likely to watch the courses, and if they watch the courses, they’re going to be learning.

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DOES TEACHING ABOUT A THIRD OF ALL INCOMING FRESHMEN GIVE YOU ANY EXTRA SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY? TK: We really go out of our way to connect students at UF with resources beyond economics: the career center, study abroad, master’s programs and entrepreneurship. We can bring in visitors to give short presentations to a huge audience, and both of us take huge advantage of that.

MR: If you teach these big classes, there are thousands of people who know who you are. It means you have to behave in public.

TK: We also both view the students as humans, who are paying a lot of money to go to college. They’re making some sacrifices to be here. Delivering a low-quality education seems like a pretty crappy thing to do them.

MARK, WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO WINNING THE FACULTY AWARD AT THE EVENING OF EXCELLENCE? MR: I was very surprised and gratified. At first, I was dismayed because Thomas was going to be accompanying me. But then I learned he had to say nice things about me.

“ W E REALLY GO OUT OF OUR WAY TO CONNECT STUDENTS AT UF WITH RESOURCES BEYOND ECONOMICS: THE CAREER CENTER, STUDY ABROAD, MASTER’S PROGRAMS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP” — THOMAS KNIGHT For four or five years my classes were on Cox cable, and everyone knew who I was. I was once in Sam’s Club — at the time I was in my mid-40s — and a woman significantly older than I was came running up and started hugging me and telling me that I was her favorite show on TV. I did not know this was my target audience.

THOMAS, YOU’VE CALLED MARK A MENTOR. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM HIM? TK: I’ll say this: If you told any new PhD on the job market that they would be expected to teach 2,500 students in a large introductory class, they would be praying to get another offer. But after being Mark’s head grader, it never crossed my mind that this would be a problem.

MR: We were fortunate to be able to hire Thomas for these large classes. Frankly, that’s rebounded to my harm because he and I have competed twice for teaching awards, and he’s won both.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO GO ABOVE AND BEYOND WHEN IT COMES TO TEACHING? MR: For me, it’s comparably easy to make the class good or bad. And if I make it good, it frees up more time, because the chair doesn’t come by and yell at me.

I think it’s intrinsic in one’s personality. You could say, “Thomas, be a bad teacher,” and it’d be very difficult for him.

You’d probably have to pay him something to make him into a bad teacher.

Thomas Knight went from teaching assistant to chair of the economics department.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 35

Professor Laura Guyer meeting with student Aaron Sandoval in front of Ustler Hall, home of the Center for Gender, Sexualities and Women's Studies Research.

CHANGING HEALTHCARE Laura Guyer, an Evening of Excellence honoree, helps an essential program build better doctors

By Scott Rogers “THE HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONS NEED WHAT WE TEACH here in liberal arts and sciences,” LAURA GUYER said. She should know.

A professor in the Center for Gender, Sexualities and Women’s Studies Research, Guyer has experience working in the private healthcare sector, public health and academic settings like here at UF. “Every 10 years my phone has rung with an offer to do something a little different,” she said.

One of these rings brought Guyer back to UF in 2011 after initially working within the university’s Food Science and Human Nutrition Department from 1989 to 1999. Between her two stints at UF, Guyer was employed at a regional health education center and served in healthcare leadership roles throughout the state.

36 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

What drew Guyer back to campus? The chance to lead the development of the new Health Disparities in Society (HDS) minor and to help the next generation of healthcare professionals provide better care to everyone, regardless of ethnicity, gender, economic class or education level. Since the program’s launch in 2011, it has become one of the fastest growing and most popular programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences by focusing on this crucial need. Guyer was recognized earlier this year at the college’s annual Evening of Excellence for her role as a faculty member and leader of this minor.

Inequality in healthcare is not a new issue. In 1985, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services convened a Task Force on Black and Minority Health to determine why minorities in particular experienced higher rates of disability, disease and death than white patients.

Although there has been increased awareness on health disparities in recent years, this issue still plagues the field.

Guyer noted that you can see this at play in a startling statistic — according to a 2016 Johns Hopkins study, medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. behind heart disease and cancer.

While it can be hard to disentangle what causes a medical error, Guyer said that many of these can be traced back to the failure to communicate with a patient, whether due to implicit biases or simply lacking the skill to do so effectively.

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“If your physician isn’t communicating clearly from a cultural or language perspective, or perhaps you are a person who doesn’t read exceptionally well, how are you going to follow your doctors’ instructions at home?” Guyer said.

“Healthcare is changing,” she explained, noting that the United States is switching from a fee-based model to one that focuses on quality of care first. This switch demands the expertise and skills found in the social and behavioral sciences — skills that are critical to helping healthcare professionals better understand people and their differences.

For the students enrolled in the HDS minor, these skills offer a leg up when it comes to getting into medical school.

They have a deeper understanding of the differences between patients and what it takes to provide exceptional care, Guyer said.

The minor also attracts a diverse student body. Each semester, up to 50–60 percent of its students speak another language, with Guyer cataloging up to 83 different languages spoken by the minor’s undergraduates over the course of the program’s existence.

Guyer feels strongly about undergraduates receiving this kind of exposure to other cultures and lifestyles before they go to medical school. The HDS minor, she believes, lays the foundation for a more inclusive, sensitive and overall better healthcare system.

“The reason I’m so passionate about undergraduate students is because of the place in life, the developmental milestones that are being reached during the undergraduate years,” she said. “You become an independent person and identify where you fit in the world.”

The students not only have opportunities in the classroom, but they’re also immersed in the volunteer community. “I get the students out of the classroom because they need to see what this information means and how it’s valuable,” she said.

The minor receives support from a variety of community organizations dedicated to helping the next generation of healthcare professionals provide the care the public needs.

“Every semester, 37 safety net clinics, nonprofit health organizations, city government and state agencies mentor 55-60 undergraduate students,” Guyer said. “I greatly value those who give so generously to our students. The minor could not be successful without their generous input and support.”

Guyer was recognized at this year’s Evening of Excellence for her pivotal role in developing and guiding this minor.

Introducing Guyer to the stage, BONNIE MORADI, Director of the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research, explained just how impressive this achievement is.

“Not only is HDS the fastest-growing minor in the college,” she said, “but it also is the only undergraduate academic program nationwide that introduces pre-professional students to the issues of health disparities, social determinants of health, cultural competence, health literacy and advocacy.”

Despite the praise she’s received since her return to UF, Guyer still has a hard time believing that she received this honor. “I’m still so stunned by the award,” she said. “There is no greater honor than to be recognized by your peers.”

Guyer, though, remains committed to her ultimate goal of improving healthcare for everyone. “I’m trying to build a better doctor, a better nurse,” she said. With this minor in place, she’s well on her way.

Guyer credits the passion of the diverse student body enrolled in the HDS minor with its quick growth and success.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 37

Thomas Moore

UF students Thomas Moore, left, and Nicolas Tomiello saw the inner workings of a major grocery distributor during an 11-week Beyond120 internship at McLane Company.

TAKING STOCK A Beyond120 internship at McLane Company presented new perspectives, valuable experience and job offers for two students

By Andrew Doerfler Just a few months ago, NICOLAS TOMIELLO found himself at a crossroads. After three years as a philosophy major at UF, he valued what he had learned in his classes — but he didn't know what his career path would be.

“I felt like I was building skills for life,” Tomiello said, but he was unsure how he could transfer them to a career. He had tried to explore job prospects by applying to internships but had found little luck. “I didn’t know what I was doing wrong,” Tomiello said.

As his junior year neared its end, though, he received an email about Beyond120, a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences program that fosters and promotes experiences outside of the classroom. The message invited him to a session that would 38 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

feature information about an exclusive internship opportunity.

Although dispirited by his search up to that point, Tomiello decided to attend.

That decision would end up reshaping his post-college plans. Tomiello was selected for a summer internship at McLane Company, a national grocery distribution and supply chain leader with a facility in Kissimmee.

Eventually, he would return to campus for his senior year reinvigorated with a sense of purpose and confidence in his major — not to mention a standing offer for a full-time job once he graduated.

Through the 11-week internship, Tomiello and fellow intern THOMAS MOORE, a UF economics major, rotated among departments at the McLane facility, seeing the ins and outs of different steps in the supply chain.

But Tomiello and Moore weren’t silent observers: Each week, the interns presented what they’d learned to McLane executives — and offered their perspectives on what could be done differently. Having such a direct line to company leaders as a 21-year-old intern came as a pleasant surprise for Tomiello.

“I felt like they were stopping their whole world to meet with me,” he said. “They said, ‘We’ve been in the company

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for 10, 20, or even 30 years. We might be blind to mistakes we’re making.’”

For all their interest in his presentations, Tomiello could tell the higher-ups didn’t only want his advice: They were also trying to gauge his analytical and problem-solving skills to see if he fit a more permanent role in the company.

Executives like Division President Jim Tidmore would offer advice on how to improve Tomiello’s presentations and welcomed questions on just about anything.

Tidmore said the original plan was for McLane to only hire one intern — but they were so impressed with Tomiello and Moore’s interviews that they decided to bring both on board.

The students continued to impress as they acclimated to ever-changing hours and complicated processes.

“The work never scared them. There are a lot of moving parts within the four walls, but they never flinched,” Tidmore said.

For Moore’s part, he appreciated the chance to grow comfortable communicating with upper management. But he also had grander ambitions in mind. The now-senior hopes to start his own business, so he savored the firsthand look at the inner-workings of a major company.

“ I DON’T KNOW ANY OTHER PROGRAM THAT OFFERS SUCH A HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE TO HELP YOU DEVELOP.”

“ THE WORK NEVER SCARED THEM. THERE ARE A LOT OF MOVING PARTS WITHIN THE FOUR WALLS, BUT THEY NEVER FLINCHED.” — MCLANE DIVISION PRESIDENT JIM TIDMORE ON THE BEYOND120 INTERNS “The internship was predicated on me asking questions and seeing different perspectives,” Tomiello said. “These are exactly the skills I’ve been building with my philosophy degree.” This experience also spurred newfound aspirations in Tomiello. He noticed that those in the most influential roles at McLane often had been to graduate school — and he hopes to pursue a master’s degree focusing specifically on supply chain management.

He now has a full-time offer for a supervisor position at McLane awaiting him once he graduates. The stability and advancement opportunities in logistics appeal to him — but more importantly, he wants to work at a company where his perspective is valued. “Ever since I was a kid, I just wanted to have a voice,” he said. “At McLane, I felt like I had the opportunity to make a difference.”

— NICOLAS TOMIELLO ON BEYOND120 For his presentations, Moore was assigned to come up with ideas to improve employee retention. He took the task seriously, reading research papers on what makes workers stay at a company.

“It was a unique challenge,” said Moore, who is weighing graduate school after he finishes his economics degree. “I didn’t really understand retention before.”

The Beyond120 class that accompanied the internship, meanwhile, gave Moore an opportunity to reflect on his experiences and note the areas where he can continue to grow. In addition to promoting internships, Beyond120 courses and other offerings give students the tools they need to succeed once they leave campus.

“I don’t know any other program that offers such a hands-on experience to help you develop,” Tomiello said.

Tomiello admitted that when he first learned about the internship, he wasn’t sure how working in supply chains and logistics would be relevant to him as a philosophy major. But Brittany Grubbs, the college’s internship and experiential learning coordinator, assured him that he would find value in the experience. It didn’t take long to see that she was right.

BEYOND120 Whether at small businesses or multinational companies, internships are an excellent recruitment tool for student talent in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. For more information on how your organization can take part, please contact Internship and Experiential Learning Coordinator Brittany Grubbs at internship@advising.ufl.edu.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 39

Laurels Recognizing the achievements of staff, faculty and alumni of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

EMILY SESSA, associate professor of biology, was awarded a career award of $1,045,479 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study global botanical diversity. Sessa also received the Botanical Society of America’s 2019 Emerging Leader Award.

FIONA MCLAUGHLIN, professor of linguistics and African languages, has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to work on a new book about writing traditions used by people in and around the Sahara Desert.

SHARON WRIGHT AUSTIN, political science professor, was named as a member of the editorial team for the American Political Science Review.

PIERRE SIKIVIE, Distinguished Professor of Physics, has been awarded the American Physical Society’s 2020 J.J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Physics. He was recognized for his work devising methods for detecting the invisible axion, an elementary particle that is difficult to perceive.

ADRIAN ROITBERG, professor of chemistry, is part of a multi-university team that has received nearly $1 million from the NSF to advance molecular sciences through machine learning. The team is tasked with building an open network where molecular scientists from different research institutions can contribute their data and access tools to make the most of their work.

CHU HSIAO, MD-PhD trainee and anthropology student, was awarded a five-year $219,000 National Institutes of Health (NIH) F30 National Research Service Award, becoming the first student from the college to receive this prestigious grant. She will investigate the effect of maternal adversity on gene expression and RNA methylation in the placenta.

SHEILA DICKISON, professor emerita of classics and Associate Director of Academic Programs at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, was recognized with a Meritae Award from the American Classical League (ACL) for her “distinguished service to ACL and the Classics profession.”

CONNIE MULLIGAN, associate professor of anthropology, has received a $348,000 NSF award to study the impact of extreme maternal stress on pregnancies.

ALEXANDER J. GRENNING, assistant professor of chemistry, received a career award of $394,752 from the NSF to streamline the preparation of bioactive terpenoid natural products.

KRITHI KARANTH, geography ’01, was named a 2019 Rolex Achievement Laureate for her geographic initiatives in India. She is the Chief Conservation Scientist at the Centre for Wildlife Studies and an adjunct faculty member at Duke University and India’s National Centre for Biological Sciences.

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DUNCAN PURVES, assistant professor of philosophy, has received a grant from the NSF to study the ethics of using artificial intelligence for predictive policing. UF will receive $269,610 of the grant’s total $509,946.

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ZACHARY EMBERTS, biology PhD ’19, was awarded an NSF postdoctoral fellowship of $138,000 to research the evolution of animal weapons.

ROBERT HOLT, biology eminent scholar and the Arthur R. Marshall Jr. chair in ecology, received the Ecological Society of America’s highest honor, the Eminent Ecologist Award. The award recognizes an “outstanding body of ecological work or sustained ecological contributions of extraordinary merit.” He is the fourth UF faculty to receive the award.

TYLER REYNOLDS, PhD student in physics, was one of 70 students nationwide chosen to pursue research at a Department of Energy laboratory. Reynolds will conduct his research focusing on “computational cross constrained likelihood for sensitivity calculations” in Washington state.

ZHONGWU GUO, professor of chemistry and Steven and Rebecca Scott Chair, received a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award of more than $1.6 million from the NIH. He also received the UF Innovation of the Year Award for his NSF-funded work on the synthesis of glycosphingolipids.

WEIHONG TAN, professor of chemistry, was recognized at the Pittcon Conference-Expo 2019 with two awards, the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award and the Ralph N. Adams Award, for his work in bioanalytical chemistry and chemical biology.

EHSAN FEREYDUNI, PhD candidate in chemistry, was named a Future Leader by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society.

The award recognizes elite students and postdoctoral researchers and invites them to visit the CAS headquarters.

RYAN GOOD, PhD candidate in geography, received a Fulbright Fellowship to spend the 2019-20 academic year in Kenya.

KELLY TYRRELL, zoology ’05, won the National Association of Science Writers’ 2019 Excellence in Institutional Writing Award, for “Origins,” a series she produced as a senior science writer for the University of Wisconsin-Madison about research efforts in South Africa.

STEVE HAGEN, professor of physics, has been elected a fellow of the American Physical Society for his experimental work on and elucidation of protein folding and bacterial gene regulation.

QIAOLI YANG, physics PhD ’12, was awarded the American Physical Society’s Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Visitor Award to return to University of Florida to study the quantum nature of axion dark matter with his former advisor, Pierre Sikivie, hoping to offer new insights into ultra-high energy scale physics.

CLIFFORD WILL, Distinguished Professor of Physics, was awarded the prestigious Albert Einstein Medal by the Albert Einstein Society in Bern, Switzerland, for his work on the theory of general relativity.

JONATHAN B. MARTIN, professor of geological sciences, was named the 2020 Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer

by The Geological Society of America. The honor grants recipients travel funds to visit other institutions for talks about their research.

SAM POPWELL, chemistry MS ’09 and materials science and engineering PhD ’10, was awarded Johnson & Johnson’s most prestigious award for research and development. A staff scientist at the corporation, Popwell was honored for his work developing the Acuvue Oasys 1-Day with HydraLuxe Technology contact lens.

JULIA G. PRIBYL, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry, wrote an essay about her experience in professor Kenneth B. Wagener’s lab group that was featured in Chemical & Engineering News.

JODI LANE, professor of sociology and criminology and law, has been awarded the 2019 Distinguished Scholar Award by the American Society of Criminology’s (ASC) Division on Corrections and Sentencing.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 41

Creative License

NEW BOOK RELEASES FROM FACULTY and ALUMNI took the fall for her well-off boarding school roommate after drugs were found in their dorm. Years later, the friend, now married to a fast-rising politician, reaches out with an offer for Lillian to work as a nanny to her 10-year-old twin stepchildren — who, it turns out, literally burst into flames when they’re upset. Lillian, while skeptical, takes the chance to escape her dreary home life and soon finds herself deeply entangled in this complicated family.

Told in deadpan prose, Nothing to See Here has delighted reviewers with its peculiar sensibility and moving story. A giddy notice in The New York Times Book Review called the book “wholly original” and “perfect.”

“You’re laughing so hard you don’t even realize that you’ve suddenly caught fire,” Taffy Brodesser-Akner wrote in the review. The Washington Post’s write-up, meanwhile, said, “Paradoxically light and melancholy, it hews to the border of fantasy but stays in the land of realism.”

Potentially introducing the book to a wider audience, Jenna Bush Hager selected it as the November pick for the Today show’s book club, saying, “I don’t think any book has touched me about parenthood as much as Nothing to See Here.”

Wilson told Today that he has been long been obsessed with the idea of spontaneous combustion — and it would often come to mind when his own children would have tantrums.

“I started thinking about, ‘Oh, well, what would it be like if you had to take care of a kid who actually burst into flames?’” he said. “The novel just kind of spiraled out of that.”

Nothing to See Here

By Kevin Wilson (Ecco/HarperCollins) KEVIN WILSON, ’04 graduate of the UF creative writing program MFA@FLA, is lighting up the literary world with a new novel involving spontaneous combustion.

Nothing to See Here, released October 29, has earned rave reviews for its hilarious, surreal take on childrearing. In the book, narrator Lillian is a go-nowhere millennial who once 42 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

“ YOU’RE LAUGHING SO HARD YOU DON’T EVEN REALIZE THAT YOU’VE SUDDENLY CAUGHT FIRE.” The novel is the third from Wilson, who is an associate professor of English at Sewanee: The University of the South.

He has also published two short story collections. His 2011 debut novel, The Family Fang, became a 2015 film starring Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman and Christopher Walken. It appears that won’t be the last time his work makes it to the big screen: Deadline reported in November that a movie adaptation of Nothing to See Here is already in the works after the screen rights were purchased at auction.

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A gushing review in The New York Times Book Review stated, “Ciment writes with a mordant intelligence and, refreshingly, doesn’t belabor topics that in someone else’s novel might take up many pages.”

The author of several books and short stories, Ciment has received numerous grants and awards that include a National Endowment for the Arts Japan Fellowship Prize and a Guggenheim fellowship.

“ ADDS TO A GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE LEADING TO A DECISIVE VERDICT: CIMENT IS AN AUTHOR WELL WORTH READING.” Her 2009 novel, Heroic Measures, a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize, was adapted into the film 5 Flights Up, starring Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman. Ciment also published a memoir, Half a Life, in 1996. Along with her career as an author, Ciment teaches graduate and undergraduate creative writing workshops at UF, using her expertise to prepare the next generation of writers.

Women at Work in Twenty-First-Century European Cinema

By Barbara Mennel (University of Illinois Press)

The Body in Question

By Jill Ciment (Pantheon) In her latest novel, The Body in Question, English and MFA@ FLA professor JILL CIMENT devises a complicated romance under unusual circumstances.

The story follows two jurors as they embark on an affair while sequestered for a high-profile criminal trial. In a move that reflects the unorthodox setting, the pair are referred to by their jury numbers, C-2 and F-17. Their precarious relationship adds tension to an already fraught trial that has drawn media attention and spectators: The jury must decide the fate of a teenage girl with developmental delays who has been accused of murdering her toddler brother.

The novel is a gripping account of modern conflict, romance and tragedy. Kirkus called the book “an honest, mature look at life and love” that “adds to a growing body of evidence leading to a decisive verdict: Ciment is an author well worth reading.”

Associate Professor of German, Rothman Chair and Director of the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere BARBARA MENNEL’S latest release explores the films of the 21st century through feminist critique. Women at Work focuses on the role of women in the workplace as portrayed by modern European cinema, taking into consideration the varying perspectives present in these movies and their impact on culture. Through this investigation, Mennel finds the intersection between gender politics, socioeconomic disparities and entertainment. In her analysis, she addresses how a mix of forward thinking and regressive messages in modern workplace films combine with — and influence — the political, cultural and social thought of today. Mennel holds a joint appointment in the German Studies section in Languages, Literatures and Cultures and the Department of English. To read more about Mennel and the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, turn to page 22.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 43

Oldest City: The History of Saint Augustine Edited by Susan R. Parker (St. Augustine Historical Society) The latest release by the St. Augustine Historical Society, Oldest City: The History of Saint Augustine, is a comprehensive recounting of one of Florida’s most historic locales.

The book, produced by several UF and CLAS alumni and dedicated to the late UF historian MICHAEL GANNON, begins with the story of the area’s original Native American tribes up until the arrival of the city’s founder, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, in 1565. The chronicle then traces the growth of the city over nearly 500 years. Spanning from St. Augustine’s inception as a Spanish colony to the tourist destination the city is today, Oldest City provides an extensive look at Florida’s past and the ways it affects our present.

One Lark, One Horse

By Michael Hofmann (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) The most recent release from English professor and poet MICHAEL HOFMANN, One Lark, One Horse is full of the dynamic and thoughtful poetry for which he is known. His new work explores life in the modern world, providing relatable commentary on universal struggles and experiences.

The collection, Hofmann’s first in 20 years, has earned widespread praise. The LA Review of Books said that the “prodigious” work “heralds the return of one of British poetry’s most brilliant talents,” adding that Hofmann “attains a higher level of formal inventiveness and variety than in his previous volumes.”

An accomplished author, poet and translator, Hofmann has received honors including a Cholmondeley Award, an Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and a PEN/Book-ofthe-Month Translation Prize. Hofmann teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at UF. 44 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Bringing Jessie Home: A Story of Canine Rescue, Human Redemption

By Dorothy Weik Smiljanich (Independently published) In this heartwarming story, alumna DOROTHY WEIK SMILJANICH (English ’69, MA ’71) recounts her real-life experience with Jessie, the dog who unexpectedly entered her life and quickly made a home for herself. After taking Jessie in as a stray, Smiljanich and her family go on a series of adventures with their new pooch, learning valuable lessons along the way. Through thoughtful musings and detailed description, Smiljanich captures the special bond between dogs and their human companions.

Disasters in Paradise: Natural Hazards, Social Vulnerability, and Development Decisions Edited by Amanda D. Concha-Holmes and Anthony Oliver-Smith (Lexington Books) In this new collection, anthropologists AMANDA CONCHA-HOLMES and ANTHONY OLIVER-SMITH present works that offer insight into the dangers Florida faces as a result of our changing planet. Known as “ground zero” for climate change in the U.S., the state is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. This danger is deeply rooted in historical and cultural practices, which in turn affect public policy and actions in the private sector. Presented through ethnographic case studies, the book reveals how the combination of natural occurrences, social practices and official policies have altered the state’s climate, increasing the risk of hurricanes, floods, forest fires and other kinds of disasters.

Concha-Holmes received her PhD in anthropology from UF, and Oliver-Smith is a professor emeritus of anthropology. The book’s contributors include several UF alumni.

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Campaigns of Knowledge: U.S. Pedagogies of Colonialism and Occupation in the Philippines and Japan

By Malini Johar Schueller (Temple University Press) In her new book, English professor MALINI JOHAR SCHUELLER juxtaposes the school system instituted in the Philippines in 1898 with educational reforms imposed in occupied Japan to reveal how the United States has used schooling to strengthen its empire.

Both systems, she argues, aimed to produce knowledgeable subjects who were nonetheless amenable to the United States’ imperial power. The work, supported by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, continues Schueller’s longtime study of colonialism, imperialism and race.

Adventures in Franchise Ownership: 4 Pillars to Strengthen, Protect and Grow Your Business

By Christy Wilson Delk (Morgan James) In 1996, CHRISTY WILSON DELK (psychology ’80) risked it all to purchase a franchise.

Through years of hard work, the alumna’s business flourished, allowing her to later sell it for a substantial profit. In Adventures in Franchise Ownership, Delk recounts her experience as a business owner, imparting the lessons she has learned to readers. She details her “Four Pillars of Successful Franchise Ownership” to help would-be franchisees run their prospective businesses efficiently and successfully. Delk’s guidance, along with advice from other successful franchisees, assists readers in making their experience owning a business both profitable and enjoyable. In addition to her work as a writer and speaker, Delk works as an adjunct professor of business at Rollins College.

Hãy nhay cùng em – Dance with me

By Andrea Hoa Pham and Lola Haskins (Danang Publishing House) ANDREA HOA PHAM, professor of Vietnamese language and linguistics, teamed up with Gainesville resident and poet Lola Haskins for a new bilingual poetry collection. In a “conversation between cultures,” each author shared her poems with the other, with Pham translating Haskins’ work into Vietnamese and Haskins adapting the feelings and imagery of Pham’s poems into English free verse. The result highlights the differences in poetic conventions between the languages while finding ways to bridge the divide. Along with writing poetry, Pham researches Vietnamese phonology and has previously studied gender and language, language change and second language acquisition.

Fishing, Gone?: Saving the Ocean through Sportfishing

By Sid Dobrin (Texas A&M University Press) For English professor and department chair SID DOBRIN, saltwater fishing is more than just a hobby. Those who enjoy the ocean’s bounty for sport, he believes, have a responsibility to be mindful of its fate in the face of economic and environmental challenges. In his new book Fishing, Gone?, Dobrin calls for sustainable fishing practices that don’t simply reflect the interests of commercial harvesters. As the chair of the American Sportfishing Association’s Advocacy Committee, Dobrin believes that, with a new approach, anglers can help preserve the joys of saltwater fishing for generations to come.

Doug Olander, the editor of Sport Fishing magazine, called the book “a thoughtful and provocative amalgamation of all things fish and fishing — saltwater-angling lore, politics, wisdom, and existential meditations. Dobrin’s work is completely unlike any fishing book I’ve ever read.” Along with his work as a professor, Dobrin founded UF’s Trace Innovation Initiative.

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Bob Graham Center for Public Service

Remembering David Colburn The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences lost a friend and champion when DAVID R. COLBURN, former director of the Bob Graham Center, a beloved professor of history and Provost Emeritus, passed away in September.

“David was a colleague, a mentor and a friend to many at the university, and he was a tireless advocate for the college since joining the faculty of the Department of History in 1972,” said Dean David Richardson.

“I knew David Colburn as one of the great administrative leaders of the university who contributed to its rise in reputation as a top public institution. His scholarship and leadership reflected his commitment to honoring the lessons of the past while we build a better future.”

Colburn, 76, died due to complications from an extended illness. He served UF for nearly 50 years in nearly every administrative role: He was the university’s provost and senior vice president from 1999–2005; vice provost and dean of the International Center from 1997–1999; and chair of the Department of History from 1981–1989.

“For nearly a decade, David Colburn was the inspiration and an admired director for the Bob Graham Center for Public Service,” former Governor Bob Graham said.

“It was my honor to work with him and experience his scholarship and values,” added Graham. “He was a loving husband to Marion and devoted to his three children and 46 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

grandchildren. Contributing five decades of service to the University of Florida and to our state, his wisdom, grace and friendship, will be sorely missed. His achievements and contributions to the University and to the Bob Graham Center for Public Service are a source of strength for the future.”

“The University of Florida mourns the loss of one of its greatest leaders,” President Kent Fuchs said. “Dr. Colburn served our campus, our students and our state with steady, selfless dedication for nearly a half a century. He will be greatly missed.”

Colburn was born September 29, 1942, in Providence, Rhode Island — and he never lost his Ocean State accent despite leaving at age 24. He earned his AB and MA in history from Providence College, where he was a member of the Army ROTC. He was called to Vietnam in 1966, and served a year in the Signal Corps, promoted to captain in that time.

When he returned to the states, he entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his PhD in 1971. After teaching at UNC and East Carolina University, Colburn came to UF in 1972, where his teaching and research specialized on topics like the American presidency, politics of the American South and civil rights.

Even amid writing or editing 14 books and some 25 book chapters, he was focused most keenly on his students. He

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was a master at inspiring, motivating and guiding them. He sent a generation of public leaders across Florida and the nation in a range of professions, and they often called to seek his counsel and returned to visit him. Colburn was named teacher of the year on three occasions.

He was also a trusted counselor to elected officials including the late Florida Governor Reubin O’Donovan Askew and Governor Graham. Colburn helped bring to light many of the uncovered racial stories of Florida, including in his book Racial Change and Community Crisis: St. Augustine, Florida, 18771980. He served as one of the authors of Florida’s Rosewood Report in 1993, part of an inquiry into the 1923 destruction of the town of Rosewood that helped push Florida to approve unprecedented reparations for racial violence.

He was a champion of the humanities who had served as past chair of the Florida Humanities Council and the U.S. Federation of State Humanities Councils. He was set to receive the Florida Humanities Lifetime Achievement Award from the Board of the Florida Humanities Council the week he passed away, only the second time in the Council’s history the award has been given. The other recipient was UF’s Michael Gannon.

“His commitment to humanities education at the state and national level was unprecedented,” said Steve Seibert, executive director of the Florida Humanities Council. “No one has done more to support the humanities, in deed and in cause.

We will miss his wisdom, friendship, and leadership; we loved David and will remember him always.”

“ His commitment to humanities education at the state and national level was unprecedented.”

Bob Graham Center for Public Service

His most recent books were From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans: Florida and Its Politics Since 1940 (2007) and Florida’s Megatrends with Lance deHaven-Smith (2010). Other books included African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the American City (2001) with Jeffrey S. Adler; Government in the Sunshine State: Florida Since Statehood (1999) with deHaven-Smith; and The African American Heritage of Florida (1994) with Jane Landers, which won the Rembert W. Patrick Book Prize for best book on Florida history and a special commendation from the Association of State and Local History in 1996. He was also founder and director of the Askew Institute on Politics and Society at UF, which presented public programs to civic leaders and citizens on critical issues confronting Florida and the nation. In 2013, the Institute merged into the Graham Center, where its mission lives on through the Askew Scholarship program.

Colburn was a true public scholar and often spoke and wrote on diversity as America and Florida’s exceptional strength. “The nation and Florida have been greatly enriched by the nation’s multiplicity of people, a resultant diverse and dynamic economy,” he wrote in an essay earlier this year, “and an advancement, not a diminishment, of the nation’s liberties.”

Colburn wrote more than 200 essays on state, national and international politics. He appeared on many news programs to discuss civil rights; race relations; and state, national and international politics. He was a regular contributor to the Orlando Sentinel for 20 years and more recently wrote for the Tampa Bay Times, The Miami Herald, The Florida TimesUnion, The Gainesville Sun and the Ocala Star-Banner.

David Colburn with former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham.

Colburn was past president of the Florida Historical Society, served as a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, a professional organization of more than 8,000 members, and as a Road Scholar for the Florida Humanities Council, speaking internationally, nationally and statewide on history and politics. He served as a Fellow in the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 1997, where he worked on national and international issues.

Colburn is survived by his loving wife of 53 years, Marion Faircloth Colburn; his children Margaret Cauthon (Ray), David Colburn (Michelle), Katherine Fulmer (Jamie); his grandchildren Claire Cauthon, Caroline Cauthon, James Fulmer, Ali Colburn, Ben Fulmer, Kate Colburn, and Maclean Fulmer; and his brother and sister Paul Colburn and Lynn Dyson (Tom).

The family suggests that expressions of sympathy may be made in the form of donations to the Graham Center’s David Colburn Student Advancement Fund, c/o the UF Foundation, P.O. Box 14425, Gainesville, 32604-2425, or to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 100 NE 1st Street, Gainesville 32601.

YTORI — FALL 2019 | 47

Chemistry professor Richard Yost's triple quadrupole mass spectrometer has been used to test Olympic athletes for drugs and to save newborns' lives.

UF PROFESSOR HONORED FOR GROUNDBREAKING INVENTION

By Peyton McElaney UF professor RICHARD YOST was inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame on September 20, 2019, for his outstanding achievements in mass spectrometry and analytical chemistry. Yost is head of the Analytical Division of the Department of Chemistry at UF as well as the director of the Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics.

Yost was recognized primarily for his most prominent invention: the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer.

By measuring the weight of molecules, the tool provides crucial information used in research settings, medical procedures and more. It has been employed in everything from environmental research to Olympic drug testing.

Medical applications, including testing for diseases in newborns, have been instrumental in saving lives around the world.

A quadrupole itself consists of four metal poles arranged in a square. As the name suggests, the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer comprises three quadrupoles linked together. After voltages are applied, creating an electric field, ions move through the center of the arrangement toward the device. This is like a filter, allowing the parts of the molecule to be separated and analyzed.

The triple quadrupole mass spectrometer was officially invented in 1978, but work began several years prior. Yost, a graduate student at the time, worked with a professor at Michigan State University, Christie Enke, to create the device.

48 | LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Yost’s primary goal when joining the project was to streamline processes that were previously done manually and required painstaking precision. “At this time, mass spectrometers were large, clunky instruments that were not computerized, and were typically not used for analytical chemistry,” he said. “But the quadrupole mass filter offered solutions to these problems.”

After their proposal for the project was rejected by the National Science Foundation, Yost and Enke needed to find a new source of funding.

“Fortunately, the Office of Naval Research funded the grant,” Yost said, “and I bought a couple thousand pounds of stainless steel and electronics and started building. It’s become the world’s most common mass spectrometer. Not bad for an instrument that ‘wouldn’t work.’”

The instrument was promptly put on the market and is now sold around the world, with an annual yield of over $1 billion. In the decades since its invention, it has remained an important part of the research process in multiple fields.

Today, Yost is recognized as a world leader in analytical chemistry and a pioneer in the field of mass spectrometry.

With 13 U.S. patents under his belt, Yost continues to push the boundaries for what is possible in the field of chemistry.

“It is a great honor to be recognized alongside these other great inventors,” Yost said, “And it’s a remarkable opportunity for celebrating the tools that advance science.”

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Ytori Magazine FALL 2019 Ytori is published twice a year in the Fall and Spring 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 Dean: David E. Richardson Assistant Vice President of Development and Alumni Affairs: Ryan Marsh Director of Strategic Engagement: Meredith Palmberg Editor-in-Chief: Scott Rogers Associate Editor: Andrew Doerfler Editorial Assistant: Peyton McElaney Proofreader: Ali Patterson Art Director: Scott Harper Graphic Designer: Khary Khalfani © 2019 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.

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